THE 153RD OPEN

July 17, 2025

Nico Echavarria

Mixed Zone

Q. Talk about your round today. There was very good moments. Then the rain came and something happened, then you kind of recovered.

NICO ECHAVARRIA: Yeah, I think unfortunately we got tough weather on tough holes. Probably holes 7 through 11, holes 6 through 11 there's a lot of trouble and crosswinds, and it was playing very tough, so it was almost trying to survive. But yeah, great moments, bad moments. But overall pleased.

Q. What were the main lessons of today and playing links like this?

NICO ECHAVARRIA: You have to play well, but there's also a lot of luck. We didn't expect it to be this bad during the day and to be this calm at the end is -- after what we played, it felt like the last seven holes were playing really easy. It is what it is, but happy with what I battled.

Q. How hard is that first tee shot?

NICO ECHAVARRIA: At the moment, it was challenging, but then you get out there and you play more holes, and it was almost a simple tee shot compared to some others with the weather we had.

Q. What tee shot was surprisingly difficult?

NICO ECHAVARRIA: Well, we played -- this is the weird thing about it's my first Open and we played hole No. 8, I played it twice in the practice round and I made birdie and I made par and they were very, very simple, and today I had to hit it left-handed to chip out and made a good bogey, and Patrick made a 6 or 7, and then he made an incredible par. But that's the beauty of playing over here is that a hole can be really easy, and then it can be very hard.

Q. What was the wind doing that made it so difficult today?

NICO ECHAVARRIA: It was just range sideways and crosswinds. Whenever you have to hit the driver and the face is wet, you have no control. It just gets tough, and it's trying to survive out there.

Q. That's something I struggle to understand. The wet driver face --

NICO ECHAVARRIA: There's no grooves, so the ball just shoots.

Q. In the wind?

NICO ECHAVARRIA: Yeah.

Q. Could you not hit 3-wood?

NICO ECHAVARRIA: It's a hole where you have to have a carry of a certain yardage, and you don't have to be hitting 4-iron into it. There's two bunkers. It was a super simple hole the practice round, and today it felt like it was one of the hardest holes in the world.

Q. You must be pretty pleased then?

NICO ECHAVARRIA: Yeah. I'm mentally drained. It felt like obviously we took forever because of how hard it was playing and lost balls and provisionals and everything. So very tired but pleased.