Nico Echavarria remained ahead in Saturday’s penultimate round at the Zozo Championship with a two-shot lead, with former world number one Justin Thomas leading the chasing pack at the Narashino Country Club in Japan.
Echavarria hit five birdies but had bogeys on the fourth and 11th, before holding his nerve to sink an eagle putt from two feet out on the 18th. The Colombian, who shot a five-under 65, is 17 under par overall.
“I mean, that’s the way you want to finish a round,” Echavarria said.
“I had a good tee shot, hit a really good second shot and finished with an eagle. I prefer that than a birdie obviously. I started getting shaky on the back nine with a bogey on nine and an incredible save on 12.
“But we finished the round as well as we could.”
American Thomas shot 65 and his compatriot Max Greyserman carded 64 to move into third on 14 under, surging into the mix with seven birdies and a lone bogey.
Thomas, who has not won a tournament since his victory at the PGA Championship in 2022, could break his two-year drought with a strong showing on Sunday.
“It’s obviously tough. It’s hard to win at any stage, doesn’t matter who you are,” the two-times major champion said.
“At the end of the day it has been a while but I’ve still won a pretty good amount of golf tournaments.
“I know how to win. It’s just a matter of executing and doing it and that’s really been the biggest difference. There’s a reason there’s only one every week.”
Defending champion Collin Morikawa had his third double-bogey of the tournament on the 14th hole and carded a level-par 70 to sit 13 strokes behind leader Echavarria.
World number two Xander Schauffele is tied for 39th with Morikawa, while home hero Hideki Matsuyama is a further two shots behind despite carding his best round of the tournament so far with 66.
