NICO ECHAVARRIA ( -21)
NICO ECHAVARRIA: The least amount of effort on the practice rounds. I only played nine holes on Tuesday and I played nine holes in the pro-am. It is important to know the courses out here, but it’s more important to feel comfortable with your game and hit it good and have a strategy.
I take a lot from this week. Obviously my first win on the PGA TOUR. Very happy, very happy with Puerto Rico, it’s awesome. First time here and we go out with a win. So I’m super pumped with how I — my golf game evolved and how it’s going to help for the rest of the year.
DOUG MILNE: And with the win, a lot of things come with it. I won’t list it all, but obviously you will be in the field this coming week at THE PLAYERS Championship, which brings a big smile to your face. You also pick up 300 FedExCup points, you get into a handful of events, I won’t list them all. Life — I just told you, your life is about to change but only as much as you want it to, all good things.
So kind of looking a little bit ahead, takeaway, were you confident coming in? Have you always felt confident that you would be a winner out here on the PGA TOUR?
NICO ECHAVARRIA: That’s a good question. As we as humans, we live in the — we try to live in the present, but it’s very hard to not go to the future. With the way I was playing the last couple weeks, at Honda, that course is really hard but I missed the cut by 8 or 9. At Pebble I missed it by a lot. You just, you just don’t think it’s going to get better until things like this week clicks and finding something on the range on Friday just changes your week.
I think like if I wouldn’t have had that practice session on Friday afternoon very late and found what I found, I don’t think I would be here because it cleared my mind up. I was thinking too many things, I was on a bad spot mentally before coming to this week.
So you just don’t know when it’s going to happen and that’s why you have to be open minded that it can change anytime and you have to be positive about it. So here we are.
Q. How does it feel to be headed to THE PLAYERS Championship?
NICO ECHAVARRIA: Yeah, it’s going to be incredible to be at home because I live in Jacksonville. Especially after a win, it’s going to be special.
Probably going to keep playing and feeling what I’m feeling right now with my game, same thoughts, because this game changes quick and you’ve got to be consistent with what you’re
Tee-Scripts.com
Second is that Camilo, I mean, is my hero from — that’s the reason why I play golf. Watching him win was the thing that sparked me to do this and here we are winning on the PGA TOUR. He sent me a great message yesterday saying that at some point in the round you’re going to feel like you lose control, you’re going to feel like the tournament could go away, and it did feel like that on No. 6 with a very bad swing and ended up being probably the best bogey of my life. So very happy with how he — he knows what’s going to happen, he knows that 18 holes of golf is very long and I was able to keep myself together and keep fighting.
(The 19th of 44 events in the 2022-23 PGA TOUR Regular Season)
Rio Grande, Puerto Rico March 2-5, 2023 Purse: $3,800,000 ($684,000/winner) Grand Reserve Golf Club Par/Yards: 36-36—72/7,506 FedExCup: 300 points (winner)
Weather: Mostly cloudy. High of 84. Wind E 10-16 mph, gusting to 24 mph.
Final Leaderboard
Nico Echavarria 67-67-65-68—267 (-21)
Akshay Bhatia 66-71-67-65—269 (-19)
Nate Lashley 71-65-67-69—272 (-16)
Carson Young 63-67-71-71—272 (-16)
Michael Kim 70-66-71-66—273 (-15)
Things to Know
• In his Puerto Rico Open debut, Colombia’s Nico Echavarria claims first career PGA TOUR title in 11th start; earns first start into this week’s PLAYERS Championship
• Echavarria played Grand Reserve Golf Club’s first nine this week in 15-under par
• With birdies on final four holes, Akshay Bhatia finishes solo-second to gain PGA TOUR Special Temporary Membership • PGA TOUR rookie Carson Young, who led by three and four shots, respectively, after rounds one and two, claims T3 honors at site of his first career PGA TOUR start in 2021 (MC)
• Rafa Campos, the lone Puerto Rico native to make the cut, finishes T48 at 4-under 284 in his 14th Puerto Rico Open start
Nico Echavarria (1st/-21)
| Category | Enterting the Week |
| Age | 28 (August 4, 1994) |
| FedExCup | 40 (projected) |
| Starts – wins – top-10s in PGA TOUR career | 11-1-1 |
| Starts – wins – top-10s on TOUR in 2022-23 | 11-1-1 |
| Starts – wins – top-10s at Puerto Rico Open | 0-0-0 |
• Making his Puerto Rico Open debut, Colombia native closed with a 4-under 68 to claim his first career PGA TOUR in his 11th start at the age of 28 years, 7 months, 1 day
• Played the par-5 second hole in 6-under par this week (birdie-eagle-eagle-birdie) and 15-under par on Nos. 1-9 (6- under on Nos. 10-18)
• With his win, earns 300 FedExCup points, taking his season-long total to 388
• Becomes fully exempt for all of the 2022-23 season, through the 2024-25 season
• Earns a spot into this week’s PLAYERS Championship (where he now resides in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida), as well as other 2022-23 season events, including, but not limited to, the PGA Championship and Memorial Tournament presented by Workday
• By virtue of the win, earns a berth into several 2023-24 season events, including the Sentry Tournament of Champions, The Genesis Invitational and Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard
• Becomes the 10th player in Puerto Rico Open history (2008) to make the event his first career PGA TOUR title and first since Ryan Brehm in 2022
• Becomes the seventh 54-hole leader/co-leader of the event to convert for the win and second in as many seasons (Ryan Brehm/2022)
• Began the week on the heels of four consecutive missed cuts; best finish in 10 career starts on TOUR, each of which has come this season, was T12/Sony Open in Hawaii
Miscellaneous Notes
• With birdies on the final four holes in his first Puerto Rico Open start to shoot 7-under 65, Akshay Bhatia (2nd/-19) tied the low round of the day (Cody Gribble) to finish solo-second at 19-under 269; chipped in for birdie on the par-3 16th in rounds 2-4; needing a 3-way T2 or better, the finish earns Bhatia Special Temporary Membership to the PGA TOUR, affording him unlimited sponsor exemptions; the finish marks his best in 22 PGA TOUR starts and betters his only other top-10 finish of T9/2020 Fortinet Championship
• Carson Young (T3/-16), who led by three and four shots, respectively after rounds one and two, closed with back to-back 1-under 71s in rounds three and four to finish at 16-under 272; best finish in 12 starts this season prior to this week came with last week’s T29 at The Honda Classic; only previous TOUR start before this season was the 2021 Puerto Rico Open (MC); with the top-10 finish, earns a spot into the field at the Valspar Championship, site of his first-ever TOUR start
• Nate Lashley (T3/-16) closed with a 3-under 69 to keep his Puerto Rico Open top-10 streak alive; in three starts, has finished T8/2019, T3/2022 and T3/2023 • Coming off a T16 in last year’s Puerto Rico Open, Michael Kim (5th/-15) closed his fourth start in the event with a 6- under 66; this week’s solo-fifth supplants his previous best of the season of T11/AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am • The lone Puerto Rico native (of five) in the field to make the cut, Rafa Campos closed with a 2-under 70 to finish T48 at 4-under284 in his 14th Puerto Rico Open start
