Weekly PGA Recap: The ZOZO Goes to Nico

This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.

Nico Echavarria seems like a fine fellow and is probably very well known in his own house. But when you put him in the final group on Sunday alongside Justin Thomas, one of the top golfers in the world over the past decade, and Max Greyserman, winding down a breakthrough season the PGA Tour, your first thought likely isn't: I like Echavarria's chances.

But if it was, and you did, take a bow. 

The 30-year-old Colombian took the lead on the back nine, lost it and seized it back with birdies on two of the final three holes to capture the ZOZO Championship in Japan on Sunday by one shot over both Thomas and Greyserman. 

Echavarria had won before, but it was in the alternate-field Puerto Rico Open in 2023 and he was ranked No. 292 in the world coming into this week. The ZOZO featured three of the top seven players in the world -- No. 2 Xander Schauffele, No. 4 and defending champion Collin Morikawa and No. 7 and hometown hero Hideki Matsuyama -- plus other bold-faced names, including Thomas.

Heading to 18, Echavarria and Greyserman were tied, with Thomas a shot back. Both of them parred while Echavarria got to the green on the par-5, 559-yard hole in two, then putted twice for the win.

"It's surreal. This moment is very special," Echavarria told reports in Japan. "It's been a good year for me, I just haven't had that top result. I've been very consistent, I've learned a lot this year. To finish the year this way is, it's incredible, especially doing it here in Japan in such an amazing country."

A look at Echavarria's results does show a good year. Kinda/sorta. In 25 prior stroke-play starts, he did have eight top-25s. But almost all of them came in the first four months of the season and he labored through most of the past six months. He hadn't had a top-10 all year. He did tie for 11th at the Black Desert Championship earlier this month but followed that up with a missed cut last week at the Shriners, his 12th MC of the year.

Echavarria did not qualify for the playoffs and ranked 110th in points back in August. His card was likely secure, but now it surely is, for two more years. He'll make his Masters debut in April.

As someone who didn't rank top-100 in any strokes-gained category until creeping up to 96th in SG: Putting after the ZOZO, it would be easy to see Echavarria returning to the ignominy where he had been residing. But winning can do strange things for a career, far beyond the obvious.

"I don't think I would have won this week without the victory in Puerto Rico," he said. "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."

Echavarria is right. Beating a two-time major winner in Thomas, even though Thomas hasn't been at his best, and Greyserman, now in the top 50 in the world rankings, was no small feat.

We mentioned earlier that Greyserman didn't have a top-10 all year. That's not entirely true. He did have one. But it was in the two-man Zurich Classic.

His partner at the Zurich? It was Greyserman. 

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Justin Thomas
Thomas could not get a putt to drop. His putting woes have been well documented. He has changed putters more this year than some people change their socks.  Five times, to be precise. (Okay, no one changes their socks only five times a year, but we couldn't think of anything better.) Back to Thomas: In the final round he ranked 66th out of 77 golfers in Strokes Gained: Putting. Time after time, his putts squeaked by the hole. He lost by one shot and could've won by five. The good news is, those putts have to start falling at some point, right? Some of them? Maybe? Thomas is playing well in every other area but has now gone two and a half years since his last win, at the 2022 PGA Championship.

Max Greyserman
This has been a spectacular breakthrough year for Greyserman, albeit one without a victory. This was his third runner-up and fifth top-10. He's locked into the top 50 in FedExCup points. He's now ranked a career-high 42nd in the OWGR. But he will rue what happened at the end on Sunday. Greyserman took the lead with a birdie on 14 and held it until the par-5 18th, where an errant drive relegated him to par while Echevarria birdied. Greyserman ranked first in the field in putting for the week and even though he missed on 18, it was a spectacular effort. 

Rickie Fowler
In just his third start since the Open Championship in July, Fowler notched his first top-10 in more than a year, closing with a 64 for solo fourth. That followed top-25s at the Sanderson Farms and Shriners. It's so hard to gauge success (or failure) during the fall, but how can it not be encouraging to see Fowler playing his best golf since winning the 2023 Rocket Mortgage? 

Kurt Kitayama
Kitayama turned in a 63-65 weekend to zoom up the leaderboard into solo fifth. Like with Thomas, putting is his sore spot. After ranking 47th and 65th in the field in SG: Putting over the first two rounds, he ranked 23rd and then 18th on the weekend. As with lots of elite ball strikers, if Kitayama could only putt less terrible, he could live on the first page of leaderboards.

Yuta Sugiura
Sugiura is a player you will be hearing more about. He's only 23. He was among the top Japanese players in the field -- non-Matsuyama division -- entering the week at No. 199 in the world. He won the Japan PGA over the summer. He won last year's Dunlap Phoenix as an amateur -- with Matsuyama, Brooks Koepka and Wyndham Clark in the field. At the ZOZO, Sugiura tied for sixth.

Si Woo Kim
Kim spun twin 64s on the weekend to climb into a tie for sixth. It was only his second start since the PGA Tour playoffs. The other was at the BMW PGA on the DP World Tour with a tie for 18th. Before that, at the BMW playoff event, he tied for fifth. This is by far the best stretch of golf in what has been a disappointing 2024 for Kim.

Eric Cole
Remember this for next year: Cole tied for sixth at the ZOZO a year after sharing runner-up.

Max Homa
After an opening 73, leading to thoughts of here-we-go-again, Homa shot 66-67-66 to finish in a tie for 27th. Nothing to get all that excited about in a field of 78 and one very weak at the bottom. But when you've had the type of second half that Homa has had, he has to be thrilled. It was his best result since the Memorial in June.

Xander Schauffele
None of the top four players in the field as determined by DraftKings pricing could crack the top 40. Schauffele was best at T41. On one hand it's a surprise that he didn't contend, but on the other he's never done better than T9 at the ZOZO. The 2021 ZOZO winner Hideki Matsuyama tied for 46th, defending champion Collin Morikawa tied for 54th and Sahith Theegala tied for 56th. As they say, that's golf!

Maverick McNealy
McNealy was a WD before the second round, citing an illness.

FEDEXCUP STANDINGS

With just three tournaments left in the season, one guy moved into the top 125 and, amazingly enough, one guy fell out. Math! Joel Dahmen tied for 41st to move from 129th to 124th. Joe Highsmith, who wasn't entered, slipped from 125th to 126th.

In the chase to end the season in the so-called Next 10 -- 51st to 60th in the point standings -- Ben Griffin tied for 22nd at the ZOZO to move from 62nd to 60th. Jake Knapp, who wasn't in the field, fell from 59th to 61st.

And right there you see the huge advantage of getting into this limited-field, no-cut event.

DP WORLD TOUR

Byeong Hun An hit what has already been called the shot of the year in winning the Genesis Championship in Korea over Tom Kim in a playoff. The Genesis was co-sponsored by the DP World Tour and Korean Tour.

An trailed by two shots with four holes to play. He hit a driver off the deck from 290 yards, over water, to nine feet.  Two putts later, he birdied the hole. An birdied three of his final four holes while Kim missed an eight-footer on 18 that would've won the tournament. 

This has been an incredible bounceback year for An, who in 2023 was toiling on the Korn Ferry Tour. Now, he's up to No. 27 in the world. Since the Open Championship, An has amassed six top-25s in seven starts.