When they stood on the final tee box on Saturday, Nico Echavarria and Justin Thomas were knotted up at 15 under. However, when the final round of the 2024 Zozo Championship gets underway on Sunday — Saturday night in the United States thanks to the significant time difference — Echavarria will have a two-shot advantage.
The 30-year-old Columbian found the fairway on the par-5 closer and stuck his 241-yard second shot to two feet for a tap-in eagle. Thomas, on the other hand, missed a four-foot birdie putt that would have pulled him within a shot with 18 holes to play.
Although Echavarria has just one PGA Tour win compared to Thomas’ 15, his came more recently than the two-time major champion’s latest. The University of Arkansas product won the Puerto Rico Open last year while the world No. 32 hasn’t hoisted hardware since the ’22 PGA Championship.
“At the end of the day it has been a while, but I’ve still won a pretty good amount of golf tournaments,” Thomas said after signing his card. “I know how to win. It’s just a matter of executing and doing it and that’s really been the biggest difference.”
The winner in Japan will earn $1.53 million of the $8.5 million purse, 500 FedEx Cup points and a two-year exemption on Tour.
Here’s what you need to know from Day 3 at the Zozo Championship.
Zozo: Photos | Leaderboard
Third-round takeaways from the Zozo Championship
Can Echavarria hold off one of the best in the game?
Nico Echavarria of Colombia smiles on the 18th green during the third round of the Zozo Championship 2024 at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club on October 26, 2024 in Inzai, Chiba, Japan. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
Echavarria’s lone Tour win came at the Puerto Rico Open, an opposite field event to the Arnold Palmer Invitational. So holding off Thomas, one of the biggest names in the sport, will be a challenge he has yet to face. Only time will tell how he responds.
“Yeah, absolutely,” he replied when asked if his experience in Puerto Rico will help on Sunday. “Obviously this is a better field than the one in Puerto Rico, there’s better players out here, but a win is a win. I’m going to rely on that and keep doing what I’m doing, trying to have fun and see where we go.”
As for his round on Saturday, Echavarria was 1 over through four but quickly turned it around with four birdies over the last five holes of his front nine to make the turn with a 3-under 31. On the way home, he made a…
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