Blaine, Minn.
He has 192 yards in the hole. He has water before him. There is green water left. He runs from two. In pairing ahead, Jake KNAPP and Sam Stevens are not leaving.
Kitayama attracts 7-ifa, trucks, shaking… balgame.
Kitayama fired a laser on water that never left the flag. She slammed in front of the pin, rolled and landed just two meters away. Birdie. Leader with three strokes.
“That was a very big shot,” Kitayama said. “Fairway bunker from 190 and to hit him how I hit it, was incredible.”
This Bunker blow at Fairway turned out to be one of the second victory of the PGA Tour career, which he won on Sunday after shooting a six under 65 to win 3M Open.
In the 23 -year -old, he ended up a clear blow to Stevens, which closed with a 66 Sunday.
Kitayama’s second PGA Tour victory comes two years after his first, when he won Arnold Palmer Invitational in Bay Hill. It also goes a long way to extend its season. It dances from 110 to 53 in the FedEx Cup ranking with only the next week’s Wyndham championship remaining in the regular season. 70 best in next week’s championship of FedEx Cup St. Jude, Play off space, with the best 50 advancing in the BMW and Top 30 championship in the Tour Championship, where Kitayama has not played yet.
He has found success in Minnesota, however. It was connected to the 6th here last year and connected the course record (11th Nine 60) on Saturday. Discard his Sunday 65, and the 20 kitayama birds made over the weekend are mostly by a PGA Tour winner in the last two decades.
On Sunday, with low results all week, it was supposed to be a fire exchange, but some of the contenders faded early.
In the latest pairing, the two leaders with 54 holes, Akshay Bhatia and Thorbjorn Olesen fought. Bhatia Bogey three of his first four and shot 75. Olesen made only two birds all day and shot 73.
Kitayama, 32, was one of the four players who started the day of the lead, but he slowly withdrew, holding the momentum going after the record Saturday. He bird first three and turned to six under 29 years old.
“I just think I was under control of my handcuffs … My wedges put me in those positions,” Kitayama said. “I hit them hard. A trusted type early and used the shortest holes with wedges. You know, you don’t expect to go out so you shoot 11 under, and come out as this was special.”
His direction was two when he arrived at Dogleg par-4 14 and found the road bunker, but Zog impossible from there pushed his advantage to three shots with four to play.
It turns out that he needed extra pillow.
Leading from two to par-3 17, Kitayama played well to the right of Pin adjacent to the water, but with three strokes for Bogey by 65 meters. He reached the 18th Tee leading Stevens from one.
Par-5 18 is a complex final test, especially with the sudden wind of gusting (up to 25 mph) left to the right, directly towards the water that enters the game outside. While the eagle is possible, so is disaster. Joel Dahmen hit two in the water and made an 8 earlier during the day. Chris Gotterup struck in the water at 18 in three of its four rounds. KNAPP, hoping for an eagle view, also hit the drink.
Kitayama caught 3-Dru and washed a safe in the middle. Stevens made 5 to get the club’s lead in 22 Under, which means Kitayama needed to win. From 219 yards outside, he pulled 5-and-and-off and hit him on the right of the green bunker, though he had a difficult stay with the ball in a downslope.
“When I got up there with a lie, I realized if I could just remove it, I knew it would not rotate, and having the smell in it I could be quite aggressive,” he said. “So I kept it a little right. I knew if I just got into green, it would come out.”
It spread to 17 meters and needed two blows to win. The second was a simple tap.
