Despite some late-round stumbles, Kurt Kitayama wouldn’t be stopped.
With a third-round 60, the 32-year-old Californian got near the top of the 3M Open leaderboard and rode the momentum into Sunday, taking the lead with six birdies in his first eight holes.
He never relinquished his advantage.
MORE: Final results, payouts from TPC Twin Cities
Kitayama, playing the final two days at 18 under par to finish at 23 under overall, claimed a one-stroke victory at TPC Twin Cities over Sam Stevens. It’s his first win since the 2023 Arnold Palmer Invitational and second on Tour.
“Getting off to a start like that kind of helps settle you down,” said Kitayama, whose 20 birdies in the final two rounds were the most by a Tour winner since 2003. “Final round, second last group, there’s definitely some nerves. To come out like that will definitely help kind of settle the nerves a bit and get you more comfortable throughout the round.”
Things got a little precarious shortly after making the turn, though. On the par-4 11th, Kitayama pulled his tee shot, which was a problem all week, ranking 56th in driving accuracy by hitting 60% of his fairways. Kitayama made bogey and in the group ahead, Jake Knapp, who placed T3 with Matt Wallace, David Lipsky and Pierceson Coody, made two straight birdies, cutting the lead to one.
Kitayama birdied the following hole and added another on the par-4 14th, hitting a 7-iron from the fariway bunker to 2 feet. But a three-putt bogey on the par-3 17th sent him to the par-5 18th tee box leading Stevens, who parred his 72nd hole, by only one. Kitayama plopped his drive in the fairway, but hit his approach into the greenside bunker with the ball settling on a downslope. He knocked it out of the sand to 17 feet and two-putted for victory.
“Walking up, I was kind of looking at it,” he said, “but when I got up there with the lie, I figured if I can just chunk it out, I knew it wasn’t going to spin, and having the wind into I could be fairly aggressive. So I did kind of keep it a little right. I knew if I just got on the green, it would roll out to however far, you know, and that was kind of my thought process on it.”
Shot of the day ‼️
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 27, 2025
Solo leader @Kurt_Kitayama throws a dart from the fairway bunker @3MOpen. pic.twitter.com/mpdzaovdQt
The win marks a comeback for Kitayama. Since winning at Bay Hill two years ago, he had fallen from 19th in the world rankings to No. 97. In the last two seasons, he has six top 10s in 41 starts, and didn’t even earn a spot in the Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this year.
“I think just what I’ve been working on is starting to kind of show overall,” he said. “I feel like my ball-striking kind of dipped a little bit earlier this year and now it’s starting to come into form, I think. That’s kind of been—last year I felt like I hit it really well and my putting kind of let me down last year. Now it’s starting to feel a lot better, starting to see some results there.”
However, just playing on Tour, let alone winning, was a rollercoaster achievement for Kitayama. Following his college career at UNLV, he struggled on the Korn Ferry Tour and he played around the world for years, teeing it up on the Asian Developmental Tour, PGA Tour China, PGA Tour Canada, Sunshine Tour, Japan Tour, Asian Tour and DP World Tour before finally earning a Tour card for the 2021-22 season.
Now, with his triumph in Minnesota, he will get into the FedExCup playoffs (entering the week No. 110 in the standings, he’s now 53rd), earns a two-year exemption on Tour and collects $1.5 million with the win, nearly a half-million more than he had pocketed all season.
Even through the late shakiness on Sunday, there was hardly a doubt he’d leave TPC Twin Cities without the trophy.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Kurt Kitayama Goes Scorched Earth Over Final Two Rounds to Win 3M Open.
