| Kurt Kitayama | |
|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Full name | Kurt Shun Kitayama |
| Nickname | The Project[1] |
| Born | January 14, 1993 Chico, California |
| Height | 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) |
| Weight | 170 lb (77 kg) |
| Sporting nationality |  United States |
| Career | |
| College | University of Nevada-Las Vegas |
| Turned professional | 2015 |
| Current tour(s) | PGA Tour European Tour |
| Former tour(s) | Asian Tour Web.com Tour PGA Tour Canada PGA Tour China Asian Development Tour |
| Professional wins | 4 |
| Highest ranking | 19 (March 5, 2023)[2] (as of January 14, 2024) |
| Number of wins by tour | |
| PGA Tour | 1 |
| European Tour | 2 |
| Asian Tour | 1 |
| Sunshine Tour | 1 |
| Other | 1 |
| Best results in major championships | |
| Masters Tournament | CUT: 2023 |
| PGA Championship | T4: 2023 |
| U.S. Open | CUT: 2020, 2022, 2023 |
| The Open Championship | T60: 2023 |
Kurt Shun Kitayama (born January 14, 1993) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. On the European Tour, he won the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open in December 2018 and the Oman Open in March 2019. In March 2023, he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational on the PGA Tour.
Early life
Kitayama was born in Chico, California, some 87 miles north of Sacramento, and graduated from Chico High School in 2011. Although his height was just 5–6, he was the Senior co-captain and starting point guard on the basketball team, while leading the Panthers to a 27–2 record and the 2011 California Northern Section Title.[3] In the Championship Game, he scored 31 points and had 6 assists as Chico beat city-rival Pleasant Valley High School by a score of 67–54.[4]
Kitayama's older brother Daniel played golf 2007–2008 at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and later came to work as a professional caddie.
Amateur career
In 2009, Kitayama finished tied 3rd at the Callaway Junior World Golf Championships, 15–17 age category, at the 2008 U.S. Open course Torrey Pines, South Course, San Diego, California, against an international field including Bryson DeChambeau. Kitayama was appointed 2009 Player of the Year by The Junior Golf Association of Northern California.
After high school, Kitayama attended the University of Nevada-Las Vegas from 2011 to 2015, where he was named to the Academic-All Mountain West team three consecutive years.[5] He won the Jackrabbit Invitational held in Primm, Nevada, in 2014 as well as 2015.
Kitayama's best World Amateur Golf Ranking was 47th.
Professional career
Kitayama turned professional in 2015. He played mostly on the Web.com Tour in 2016 and 2017 with little success and was ranked 1174 in the world at the end of 2017.
In 2018, Kitayama played mostly on the Asian Tour. He played a single Asian Development Tour event, the PGM Darulaman Championship in Malaysia, which he won. He had some good finishes on the Asian Tour, including tied for 4th in the New Zealand Open, joint runner-up in the Royal Cup and joint 4th in the Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup Golf, an event co-sanctioned with the Japan Golf Tour.
In November 2018, he finished tied for 3rd place in the European Tour Q-School to earn a place on the 2019 European Tour. In just the second event of the season, the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, played in late 2018, he won by two strokes.[6] The event was co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Tour and the Asian Tour. The win lifted him into the top 200 of the world rankings. In March 2019, he became the fastest player to two wins in European Tour history when he won the Oman Open in only his 11th career appearance.[7]
In September 2021, he earned his PGA Tour card by finishing 23rd in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.[8]
In February 2022, he recorded a 3rd place finish at The Honda Classic. In May 2022, Kitayama improved upon this performance, recording a T2 finish at the Mexico Open.
