Nico Echavarria reacts to a putt on the seventh green during the second round of the 2024 World Wide Technology Championship at El Cardonal at Diamante. (Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
Nico Echavarria didn’t know how he was going to feel on Thursday after winning the Zozo Open in Japan in his last start. He said he enjoyed his celebration but “the hangover was over.”
“After my win in Puerto Rico (last year) I said I felt awful the next few weeks or even months. This time I guess you’re older, you know what to expect and really it’s going very well,” he said.
Friday was better than most. Echavarria played a seven-hole stretch in 7 under, including holing a bunker shot at the par-5 6th for eagle. He posted 9-under 63, his lowest score of his Tour career.
“Nice,” he said. “That’s good to know.”
But Echavarria, who is the only player in the field without a bogey through 36 holes, was most proud of the par he made at No. 3.
“It’s such a momentum game that if I don’t make par on 3, I had like, I don’t know, a 10-footer for par on 3 that I made. I kind of got things rolling, made birdie on 4, made birdie on 5, eagled 6. I think the par on 3 was even more important.”
Echavarria will try to win for the second straight tournament and for the third time in his career. Rory McIlroy, who won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and Wells Fargo Championship, is the last player to win in back-to-back starts on Tour. With none of the Mexican players in the field making the cut, the fans have adopted the Colombian Echavarria as the next best thing.
“In general the Latinos you would call it are friendly people and having the language in common and the culture makes you feel like home,” Echavarria said. “So yes, I would say this is almost home for me.”