Weekly Fantasy Golf Recap: Kitayama Comes up Clutch

It was just a week ago that the golf world was debating Scottie Scheffler's place in history after he won the Open Championship.

Nobody has or will ever confuse Kurt Kitayama with the world No. 1. But for two days, Kitayama played about as well as any professional golfer possibly could.

The 32-year-old Californian followed up a career-best 11-under 60 on Saturday at TPC Twin Cities with a 6-under 65 on Sunday, registering an incredible 20 birdies across those 36 holes -- and he needed every single one of them to win the 3M Open by a single stroke over Sam Stevens.

With a 23-under total, it was the second career title for Kitayama, who won the Arnold Palmer Invitational two years ago.

The victory instantly turned a dreadful season into a big-time success, moving him from 110th in the FedExCup Standings to 53rd, well inside the playoff threshold of 70th with just one week left in the regular season. He also jumped from 97th in the OWGR to 39th.

If all that wasn't special enough, Kitayama had his older brother Daniel as his caddie for the first time.

"Yeah, this win's going to be extra special having him on the bag," Kitayama said. "Very cool experience and really happy he's part of it."

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The weekend performance sent PGA Tour historians deep into the record books to put what Kitayama did into perspective. This is what they found:

• His 32 total birdies on the week tied for third most in a 72-hole event since 1983, which generally is when they started keeping track of these sorts of things.
• The 20 birdies on the weekend are the most on Tour on a weekend since 2003.
• With a 28 and then a 29 on the front nine on Saturday and Sunday, he's the third player since 2003 with back-to-back sub-30 scores on the same nine. Both Charley Hoffman (2015 Byron Nelson) and Dustin Johnson (2011 FedEx St. Jude) shot 29-29, so Kitayama beat them.
• Sitting T44 after two rounds, that's the second biggest comeback on Tour this season, with Joe Highsmith at T48 at the Cognizant Classic.

All that from a golfer with only two top-10s in 18 starts all season, and both of them -- twin T5s -- came in lesser events at the Byron Nelson and John Deere. Kitayama qualified for only one major, and he missed the cut at the PGA Championship.

So, to put it bluntly, what the heck happened all of a sudden?

"I think just what I've been working on is starting to kind of show overall," he told reporters in Minnesota, rather modestly. "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. That's been the last probably month or two months that I've kind of noticed."

Kitayama still wasn't great with his putter -- he was decent, ranking 37th in the field -- but he ranked No. 1 in Strokes Gained: Approach, gaining almost 10 shots on the field.

So what's next? Kitayama was already in the field for this coming week's regular-season-ending Wyndham Championship, with his brother remaining as his caddie. And then he'll be in the first playoff event, the FedEx St. Jude Championship. But currently sitting at 53rd in points, Kitayama still has lots to play for. If he gets into the top 50 to qualify for the second playoff event -- the BMW Championship -- that automatically gets him into all the 2026 Signature Events. And that's basically a license to print money, FedExCup points and OWGR points.

Kitayama said his first goal has been met. That was getting into the top 70 to qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs.

"Yeah, I mean, that's always been the goal," he said. "I've been pretty far out this entire year, and with only two events left, I just keep looking to improve and try and make my way in. Lucky I was able to get the win and that jumped me up huge."

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Sam Stevens
It's pretty remarkable that after all Kitayama did, he still won by only one shot. That's how good Stevens played and how good of a player he is becoming. He shot a closing nine of 31 to really put the pressure on Kitayama. Out of the golf pipeline of Oklahoma State, this was Stevens' second runner-up of the season and ninth top-25. He zoomed up the standings to 27th -- meaning that if the TOUR Championship started today, he'd be in it. Stevens somewhat surprisingly is not ranked in the top-35 of any strokes-gained metric this season; he's just a very balanced golfer.

Jake Knapp
Knapp finished in a four-way tie for third to register his fourth top-10 and ninth top-25 of the season. He moved up to 47th in points -- inside that very important top-50 threshold.

Matt Wallace
The Englishman made a huge jump from 123rd in points to 92nd after sharing third place, but he still has a long way to go to get into the top 70 after next week. This was Wallace's first top-10 of the year, though he also had top-25s in two majors – the PGA Championship and U.S. Open.

David Lipsky
Lipsky came so close to winning the John Deere a few weeks back, missing a playoff by one shot. At the 3M, he tied for third, moving to 88th in the standings. His late-season charge will probably need one more top-5 at the Wyndham.

Pierceson Coody
Part of the famed Coody golf family, he tied for third to notch his first top-10 in 11 starts. Coody is just 137th in points, so he would have to win the Wyndham to reach the postseason.
  
William Mouw
Two weeks after winning the ISCO Championship, Mouw kept his foot on the pedal with a tie for seventh. He's 80th in points, still fighting for a playoff spot.

Chris Gotterup
Gotterup continued his late-season brilliance with a tie for seventh, further enhancing his Ryder Cup chances. He did better than other golfers in the field with realistic chances to be on the team, namely Sam Burns (T61) and Wyndham Clark (T12).

Wyndham Clark
Following a second straight good week -- Clark tied for fourth at the Open Championship -- he pulled out of the Wyndham. And that came after he was a late entry on Friday. Clark did move into the top 50 of the standings at No. 48, but he will need to deliver at the FedEx St. Jude to make sure he stays there -- and to bolster his fleeting Ryder Cup chances.

Chris Kirk
Kirk continued his late-season renaissance with a tie for 14th to move up to 73rd in points.

Gary Woodland
Woodland tied for 20th to move to 75th in points, and a lot of people will be rooting for him at the Wyndham.

Emiliano Grillo
Grillo tied for 20th to move from 71st in points to 66th, just about securing his entry into the playoffs.

Tom Kim
Right now, Kim is not in the playoffs. In what has been a terrible season, he tied for 28th -- actually one of his best showings of the season -- but still sits 89th in points.

Rickie Fowler
Fowler has been playing well since late May. The 3M wasn't great, but his tie for 28th moved him up a few spots to 61st in points -- not only ensuring Fowler a spot in the playoffs but giving himself a decent chance to move into the top-50 with more good results.

Max Homa
Homa could manage only a tie for 39th and, sitting 106th in points, probably needs a top-2 finish at the Wyndham to get into the playoffs.

Adam Scott
Scott tied for 53rd, leaving him 85th in points.

Sam Burns
Burns sits 22nd in points, so he's pretty close to securing a spot in the TOUR Championship – not quite there, but a decent chance. Where his tie for 61st hurt him most was in the Ryder Cup race, finishing well behind both Gotterup and Clark. The three of them are probably among the six or seven golfers vying for maybe the final two spots on Keegan Bradley's 12-man team.

MISSED CUTS

Haotong Li, Byeong Hun An, Keith Mitchell, Davis Thompson Eric Cole, Sahith Theegala, Sungjae Im, Tom Hoge, Tony Finau. Li got into the field by virtue of his top-10 at the Open Championship, but he missed the cut by one shot. … The MCs left An (69th in points), Mitchell (72nd), Thompson (78th) and Cole 79th) in dicey positions heading into the Wyndham. … Im slipped to 30th in points, Hoge to 38th and Finau to 60th.

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