Nico Echavarria carded a bogey-free 63, his career-best 18-hole score on the PGA Tour, featuring an eagle at the par-5 6th to take a share of the lead at 12-under at the World Wide Technology Championship. He is the only player still bogey-free through 36-holes.
“it was a very, very good round,” said Echavarria. “Obviously everyone knew that the scores were going to be lower. Different wind, we’ve never played this wind, so I thought it was cool that no one has practiced this wind. We play a lot of holes into the wind or downwind that we didn’t play even last year, so it was interesting.
“You never think like people will make eagle on 6 and we had two in our group. Straight downwind par-5. We were hitting three shots into it yesterday and the last year, so different wind. We played well. The putter was hot, I drove it beautifully. This is probably the best I’ve felt with the driver in a long time. Got to take the positives and make a good weekend out of it.
“I didn’t know how I was going to feel on Thursday when I teed off. After my win in Puerto Rico I said I felt awful the next few weeks or even months. This time I guess you’re older, you know what to expect and really it’s going very well.”
The Colombian is seeking a third Tour victory in his 59th start, most recently at the 2024 Zozo Championship.
American Max Greyserman made two bogeys and closed with a 64 for his share of the lead. He holds his first career 36-hole lead/co-lead and seeks his first PGA Tour title in his 27th start.
“I think I’ve been playing well for a while and coming off earlier in the season, just understanding the Tour, where I belong and just building confidence, I guess, and executing just a little bit better every week. I feel like now I’ve kind of got my game in a place to where if I’m playing solid, I’m going to be at the top of the leaderboard and it’s a good spot to be and hope to keep doing it,” said Greyserman.
Carson Young followed an opening round even-par with a career-best 11-under 61 in spite of a bogey at the 4th, tying the tournament 18-hole scoring record (Roland Thatcher/R3/2008, Matthew Wolff/R1/2021). He lies in a share of third place at 11-under alongside fellow American Dylan Wu whose 65 featured six birdies in a row from the 1st as well as back-to-back bogeys from the 14th.
“It was just a pretty fun round, everything came pretty easy,” said Young. “I drove it great, hit a lot of really good iron shots. All my birdies it seemed like were inside like 10 or 15 feet. I played good, I did everything really good today, so it was a lot of fun. Just hoping to keep it going and looking forward to the weekend.
“The weather definitely helps. Less wind out of a slightly different direction made the course a little bit easier, was able to reach some par-5s or get closer up to them. Other than that, I just was hitting it good and it just came to me today. The putter got hot yesterday. I didn’t make many putts, a lot of that is with the wind, reading the putt and then having to read the wind with the putt, it was a little bit of a challenge for me. But I felt like I was hitting good putts, so I just stuck with that mindset and they started dropping today.”
Mexico native Emilio Gonzalez was disqualified after the second round due to a breach of Rule 18.3. (Provisional Ball).
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Nos. 1-50 in the FedExCup standings through the Tour Championship are locked in their positions, while Nos. 51 and beyond carry their FedExCup points into the Fall. Nos. 51-60 through the FedExCup Fall will qualify for two Signature Events in 2025: AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, The Genesis Invitational. No players moved into Nos. 51-60 this week.
The Top 125 will be exempt into all Full-Field events and The Players next season and Nos. 126-150 will earn full Korn Ferry Tour status and conditional status on Tour next season.
