Austin Eckroat relaxed on Saturday night before the final round of the 2024 World Wide Technology Championship by playing video games at his hotel room. The new Call of Duty has been his latest obsession.
“That’s how I kind of take my mind off things,” he said. “You can’t think about anything else.”
Then he went out on Sunday and played video game. Eckroat reeled off nine birdies in his first 12 holes and shot 9-under 63 at El Cardonal at Diamante in Los Cabos, Mexico, to win by one stroke over Carson Young and Justin Lower and lift a trophy for the second time this season on the PGA Tour.
“Validation,” said Eckroat, who won the Cognizant Classic in March and became the seventh multi-time winner this season. “Winning twice is really special because it means you really can do it.”
Eckroat, a 25-year-old pro out of Oklahoma State, said he already had checked off the majority of his goals for this season with the exception of finishing in the top 30 and qualifying for the Tour Championship. He managed to make the top 50 to lock up his place in all of the signature events next season and had little to gain in terms of his Tour status. But unlike other pros who have been kicking back in the fall, Eckroat had the itch to keep playing.
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“I can’t practice with a long-term goal in mind,” he explained. “Or I can, but it’s tough for me, I need short-term goals. I’m not a guy who can go and take a ton of time off and start working on things for next season. I need more short-term goals than taking three months off. I love to play tournament golf, that’s why I do it.”
Cabo has been good to him before. As a sophomore at Oklahoma State, he won the Cabo Collegiate in 2019 just down the road at Querencia. This week, his score improved by a stroke each of the first three days, beginning with a 68, which left him a stroke off the 54-hole lead set by Lower and Nico Echavarria, who was bidding for his second straight win. Eckroat did his best Tiger Woods imitation in the final round, making birdies at the first two holes to tie for the lead before a bogey at the third of the Woods-designed layout. But the dropped shot was a mere roadblock as Eckroat ripped off birdie on the next three holes and four in a span of five holes to turn in 5-under 31.
“Tiger definitely was my favorite player growing up, no doubt about it. Yeah, I got to watch him play at Southern Hills, I think it was the 2007 PGA Championship, so I was 8 years old. I remember watching him hit the putt at Torrey Pines. Actually, I didn’t watch that, I had my head tucked in the couch because I couldn’t watch it, I was so nervous,” Eckroat said. “To win at a place that he built, that’s just pretty cool. It’s awesome. He’s my idol, for sure.”
Eckroat kept his foot down on the pedal, notching birdies at the first three holes of the back nine and a beautiful chip to 5 feet after one of his few hiccups of the day left him under a tree at the par-5 14th.
His lead widened to as many as four strokes and he tacked on a birdie at 17.
“That’s probably some of the best golf I’ve ever played, just from the start putts were going in,” he said. “I was lights out today, I couldn’t miss.”
Eckroat rotates putters the way most people change socks and he slipped a Ping PLD DZB custom into the bag, and it did the trick. For the season, Eckroat ranked 132nd in Stokes Gained: Putting. This week? He was fourth in Putts per Green in Regulation.
“This is my first win since I was 13 years old with a different putter, which is kind of crazy,” said Eckroat, who had used a Ping Redwood D66 in all his previous victories.
A chunked chip at the last led to a bogey and meant Young, who set the course record with 61 on Friday, needed an eagle at the last to force a playoff but missed a 25-foot putt on the right.
“I played really good, just didn’t quite feel it with the putter today,” Young said.
He signed for 65 and recorded the best finish of his career, tying for second with Lower (65). Max Greyserman also closed in 65 to finish fourth and remained one of the hottest golfers on the planet, registering his fourth top-4 finish in his last six starts but still is seeking his first Tour title.
“Sunday 65s are not good enough unless you have like a four-shot lead going into the last day,” Greyserman said. “Hopefully that will come soon.”
It all came together for Eckroat, who signed for a 72-hole total of 24-under 264, earning a trip back to the Masters and claiming his second win in 70 career Tour starts.
“It’s just really special. You get that first win and you make the joke that maybe this will open the floodgates and they’re going to start flying,” he said. “You know, I think that second win kind of solidifies that you can win on the PGA Tour. You can’t just say it was luck this time, I’ve done it twice. Pretty cool.”