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Nico Echavarria won the 2024 ZOZO Championship that concluded on Sunday, October 27. He took victory by one stroke over Justin Thomas and Max Greyeserman at the Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Chiba, Japan.
The victory marked Echavarria's fifth professional win and second PGA Tour win. In the post-tournament press conference, he was asked about the putting grip change he made at the start of the week. He said,
"I had my coach last week in Vegas. And he gave me a couple drills that we could work on, in putting because I was hitting the ball fine. I was just not making a lot of putts out there. And I still felt like I needed something to change. And I got here on Tuesday morning and I changed the grip and it paid off" (2:40).
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Echavarria ranks eighth in strokes gained in putting this week at the 2024 ZOZO Championship. He jumped 33 spots to 44th in the 2024 Putting average standings.
Nico Echavarria's parents Emilio and Ana Maria weren't there in Japan to watch his son's second PGA Tour victory. However, they watched their son's victory on TV throughout the night. Talking about their support from afar, he said (via PGA Tour),
"They stayed up all night watching the golf and I'm glad they did. Very happy and emotional just being able to talk to them because my parents are the reason I play this beautiful sport."
Echavarria added that he called his parents after the victory.
Nico Echavarria opens up on "close" competition in the final round at the 2024 ZOZO Championship
After the third round, Nico Echavarria was on top of the leaderboard with a score of -17. Justin Thomas and Max Greyserman were second and third with a score of -15 and -14, respectively.
Talking about the final day's play, the Colombian player said (via PGA Tour):
"It was very close all day, it was fun. (Thomas and Greyserman) got off to a hot start and it was very level during the last, I don't know, 13 holes or 10 holes. Max played great. Justin has been playing incredible, he hit a lot of good putts that didn't go in. But overall, it was special to finish birdie-par-birdie and take this home.
"It's the second win on the PGA TOUR; not a lot of people get to win two times on the PGA TOUR. I'm just going to enjoy this as much as I can and get ready for the next one."
Echavarria's first PGA Tour win came at the 2023 Puerto Rico Open where he won by two strokes over Akshay Bhatia. He said that he wouldn't have been able to win in Japan if he hadn't taken the trophy in 2023, as the experience helped him to "stay patient." He said,
"I don't think I would have won this week without the victory in Puerto Rico. I pulled a lot of that moment in the last round on Sunday in Puerto Rico; I used it a lot this week to stay patient, stay calm. This is a very challenging course. There's a lot of hard holes and I was able to use that in my favor and I was able to get it done and beat two amazing players."
In his 58 events on the PGA Tour so far, Nico Echavarria has made 23 cuts. He now has two wins and three top-10 finishes. He has made a total of $3,680,416 on the PGA Tour after joining the Tour.
