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Nicholas Echavarria wins ZOZO Championship in Japan
Nicolas Echavarria staves off stars, wins ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP by one
On Wednesday night in Japan, Nico Echavarria and his longtime girlfriend Claudia De Antonio had steak. The best steak he’s ever had.
Come Sunday, it was time to return. A deserving celebratory meal after setting the tournament scoring record at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP and winning for the second time on the PGA TOUR.
Echavarria had the sizzle this week. And now he’ll get the steak.
“It's surreal. This moment is very special,” Echavarria said.
The native of Colombia, who won the 2023 Puerto Rico Open for his maiden TOUR title, fired a final-round 67 at ACCORDIA GOLF Narashino Country Club to top Justin Thomas and Max Greyserman by one.
Thomas battled a cold putter on the back nine Sunday and ran off a string of eight straight pars before making a final-hole birdie to get to 19-under. Greyserman was at 19-under heading into the 72nd hole but hit his drive into trouble on the right side. He had a 24-foot birdie try on No. 18, but it barely missed, leaving the door open for Echavarria.
Unlike at the Wyndham Championship, where Greyserman had a four-shot lead with five holes to go but ended up losing by two, he battled until the end – and notched his third runner-up finish in his last five starts on TOUR.
“It wasn’t like Wyndham where I gave it away. I felt good out there the whole time,” 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 (on 18). He earned it."
Echavarria had a 3-foot attempt of his own for the win on the final hole and the 30-year-old calmly drained it. He celebrated with a double fist pump and a huge, hearty embrace of De Antonio.
“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,” Echavarria said. “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 credited a grip change to his putter as part of his success this week. He sits 106th on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting for the season but was an impressive eighth this week in the same metric. He was also second in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green. Echavarria had his coach in Las Vegas who passed along a few drills to try to help him tighten up things with the flatstick, he said. Echavarria still felt like there was something missing, however, so Tuesday morning in Japan he changed his grip. Fast-forward five days and that tweak has paid off in a big way.
Somewhat wildly, Echavarria’s only two top-10 individual results on the PGA TOUR have been victories (he did finish T4 earlier this season at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans alongside Greyserman). He had three missed cuts in his last four starts heading into Japan and was the surprise front-runner heading into Sunday’s finale after setting the 54-hole tournament scoring record.
But he said victory No. 1 absolutely allowed him the confidence to notch victory No. 2.
“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,” Echavarria said. “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.”
With this win, Echavarria receives plenty of perks including what will be his first trip down Magnolia Lane for the 2025 Masters. He’ll get to represent Colombia at Augusta National, just as he did this past summer in Paris for the Olympics. He said it was “very cool” to be able to win on the PGA TOUR for the second time internationally as he hopes this will help make the game even more popular in his homeland.
At his home, in Medellin, Colombia, Echavarria’s parents were glued to the TV in the middle of the night. Their son rang as soon as he could after his win. And there were tears.
“They stayed up all night watching the golf and I'm glad they did,” Echavarria said. “Very happy and emotional just being able to talk to them because my parents are the reason I play this beautiful sport.”
A beautiful win – with a beautiful meal to celebrate.
SOURCE: [pgatour.com]
Titleist's new 2025 Pro V1 & Pro V1x golf ball
Players react to Titleist’s new 2025 Pro V1, Pro V1x golf balls in Las Vegas
Back in October of 2000, at the Shriners Children's Open (at the time Invensys Classic at Las Vegas), Titleist introduced a completely new “Pro V1” golf ball for the first time. That week, 47 players switched into the game-changing golf ball, including the champion Billy Andrade, who was the first ever PGA TOUR champion to use a Pro V1 golf ball.
This week at the 2024 Shriners Children’s Open, Titleist is celebrating 25 years of golf ball innovation by beginning its golf ball seeding and validation process for the upcoming 2025 Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls.
Although technically this week begins the official seeding process for Titleist, the company has already been working with some PGA TOUR players to get their feedback. Some players liked it so much that they wanted to put the ball into play for competition a bit early.
For example, Hayden Springer switched into the new Titleist 2025 Pro V1 golf ball for the start of the FedExCup Fall at the 2024 Procore Championship, going on to finish T8 in his next start at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Additionally, Lee Hodges began using the 2025 Titleist Pro V1 at the Sanderson Farms, and he finished a season-best T8 at the Black Desert Championship the following week using the new ball.
According to Hodges, he’s picked up significant speed with every club in the bag, and he’s hitting the ball straighter, too.
“It’s actually an unbelievable ball,” Hodges told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday at the 2024 Shriners Children's Open. “It has the same feel that you would want out of a Pro V1, but I’ve noticed 1.5 mph of ball speed with every club. The thing that I’ve loved the most is off-center hits, just seeing it stay on line a little bit longer. There was one [shot] I had in Jackson (Sanderson Farms) when I first put it in play, I hit a driver a little bit off the toe, and instead of going to the left, it just hung in there and caught the left side of the fairway. For me, that was a huge thing to see, and that’s what I’ve noticed with basically every club. Everything has been the same except it’s a little bit quicker, and the mishits have seemed to stay on line just a little bit longer.”
Gaining 1.5 mph of ball speed on each shot is certainly nothing to scoff at, especially on the PGA TOUR where every inch matters.
Golf ball expert Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s director of Tour Validation and Research, is on-site at TPC Summerlin ahead of the Shriners Children's Open making sure that every PGA TOUR player has the opportunity to test and provide feedback on the new 2025 Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls, should they wish.
On Tuesday, GolfWRX.com caught up with Pitts to get his take on how the validation process has been coming along in Las Vegas.
“This is our official launch of the 2025 Pro V1 and Pro V1x,” Pitts said. “We’re very excited to be here. We’re here for a few days to introduce the product to the players. We’ve been talking to them for the past couple months, preparing them for this day, but these are the days to really get into it, hit shots, and see if it’s going to be a good option for them… the goal was to make a consistent, well-performing golf ball that satisfies all the players’ needs. So we look at things like speed, spin and flight windows to try and dial in an even better version of Pro V1 and Pro V1x… every player out here has a machine and they’re looking at numbers so they’re already figuring out what the new product is doing for them...
“This week we’ve got, I don’t know the exact count, but we’re pushing close to 100 Titleist ball players this week, and our goal is to see every single one of them. We have a handful of guys already making the move; they’ve already seen some speed and spin benefits from the product. And we’re anticipating a fairly good conversion rate for the first week with the product.”
So, as PGA TOUR players prepare to compete at TPC Summerlin, they’re also vetting the brand new Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf ball.
SOURCE: [pgatour.com]