Kurt Kitayama achieves rare PGA Tour feat in 3M Open victory, unmatched across the past 40 years

Kurt Kitayama’s strong run of form has continued, and after finishing 5th and T14 in his last two starts, the 32-year-old is moving closer to his best golf.

Kitayama will be pleased to be a winner again, but the manner of his victory might mean even more.

Golf analyst Justin Ray highlighted on X that Kitayama accomplished something during the tournament that hadn’t been seen on TOUR for decades.

Ray noted that Kitayama made an impressive 20 birdies over the weekend, the most by any player across two days in over four decades.

Even without some of golf’s biggest names like Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, the field was still deep with talent.

Beyond that, if those star names had played, his 20 birdies across two days would’ve likely put him beyond reach anyway. That kind of scoring can take down any leaderboard.

Looking at Kurt Kitayama’s numbers across his PGA Tour career

Kitayama has always shown plenty of ability – anyone who wins an event like the Arnold Palmer Invitational deserves respect – but he’s never quite reached the heights many expected when he first broke through.

Between this win and his previous victory at Bay Hill, Kitayama now has two PGA Tour titles. For someone with his skill set, some would say that total should have been higher by now.

Even so, he’s put together a solid career. Ten top-five finishes and another 13 top tens show he’s more than held his own on tour. And with over $13 million in career earnings so far, it’s clear he hasn’t done too badly for himself along the way.