Kurt Kitayama wins 3M Open by going 17 under par the final two days

Jerry Zgoda, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jul 27, 2025

Published in Golf

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BLAINE, Minn. — Ten-year pro Kurt Kitayama needed all 65 shots Sunday to win the 3M Open in Blaine by a single shot, but it might have been one over all the others that won him his second PGA Tour title and enabled his mother to watch the TV again.

He chipped in from the thick greenside rough on the third hole to give his day a birdie-birdie-birdie start. He got up and down from 75 feet for a birdie at the par-5 12th. He hit a wedge from under a tree to save par at the 15th and saved par again at the closing 18th hole with an awkwardly angled, downhill bunker shot above the green that was good enough to set up a two-putt to win.

But none of those shots for Kitayama was bigger and more dramatic than his 191-yard fairway bunker shot at No. 14, struck — and stuck at a back flagstick — with a 7-iron.

Kitayama’s 3-foot birdie putt re-established a three-shot lead and kept the field from seriously challenging the 32-year-old the rest of the way.

“To hit it that like I did was unbelievable,” said Kitayama, whose four-round total of 23-under-par 261 was a stroke off the tournament record set two years ago by Lee Hodges. “That was a very big shot.”

Challengers Jake Knapp and Sam Stevens came up short. Knapp trailed by three shots on the par-5 finishing hole, but his second shot at 18 came up just short into the lake, even with the wind. Stevens hit into a bad lie on the same hole that kept him from trying to go for an eagle that he needed to apply pressure.

“I’m not too disappointed,” said Stevens, who shot 66 to finish alone in second at 22 under and now has three top-10 finishes this year.

With his older brother, Daniel, carrying his bag and his parents watching at home in California, Kitayama still needed to save par on 18 — “That bunker shot on 18, making sure I got it on the green, that was big,” he said — and earned a second career victory to go with his Arnold Palmer Invitational from March 2023 at Bay Hill.

A year after he finished tied for sixth at the 3M Open, Kitayama just made the cut at this year’s event, but then shot a tournament-record-tying 60 on Saturday to enter Sunday trailing co-leaders Akshay Bhatia and Thorbjørn Olesen by a stroke. Once he made it to the weekend, Kitayama shot 17 under par in two days on a course designed by Palmer himself.

Just coincidence?

“I’m not too sure,” Kitayama said. “Some courses you’re just comfortable with. Having that result last year definitely helps coming into this week, knowing that I can play well here.”

He credited his brother — who is his sometime caddie — with keeping him centered and called his parents, Clifford and Rumiko, by video not long after he won the trophy and $1.5 million first-place prize.

“My mom didn’t answer, so I called my dad,” Kitayama said. “I assumed they would be together. My dad tells me my mom couldn’t watch. I think she was out somewhere so she couldn’t be too nervous. Then I called my girlfriend and she was ecstatic. Really cool to see them.”

By winning, Kitayama earned 500 FedEx Cup points to move from 110th to 53rd with one regular-season PGA Tour event to come before the playoffs begin. He is the third consecutive 3M Open winner to begin the week outside the top-70 playoff cutoff: Jhonattan Vegas was 147th going into last year and Hodges was 74th in 2023.

Kitayama also is projected to move from No. 97 to No. 39 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Kitayama’s 20 birdies in the final two rounds are the most made on the weekend by a PGA Tour winner since 2003. His 32 total birdies tie for the third-most in a 72-hole event on the tour since 1983.

Knapp made bogey after finding the water on 18, and his round of 68 left him in a four-way tie for third with Pierceson Coody (67), David Lipsky (64) and Matt Wallace (64) at 20 under. Finishing in a tie for 10th was Chris Gotterup, coming right after his victory at the Scottish Open and third-place finish at the British Open.

The two third round co-leaders shot two of the worst final rounds. Bhatia was 4 over and Olesen 2 over.

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