March 5, 2023 was the first day of the rest of the life of Nicholas Echavarria. Four days before, I was mired in doubt: even with the fresh memory of having won the card of the PGA Tour, the timing was not the best. He had played 10 tournaments and missed the cut in eight of them. He had to show a 12th-place finish at the Sony Open in January as his best tour performance.
With that balance, and less than a month from the second reshuffle, a kind of ‘checkpoint’ that the PGA Tour does to graduates of the Korn Ferry Tour, according to his results, Echavarría had to make an effort. If the tournaments are good, he has a better chance of playing tournaments, and if he doesn’t get them, the picture is complicated.
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With 267 strokes, 21 under par, the 28-year-old from Antioquia, a professional since 2017, achieved the most important victory of his career that Sunday, the Puerto Rico Open, an alternate tournament on the PGA Tour that does not give the same bag as others. but all the benefits for the champion: two years of exemption, entry to the most important tournaments on the circuit and a place in a Major, the PGA Championship, and in the ‘big fifth’, The Players, with a bag of 25 million dollars at stake, the largest on the Tour. There is Nico today, thinking big.
After not getting much sleep the night before, Echavarría took things easy. He walked the green of the 18th hole in Puerto Rico with undeniable joy, received a champagne bath from one of his colleagues, the Argentine Tano Goya, and also from his idol and benchmark, the first Colombian to win on the PGA Tour, Camilo Villegas.
And then he had a celebration that was not immediately noticeable, but made noise: in the style of Dibu Martínez in the World Cup final in Qatar, he put the trophy between his legs. He then explained that he did it at the suggestion of an Argentine photographer, with whom he has met in tournaments for several years. The euphoria is justified: today he is among the greats. But he knows that he can give more.
The day after Nicolás Echavarría
How have the first days after the victory been?
It is difficult to analyze and describe. From a very young age he wanted to be a golf professional. The LIV didn’t exist, so my dream was to play and win on the PGA Tour and now I’m making it come true. I am very happy, it worked for this. There were doubts, of course, if I could do it or not, and all the grains of sand that I have put into this sport, all this effort came true last week. But this does not stop here. New opportunities are coming, we are going to play better tournaments, and I am ready for the challenge.
It took Camilo Villegas almost three years to win his first tournament. Juan Sebastián Muñoz lost the PGA Tour card in his first season. You already won, after 11 tournaments. What does that mean?
The question is good. Before starting the tournament, my confidence was down, I was not making cuts. So it’s a very special victory. I don’t want to compare with what happened with Camilo and Sebastián, who had much more experience than me. Sebastián beat the world number one in the Presidents Cup, Camilo won four times on the Tour. I won as a rookie, but I have a long way to go and this is just beginning. You have to believe in what you do. This feeling is that everything changes in a week. Let’s see how long it lasts.
And for starters, it’s already in The Players.
That is the main tournament of the PGA Tour. I have been seeing it since I was very, very young, a place with a lot of history. That’s why I chose to live here, in Jacksonville: it’s going to be a very nice week, with a lot of pressure, but with very high energy. I am going to enjoy being there to the fullest and continue to grow.
What is the strategy to play The Players?
Make lots of birdies and few bogeys. It doesn’t change much. In terms of preparation, maybe I know the course better than other places I’ve played and that’s going to help, the practice rounds are smoother. Since there is no Pro-Am, the field could be played on Wednesday, and that makes the preparation time shorter and you can rest. Also, I’m sleeping in my bed.
Camilo Villegas was the inspiration for many of today’s golfers. What did it mean to have him next to you on the 18th hole?
More important than that is that Camilo made the cut and would have stayed playing (he finished in 48th place, with 284 shots). If he hadn’t played well, he probably would have walked out. I am very happy to have shared with my idol: he has a lot of experience, he is very well prepared and he has helped me at all times. I am very grateful to him and to Manuel, his brother.
How did your brother Andrés, who was also aspiring to reach the PGA Tour, receive the victory?
Andrés was not with me in Puerto Rico, but this victory is also part of his dream, and seeing me make it come true is also very nice. Andrés is with me at The Players, as is my family, and he is very excited to have him join me at the tournament.
How close is it to another Colombian victory on the Tour?
I did -21 in Puerto Rico to win, and it’s an alternate tournament. That shows that it is very difficult to win on the PGA Tour. In golf you lose more than you win. You have to continue with high confidence, keep believing and more important than winning again is giving myself the opportunity to win again. I must continue working well so that what I got is not a coincidence.
Several of the Latin Americans who were on the PGA Tour, including Sebastián Muñoz, went to LIV Golf. Have you heard about that circuit?
I have nothing against LIV. I am a person who, technically, is not competing against the LIV. The LIV has made the PGA Tour better and I play on the PGA Tour. When there is competition, the two tours will try to do their best and that is good for all the professionals. I have not had any contact with the LIV nor do I think I will at the moment.
The victory allows him to be in all the tournaments of the PGA Tour. Do you already have any plans for what comes next in the season?
For now, The Players this week. The next tournament is the Valspar, it is yet to be defined, I will make a decision a little later this week. I would no longer play in the Dominican Republic. That same week there is the Match Play, which I would not enter unless The Players win or win in Tampa, so there I would have a few days off. And then, in a month or so, I go to San Antonio. That is the short term plan. This week changed my life. Now one can be in bigger tournaments. I’ve heard from several people that when you win on the PGA Tour, nobody takes that away from you. I am sure that with my work team we are going to do things much better.
What is your idea of making a public course in Medellín to promote golf there?
That is still very much up in the air. It is something that is not easy, but I believe that we can do something about it. In Medellín there are few places to play, in Bogotá there are a little more. In Medellín you have to have a membership and a club to be able to play. It is an idea that hopefully we can make a reality in the future. We want golf in Colombia to grow, it is a very limited sport. You have to be grateful and hopefully Colombia could be a bit like what Argentina has, where there are many more public fields and that makes many more people want to play.
Jose Orlando Ascension
sports deputy editor
@josasc
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