Kurt Kitayama

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Kurt Kitayama
Personal information
Full nameKurt Shun Kitayama
NicknameThe Project[1]
Born (1993-01-14) January 14, 1993 (age 31)
Chico, California
Height5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Weight170 lb (77 kg)
Sporting nationality United States
Career
CollegeUniversity of Nevada-Las Vegas
Turned professional2015
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 wins4
Highest ranking19 (March 5, 2023)[2]
(as of April 14, 2024)
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour1
European Tour2
Asian Tour1
Sunshine Tour1
Other1
Best results in major championships
Masters TournamentT35: 2024
PGA ChampionshipT4: 2023
U.S. OpenCUT: 2020, 2022, 2023
The Open ChampionshipT60: 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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

  • 2014 Jackrabbit Invitational
  • 2015 Jackrabbit Invitational

Professional wins (4)[edit]

PGA Tour wins (1)[edit]

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 United States Harris English, Northern Ireland Rory McIlroy

European Tour wins (2)[edit]

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 India S. Chikkarangappa, France Matthieu Pavon
2 Mar 2, 2019 Oman Open −7 (66-74-71-70=281) 1 stroke Spain Jorge Campillo, Germany Maximilian Kieffer,
France Clément Sordet, Paraguay 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 England Tyrrell Hatton, France Benjamin Hébert,
France Victor Perez, Austria Matthias Schwab,
South Africa 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)[edit]

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 India S. Chikkarangappa, France Matthieu Pavon

1Co-sanctioned by the European Tour and the Sunshine Tour

Asian Development Tour wins (1)[edit]

No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory 		Runner-up
1 Jan 27, 2018 Darulaman Championship1 −21 (63-70-64-70=267) 2 strokes United States John Catlin

1Co-sanctioned by the Professional Golf of Malaysia Tour

Results in major championships[edit]

Results not in chronological order in 2020.

Tournament 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Masters Tournament CUT T35
PGA Championship T64 T51 CUT T4
U.S. Open CUT CUT CUT
The Open Championship CUT NT CUT T72 T60
  Top 10
  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic

Summary[edit]

Tournament Wins 2nd 3rd Top-5 Top-10 Top-25 Events Cuts made
Masters Tournament 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1
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 13 6
  • Most consecutive cuts made – 2 (2023 Open Championship – 2024 Masters, current)
  • Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (2023 PGA)

Results in The Players Championship[edit]

Tournament 2023 20247
The Players Championship CUT T19

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Results in World Golf Championships[edit]

Tournament 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Championship T53
Match Play NT1 QF
Invitational
Champions T28 NT1 NT1 NT1

1Canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic

  Top 10
  Did not play

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[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Priest, Evin (March 5, 2023). "How Kurt Kitayama went from 'The Project' to a PGA Tour winner". Golf Digest. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
  2. ^ "Week 9 2023 Ending 5 Mar 2023" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
  3. ^ "Chico 2010-11 Basketball Schedule". Retrieved July 31, 2020.
  4. ^ "2011 California Northern Section Boys Basketball Playoff". Retrieved July 31, 2020.
  5. ^ "UNLV 2014-15 Men's Golf Roster Kurt Kitayama". unlvrebels.com. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
  6. ^ "Kitayama claims maiden victory in Mauritius". European Tour. December 2, 2018. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
  7. ^ "Kurt Kitayama profile". European Tour. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
  8. ^ "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.
  9. ^ Ferguson, Doug (March 5, 2023). "Kurt Kitayama breaks through in wild finish at Bay Hill". Associated Press. Retrieved March 6, 2023.

External links[edit]

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