Nico Echavarria recorded a stellar 7-under 65 on Saturday and holds a two-shot lead over Carson Young after three rounds of the Puerto Rico Open.
Echavarria is at 17-under 199 coming into the ultimate spherical. Young, the chief after every of the primary two rounds, shot 71. Nate Lashley (67) and Sam Stevens (65) are tied for third at 13-under 203.
Echavarria carded one eagle, six birdies and one bogey throughout his sharp spherical at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Rio Grande. The rookie from Colombia shot a 6-under 30 on the entrance 9, which included the eagle on the par-5 second gap.
“Yeah, it was a dream start,” Echavarria stated Saturday. “I found something on the range yesterday, and even if I felt nervous out there today on some holes, I just kept putting my game plan and my feeling of what I found on the range and it worked really good. Happy with how I played, happy with the shots I hit when I was under pressure. Hopefully, we can do it tomorrow.”
Being 18 holes away from his first profession win is certainly surreal for Echavarria. The 28-year-old had missed the minimize eight of 10 instances previous to this occasion.
His finest exhibiting was tying for twelfth on the Sony Open in Hawaii in mid-January. He then missed the following 4 cuts.
But Echavarria labored on his recreation and stated he made changes together with his tempo.
“I’ve been having too many things in my head of technical-wise. It was not helping,” Echavarria stated. “The first two days I honestly felt like I was guiding it. I was making a lot of putts that made me keep the round going. Today, just felt the swing, trying to feel it longer on every shot, and it felt comfortable yesterday and I’ve done it before while I was struggling with tempo and hips turning too fast that we played with that all day today and probably going to play with that tomorrow.”
Young shot 63-67 the primary two rounds however by no means discovered a groove on Saturday. He is also on the lookout for his first profession victory.
He made 4 birdies and three bogeys and his inconsistent day was capped by two birdies and two bogeys over the ultimate 5 holes.
“I just didn’t hit anything really close, left myself 20, 30 feet a lot for birdie and hit a bunch of good putts, just nothing dropped for me,” Young stated. “I still feel good about my game. I drove it better today than I did yesterday, which is a positive.”
Stevens completed with a flourish by making 4 straight birdies. Overall, he had six to go together with one bogey and an eagle on the par-5 No. 5.
Lashley had seven birdies and two bogeys.
Akshay Bhatia (67) and England’s Harry Hall (68) are tied for fifth at 12 beneath.
–Field Level Media