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?
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 bogey and a birdie before his closing eagle to finish out his 5-under effort.
The BIG bird! 🦅
@Nicolas_Ech eagles the last to take a two-shot lead heading into the final round @ZOZOCHAMP. pic.twitter.com/vF9HnTHNJX— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 26, 2024
Over the final 18 holes, Echavarria is looking to keep it simple.
“Just stay in the moment. It’s a cliche, but it’s really important. You don’t want to go ahead with yourself, especially there’s a lot of hard holes out here. You just have to hit shot by shot and try to be in the fairway, try to hit the green and see if the putt goes in.”
Thomas hopes to break drought
It’s not often we see one of the best players in the game go years without winning, but Thomas has struggled for most of the last two seasons. In fact, he’s won just twice since a three-win 2019-20 season: ’21 Players and ’22 PGA.
But he’ll have a chance to get back in the winner’s circle on Sunday thanks to a third-round bogey-free 5-under 65.
Unlike Echavarria, Thomas got off to a hot start with birdies on Nos. 1 and 2. After seven straight pars to close his opening nine holes, Thomas grabbed three more birdies on Nos. 10, 11 and 14.
His round might have ended in disappointing fashion, but he’s still well within striking distance with 18 holes to play.
“I would have obviously loved a couple more there coming in, but I played really, really solid, played really well,” he said. “You know, I just kind of feel like I did what I needed to do and got it around the course well. It’s nice to post a good score with it.”
What’s his key to victory?
“Honestly, although I’m behind, it’s still patience. Anything can happen out here. You have a lot of birdie holes that you can make bogey in a heartbeat if you get out of position or get in the wrong spot around the greens. I know that with greens this soft, any hole is birdiable. I think just because if I happen to be even through five, six, seven holes, that doesn’t mean I’m out of it, I just have to keep my head down and really just treat each hole for what it is and really try to make as many birdies as I can.”
Fowler ends his round with a bang
Fowler returned to the Tour earlier this month after an extended time away following the birth of his second child, but his game hasn’t shown many signs of rust.
In his first start since the Open, Fowler tied for 16th at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Two weeks later, the fan-favorite finished T-23 at the Shriners Children’s Open. And through 54 holes of the Zozo, Fowler is 11 under and in a tie for fourth.
On Saturday, Fowler made four birdies and two bogeys before closing his round in dramatic fashion with a 44-foot birdie putt after hitting his approach shot from the wrong fairway.
Finishing in style 🤩@RickieFowler drains it from 43 feet to move to T4 @ZOZOCHAMP. pic.twitter.com/zgUJepWJx4
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 26, 2024
“I’m excited because I feel like I really haven’t had my best between Sanderson, Vegas and here the first three days,” he said. “I know I have a lot more in the tank and what I can do. Hopefully just clean a few things up. There’s been a lot of good signs, but over the past few events I just haven’t really put it all together. So I’m looking forward to getting out there and hopefully we can get a good one going.”
Fowler, who will start the final round six back of Echavarria, last won over a year ago at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Top 10 and odds to win
| Position | Player | Score | Odds to win |
| 1st | Nico Echavarria | 17 under | (+130) |
| 2nd | Justin Thomas | 15 under | (+140) |
| 3rd | Max Greyserman | 14 under | (+450) |
| T-4 | Nate Lashley | 11 under | (+7500) |
| T-4 | Kevin Yu | 11 under | (+5000) |
| T-4 | Rickie Fowler | 11 under | (+4500) |
| 7th | Kurt Kitayama | 10 under | (+6000) |
| T-8 | Jhonattan Vegas | 9 under | (+25000) |
| T-8 | Andrew Novak | 9 under | (+25000) |
| T-8 | Eric Cole | 9 under | (+25000) |
| T-8 | C.T. Pan | 9 under | (+30000) |
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