Kurt Kitayama

Kurt Kitayama
Kurt Kitayama
Personal information
Full name	Kurt Shun Kitayama
Born	January 14, 1993; Chico, California
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Weight	170 lb (77 kg)
Nationality	United States
Career
College	University of Nevada-Las Vegas
Turned professional	2015
Current tour(s)	European Tour
Former tour(s)	Web.com Tour; Asian Tour
Professional wins	3
Highest ranking	66 (January 26, 2020)[1]; (as of June 21, 2020)
Number of wins by tour
European Tour	2
Asian Tour	1
Sunshine Tour	1
Other	1
Best results in major championships;
Masters Tournament	DNP
PGA Championship	T64: 2019
U.S. Open	DNP
The Open Championship	CUT: 2019

Kurt Shun Kitayama (born January 14, 1993) is an American professional golfer who plays on the European Tour. He won the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open in December 2018 and the Oman Open in March 2019.

Amateur career

Kitayama attended the University of Nevada-Las Vegas from 2011 to 2015.[2]

Professional career

Kitayama turned professional in 2015. He played mostly on the Web.com Tour in 2016 and 2017 with little success and was ranked 1174 in the world at the end of 2017.

In 2018, Kitayama played mostly on the Asian Tour. He played a single Asian Development Tour event, the PGM Darulaman Championship in Malaysia, which he won. He had some good finishes on the Asian Tour, including tied for 4th in the New Zealand Open, joint runner-up in the Royal Cup and joint 4th in the Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup Golf, an event co-sanctioned with the Japan Golf Tour.

In November 2018, he finished tied for 3rd place in the European Tour Q-School to earn a place on the 2019 European Tour. In just the second event of the season, the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, played in late 2018, he won by two strokes.[3] The event was co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Tour and the Asian Tour. The win lifted him into the top 200 of the world rankings. In March 2019, he became the fastest player to two wins in European Tour history when he won the Oman Open in only his 11th career appearance. [4]

Amateur wins

2014 Jackrabbit Invitational
2015 Jackrabbit Invitational

Professional wins (3)

European Tour wins (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runners-up
1	Dec 2, 2018 (2019 season)	AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open¹	−20 (65-65-70-68=268)	2 strokes	S. Chikkarangappa, Matthieu Pavon
2	Mar 2, 2019	Oman Open	−7 (66-74-71-70=281)	1 stroke	Jorge Campillo, Maximilian Kieffer, Clément Sordet, Fabrizio Zanotti

¹Co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the Sunshine Tour

European Tour playoff record (0–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponents	Result
1	2019	Turkish Airlines Open	Tyrrell Hatton, Benjamin Hébert, Victor Perez, Matthias Schwab, Erik van Rooyen	Hatton won with par on fourth extra hole Kitayama eliminated by birdie on third hole Hébert, Perez and van Rooyen eliminated by birdie on first hole

Asian Tour wins (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runners-up
1	Dec 2, 2018	AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open¹	−20 (65-65-70-68=268)	2 strokes	S. Chikkarangappa, Matthieu Pavon

¹Co-sanctioned by the European Tour and the Sunshine Tour

Asian Development Tour wins (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	Jan 27, 2018	PGM Darulaman Championship	−21 (63-70-64-70=267)	2 strokes	John Catlin

Results in major championships

Tournament	2019
Masters Tournament
PGA Championship	T64
U.S. Open
The Open Championship	CUT

Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

Results in World Golf Championships

Tournament	2019	2020
Championship		T53
Match Play		NT¹
Invitational
Champions	T28

¹Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic