TPC Twin Cities offered players plenty of opportunities to go low all week, and on Sunday, Kurt Kitayama ($8,700; 142.5 FPTS) took advantage of those chances to turn in a scorecard of 65, good enough to vault him from third to first to claim his second PGA TOUR career win.
After making the cut by just one stroke, Kitayama caught fire on the weekend and climbed into contention with a -11 on Saturday. He carried that momentum into Sunday as well, with five birdies in his first six holes. He added one more birdie on the front nine and then made two birdies and a bogey on the back nine to finish at -6 for the day and -23 for the tournament.
While he led for most of the day, there was some drama at the end after he bogeyed No. 17 after a brutal lip-out. He was just one stroke ahead going to No. 18, but he bounced back with a par, which was just enough to hold on for the victory.
Here’s what Kitayama said about Saturday’s career-low round:
The victory moves Kitayama from No. 110 up to No. 53 in the FedExCup standings with one week to go before the playoffs. The top 70 in the FedExCup standings will make the first tournament of the playoffs at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in two weeks. Emiliano Grillo ($8,400; 105 FPTS) was the only other player to go from outside the top 70 to inside the top 70 with his performance this week.
Going into next week’s Wyndham Championship, which is the final regular-season tournament, Matthias Schmid will start on the bubble at No. 70 with Nicolai Hojgaard, Keith Mitchell and Chris Kirk all just outside the top 70.
Behind Kitayama this week, Sam Stevens ($7,500; 135.5 FPTS) finished solo second, two shots behind Kitayama at -22, while Jake Knapp ($8,900; 126.5 FPTS) finished tied with Matt Wallace ($7,600; 130.5 FPTS), David Lipsky ($6,800; 129.5 FPTS) and Pierceson Coody ($7,600; 118 FPTS).
In the PGA TOUR $800K SUMMER SAND TRAP [$200K TO 1ST], an entry from moeluv4u7 finished in the top spot with a massive 727 fantasy points. Kitayama, Knapp, Coody and Stevens were joined by Chris Gotterup ($10,000; 110.5 FPTS) and Kevin Roy ($7,300; 93.5 FPTS).
Next week, the PGA TOUR will head to Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, for the final regular season tournament of 2025 before the FedExCup Playoffs start in August.