In March 2023, he earned his first PGA Tour victory by winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational.[9]
Amateur wins
- 2014 Jackrabbit Invitational
- 2015 Jackrabbit Invitational
Professional wins (4)
PGA Tour wins (1)
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory |
Runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mar 5, 2023 | Arnold Palmer Invitational | −9 (67-68-72-72=279) | 1 stroke | Harris English, .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Rory McIlroy |
European Tour wins (2)
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory |
Runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dec 2, 2018 (2019 season) |
AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open1 | −20 (65-65-70-68=268) | 2 strokes |  S. Chikkarangappa,  Matthieu Pavon |
| 2 | Mar 2, 2019 | Oman Open | −7 (66-74-71-70=281) | 1 stroke |  Jorge Campillo,  Maximilian Kieffer, Clément Sordet,  Fabrizio Zanotti |
1Co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the Sunshine Tour
European Tour playoff record (0–1)
| No. | Year | Tournament | Opponents | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2019 | Turkish Airlines Open |  Tyrrell Hatton, Benjamin Hébert, Victor Perez,  Matthias Schwab, Erik van Rooyen |
Hatton won with par on fourth extra hole Kitayama eliminated by birdie on third hole Hébert, Perez and van Rooyen eliminated by birdie on first hole |
Asian Tour wins (1)
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory |
Runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dec 2, 2018 | AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open1 | −20 (65-65-70-68=268) | 2 strokes | S. Chikkarangappa, Matthieu Pavon |
1Co-sanctioned by the European Tour and the Sunshine Tour
Asian Development Tour wins (1)
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory |
Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jan 27, 2018 | Darulaman Championship1 | −21 (63-70-64-70=267) | 2 strokes | John Catlin |
1Co-sanctioned by the Professional Golf of Malaysia Tour
Results in major championships
Results not in chronological order in 2020.
| Tournament | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masters Tournament | CUT | ||||
| PGA Championship | T64 | T51 | CUT | T4 | |
| U.S. Open | CUT | CUT | CUT | ||
| The Open Championship | CUT | NT | CUT | T72 | T60 |
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
| Tournament | Wins | 2nd | 3rd | Top-5 | Top-10 | Top-25 | Events | Cuts made |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masters Tournament | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| PGA Championship | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| U.S. Open | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| The Open Championship | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| Totals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 5 |
- Most consecutive cuts made – 1 (five times, current)
- Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (2023 PGA)
Results in The Players Championship
| Tournament | 2023 |
|---|---|
| The Players Championship | CUT |
CUT = missed the halfway cut
Results in World Golf Championships
| Tournament | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Championship | T53 | ||||
| Match Play | NT1 | QF | |||
| Invitational | |||||
| Champions | T28 | NT1 | NT1 | NT1 | |
1Canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic
NT = No tournament
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = Tied
Note that the Championship and Invitational were discontinued from 2022. The Champions was discontinued from 2023.
See also
References
- ↑ Priest, Evin (March 5, 2023). "How Kurt Kitayama went from 'The Project' to a PGA Tour winner". Golf Digest. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
- ↑ "Week 9 2023 Ending 5 Mar 2023" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
- ↑ "Chico 2010-11 Basketball Schedule". Retrieved July 31, 2020.
- ↑ "2011 California Northern Section Boys Basketball Playoff". Retrieved July 31, 2020.
- ↑ "UNLV 2014-15 Men's Golf Roster Kurt Kitayama". unlvrebels.com. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
- ↑ "Kitayama claims maiden victory in Mauritius". European Tour. December 2, 2018. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
- ↑ "Kurt Kitayama profile". European Tour. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
- ↑ "Meet the 25 players who earned PGA Tour cards through the Korn Ferry Tour Finals". PGA Tour. September 5, 2021. Archived from the original on September 23, 2021. Retrieved September 17, 2021.
- ↑ Ferguson, Doug (March 5, 2023). "Kurt Kitayama breaks through in wild finish at Bay Hill". Associated Press. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
External links
- Kurt Kitayama at the PGA Tour official site
- Kurt Kitayama at the European Tour official site
- Kurt Kitayama at the Official World Golf Ranking official site