Nico Echavarria birdied two of the final three holes to shoot 3-under 67 at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club on Sunday to secure his second PGA Tour title at the Zozo Championship.
When he won for the first time last year at the Puerto Rico Open, he said the victory proved to himself that he was better than what he thought. Asked what this second win means, he smiled and said, “Proves it a little more now.”
He added: “I don’t think I would’ve gotten this win without the victory in Puerto Rico. I took a lot from that and kept myself calm,” he said.
With just one top 10 this season and three missed cuts in his last four starts, Echavarria was the surprise of the tournament, racing into the lead with a pair of 64s and a 65 to set the 54-hole tournament scoring mark and a two-stroke lead.
Tied for the lead at the 72nd hole, Echavarria reached the par-5 18th in two, leaving himself a 40-foot eagle putt. He lagged to 3 feet and converted the clinching stroke, finishing with a tournament record 20-under 260, to edge Justin Thomas and Max Greyserman by one shot.
Echavarria, a 30-year-old from Colombia, started the final round two ahead and made birdies at Nos. 2 and 7 before a bogey at No. 8 dropped him back into a tie. He reclaimed sole possession of the lead at No. 13, planting his tee shot to 13 feet and canning the downhill, right-to-left breaking birdie putt. He pumped his right fist but one hole later, there was a two-shot swing as he made a sloppy bogey at the par 5 and Greyserman canned a 29-foot birdie putt at No 13. Echavarria answered with another 13-foot birdie at the par-3 16th. Echavarria and Geyserman, who had been partners this season at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and finished T-4, remained tied until the 72nd hole.
Greyserman missed the fairway at 18 and had to lay up and his birdie putt brned the right edge. He closed in 65 and unlike at the Wyndham Championship where he blew a four-stroke lead with five holes to go, he had no reason to hang his head after earning his third runner-up finish in his last five starts. He topped the field in Strokes Gained: Putting, and made over 100 feet of putts in each round.
“It wasn’t like Wyndham where I gave it away, I felt good out there the whole time. I mean, super comfortable. It was like I was playing at home,” Greyserman said. “Didn’t quite execute down the stretch when I needed to. I mean, Nico stepped up there and he hit a great second shot. He earned it.”
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