`The Project' from Chico wins big

Kitayama's hard work pays off to the tune of $3.6 million at Arnold Palmer Invitational

Sometimes in golf it's about the path less traveled. The big boys of professional golf teed it up in Orlando last weekend at the PGA Tour's Arnold Palmer Invitational at the Bay Hill Golf Club.

The API is one of this season's “designated events” with a $20 million purse and a $3.6 million winner's check. Of course, this amount of money was hard to believe in the days of Arnold Palmer, a working class kid from western Pennsylvania who went to Wake Forest, entered the Coast Guard, then won the U.S. Amateur, and finally turned professional at age 25. He won his first tournament just prior to his 26th birthday at the Canadian Open. It didn't come easy and early for Arnold Palmer although once he got it going, he was pretty hard to stop.

It was at the 2008 Chico Junior Amateur that Kurt Kitayama had a top-five finish. I know because my son Nick finished in third place, one stroke out of a playoff that was won by Ty Cazet of Rincon Valley Christian High School. One year later Kurt was the Junior Golf Association of Northern California (JGANC) golfer of the year. Yet his real accomplishments were on the high school basketball court. In the finals of the 2011 North Section playoffs, Kurt scored 31 points and had six assists in a winning effort for Chico

High School. Of course, being a 5-foot-6 high school guard won't necessarily get you to the next level, and Kiyayama took a partial scholarship to play on the golf team at UNLV. As a freshman he was perhaps the least talented member of the UNLV squad where his fellow teammates called him “The Project.”

Kitayama spent four years at UNLV and was a three-time All-American. That's a threetime Academic All-American. He did have a solid junior and senior year, attributable to hard work, and was the medalist at the Jack Rabbit Invitational in 2014 and 2015. At the time of his graduation he was the 47th-ranked amateur in the World Rankings. Upon graduation Kurt made perhaps a questionable decision and decided to turn professional. He played on the Golden State Tour and tried to Monday qualify onto the Web.com Tour. However, he didn't meet with much success. By the end of 2017, Kitayama was ranked No. 1,174 in the World Golf Rankings.

Kurt did what the likes of Curtis Strange and Payne Stewart did decades ago and headed for Asia. He won a tourney in 2018 in Malaysia on the Asian Developmental Tour. That got him a boost of confidence and a promotion to the Asian Tour where he had a trio of topfour finishes. Kitayama decided to try to qualify onto the European Tour in November of 2018 and amazingly came in third place. He played early and often on the European

Kurt Kitayama kind of reminds me of Max Homa, another world class golfer with a Northern California connection who had to wait around until he got to the age of 30 to achieve great success.

Tour where some of the events are nothing short of far-flung. He hit pay dirt early on, winning the Mauritius Open and then two months later prevailing in the Oman Open. As an aside, he received cash for his first three relatively remote wins. How exactly does one get through customs with bags of rials and rupees? Later in 2019, Kitayama lost in a five-way playoff to Tyrell Hattton at the big-money European Tour's Turkish Airlines Open.

Brimming with confidence, Kurt returned to America, and qualified onto the Korn Ferry Tour. His 2020 season was just good enough as he finished in 23rd place at the end of the season and received his PGA Tour card for 2021. Although Kitayama didn't have any big wins as a rookie, he did come in third at the Honda Classic, was second at the Mexico Open, losing to John Rahm, came in second at the Scottish Open just behind Xander Schauffele, and this past October was a runner-up to Rory McIlroy at the CJ Cup in South Carolina. Kitayama finished 41st in the Fed Ex Cup playoffs and was consistently getting better to the point that those days of being known as “The Project” were long gone. He turned 30 years old this January.

While the Arnold Palmer Invitational is a designated event for the best 30 golfers on the PGA Tour, it is open to exempt golfers, and as No. 41 in last year's rankings, there was definitely room for Kitayama at the Bay Hill Club last week. After 36 holes he found himself tied atop the leader board and after a tough weather day last Saturday, he still remained as the leader of the pack. After 54 holes everyone chasing Kurt was a big name with the top 10, including Viktor Hovland, defending champion Scottie Scheffler, Tyrell Hatton, Rory McIlroy, Harris English, Justin Thomas, Max Homa and Jordan Spieth. That's why the tour went to big-money events and Sunday looked like one of the chasers would pocket the $3.6 million for winning.

Sunday dawned. Kitayama had two early birdies and led by two. And then it happened … for the second day in a row. Kurt hit a massive snaphook off the ninth tee, it went out of bounds, he made a triple-bogey seven, and the lead was gone. If Johnny Miller were still announcing, he would be saying the moment was too big for Kitayama and he was choking. Yet Kurt was able to right the ship and made seven tough pars in a row. On the watery par-3 17th hole, he hit his tee shot to 14 feet, made the birdie putt, and regained the lead. His tee shot on the 18th found the left rough, he gouged the ball out to 45 feet, and had to somehow two-putt to win for the first time on the PGA Tour … in Arnie's Tournament … in a big-money event with big names. Kitayama almost jarred the 45-footer, tapped in from one inch, and was the winner.

A tip of the golfing cap must be given to Kitayama's relatively new caddie, Tim Tucker. It was just their third tournament together, but Tucker has felt the flames of hig-level competitive professional golf. He was on the bag for the uberunique Bryson DeChambeau when he won the 2020 U.S. Open and the 2021 API. Tucker was fed up with the rigors of the PGA Tour, and for that matter, DeChambeau. Tim went to Bandon Dunes to caddie and run a transportation service. He ran into Kitayama's older brother, Daniel, a Bandon Dunes caddie, who connected Tucker with Kurt. Kitayama gave credit to Tucker for the confidence he showed in him following the triple bogey during the long walk from the ninth green to the 10th tee.

While the purpose of the designated bigmoney events on tour are meant to have final round shootouts with the likes of Rory and Xander and Jordan and Jon and JT, there is also room for a good Cinderella story. During the course of the final nine holes, the Arnold Palmer Invitational seemed to feel like a major championship with par saves being the order of the day. Kurt Kitayama kind of reminds me of Max Homa, another world class golfer with a Northern California connection who had to wait around until he got to the age of 30 to achieve great success.

Good for Chico's Kurt Kitayama. The hard work finally paid off for “The Project.”