Kurt Kitayama will admit it — he was pondering 59. However are you able to blame him? On the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minn., no U.S. Open-like 70 goes to get the job performed.
Jhonattan Vegas received at 17 below final yr. The yr earlier than that Lee Hodges received at 24 below. Within the six years of the event’s existence, the highest successful rating has been 15 below.
So you may perceive why Kitayama, who had an early tee time Saturday, wasn’t afraid of that sacred quantity.
However he’d need to accept 60.
Kitayama shot the spherical of the day on Saturday, ending 11 below and vaulting up the leaderboard to get into rivalry come Sunday. At 17 below general, he’s only one again of 54-hole leaders Akshay Bhatia and Thorbjorn Olesen.
Three others — Takumi Kanaya, Sam Stevens and Jake Knapp — are at 17 below and 13 gamers whole are inside 4 pictures of the leaders at 18 below.
Kitayama’s 60 wasn’t only a career-best on Tour, however a personal-best. He shot a seven-under 28 on the entrance which included 5 straight birdies on Nos. 3-7. Fifty-nine was in attain when he birdied 15 and 16 — needing to play the ultimate two in a single below, with 18 being a par-5 — however he couldn’t stand up and down from the sand on the par-3 seventeenth and made bogey. He almost holed his method on 18 for eagle however needed to accept a kick-in birdie.
“Yesterday’s spherical felt like I didn’t have any management,” mentioned Kitayama, whose 60 tied the course file Adam Svensson set on Thursday. “I hit some balls after, talked to my coach, Chris Como, and type of labored by way of some issues on the vary. Felt like I discovered one thing that I may go along with. And warming up as we speak, felt fairly good and it type of confirmed on the course. Yeah, was comfortable I used to be capable of finding that.”
Kitayama mentioned working with Como has improved his driving (he ranks twelfth in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee) but in addition says he’s a greater ball-striker and extra full participant than he was two years in the past, when he picked up his solely PGA Tour victory on the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The most popular participant in golf not named Scottie Scheffler, Chris Gotterup, headlines a bunch of gamers at 16 below. Gotterup received the Genesis Scottish Open two weeks in the past and completed solo third on the Open Championship final week. He’s now one stellar spherical away from capping off an epic three-week stretch.
“This entire week everybody’s been taking pictures low, so that you’re going to need to put a pair birdies collectively,” Gotterup mentioned. “I’m simply prepared for yet one more day — after which every week off.”
Saturday was a shootout. Sunday’s going to be one, too.
