Kurt Kitayama will admit it — he was thinking 59. But can you blame him? At the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minn., no U.S. Open-like 70 is going to get the job done.
Jhonattan Vegas won at 17 under last year. The year before that, Lee Hodges won at 24 under. In the six years of the tournament’s existence, the highest winning score has been 15 under.
So you can understand why Kitayama, who had an early tee time Saturday, wasn’t afraid of that sacred number.
But he’d have to settle for 60.
Kitayama shot the round of the day on Saturday, finishing at 11 under and vaulting up the leaderboard to get into contention come Sunday. At 17 under overall, he’s just one back of 54-hole leaders Akshay Bhatia and Thorbjorn Olesen.
Three others — Takumi Kanaya, Sam Stevens and Jake Knapp — are at 17 under and 13 players total are within four shots of the leaders at 18 under.
Kitayama’s 60 wasn’t just a career-best on Tour, but a personal-best. He shot a seven-under 28 on the front, which included five straight birdies on Nos. 3-7. Fifty-nine was in reach when he birdied 15 and 16 — needing to play the final two in one under, with 18 being a par-5 — but he couldn’t get up and down from the sand on the par-3 17th and made bogey. He nearly holed his approach on 18 for eagle but had to settle for a kick-in birdie.
“Yesterday’s round felt like I didn’t have any control,” said Kitayama, whose 60 tied the course record Adam Svensson set on Thursday. “I hit some balls after, talked to my coach, Chris Como, and kind of worked through some things on the range. Felt like I found something that I could go with. And warming up today, felt pretty good and it kind of showed on the course. Yeah, was happy I was able to find that.”
Kitayama said working with Como has improved his driving (he ranks 12th in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee) but also says he’s a better ball-striker and more complete player than he was two years ago, when he picked up his only PGA Tour victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The hottest player in golf not named Scottie Scheffler, Chris Gotterup, headlines a group of players at 16 under. Gotterup won the Genesis Scottish Open two weeks ago and finished solo third at the Open Championship last week. He’s now one stellar round away from capping off an epic three-week stretch.
“This whole week everyone’s been shooting low, so you’re going to have to put a couple birdies together,” Gotterup said. “I’m just ready for one more day — and then a week off.”
Saturday was a shootout. Sunday’s going to be one, too.
