Kurt Kitayama began the weekend at the 2025 3M Open eight shots back of the leader, having made the cut by just one stroke after the first two rounds. The former UNLV standout then produced one of the best weekend performances of the 2025 season to secure his second career win on the PGA Tour. Kitayama charged into a tie for third on Saturday with an 11-under 60, matching the course record set Thursday by Adam Svensson. Then he backed it up with a final-round 64 to pull away from the field in Minnesota.
With the win, Kitayama jumps from 110th to 53rd in the FedEx Cup standings, locking up a spot in the first playoff event at the St. Jude Classic and giving himself a great chance at pushing into the top 50, which qualify for the BMW Championship and secure a spot in all eight signature events next season.
Kitayama immediately picked up where he left off after his sensational Saturday round, scoring birdie on his first three holes of the day, including a bit of theft on the 3rd when he popped up a chip from the short-side rough and had it drop in the hole.
He added two more birdies on Nos. 5 and 6, quickly taking a three-shot lead over the field that he never gave back. For the second consecutive day, Kitayama broke 30 on the front nine, this time with a 6-under 30, and while he would finally drop a shot on the 11th, that was his lone blemish of the day.
It was another sensational ball-striking round from Kitayama, who gained nearly 10 strokes on the field with his approach play as he hit an outrageous six different approach shots to inside 6 feet on his round. That removed any stress he might feel on the greens, and any time someone got close to him on the leaderboard, he had a swift response.
Perhaps his best shot of the day came on the par-4 14th when he drove it in the fairway bunker off the tee while holding a two-shot lead and promptly threw another dart at the flag to set up his eighth birdie of the day and move him to 24 under.
Kitayama finally had to deal with some of that stress with the putter on the difficult par-3 17th, as he dropped his second shot of the day with a three-putt bogey from 65 feet to fall back to 23 under.
Luckily for Kitayama, his two closest competitors — playing in front of him — were making a mess of the par-5 18th. Sam Stevens, who suddenly found himself just one back of the lead, drove it in the rough and then compounded his issues by laying up into the rough again. Jake Knapp, two back of Kitayama at the time, hit an iron from the fairway that looked dead at the flagstick … until it came up a yard short of the green and splashed down in the pond.
Stevens found the rough for the third time with his approach, and while he gave it a run at the hole, he settled for par, giving Kitayama a chance to breathe and close out a win with a par of his own. He made it interesting, firing his second into the right greenside bunker and leaving himself a bunker shot off a downslope towards the water for his third, but he got that out solidly with 17 feet and two putts necessary to close out the win.
Kitayama is back in the winner’s circle for the first time in two years, and the victory turns around what had been a difficult year on the PGA Tour. He had just two top 10s coming into this week, but with one sensational weekend, the 32-year-old turned a season of struggle into one with much more promise. Grade: A+
Here are the rest of the notables on the leaderboard at the 2025 3M Open.
2. Sam Stevens (-22): Stevens closed out his final round with a flurry, making five birdies on the back nine, but he’ll be kicking himself over walking off the 18th with a par. A birdie there would have tied him with Kitayama and applied some real stress for him coming home. Even with a one-shot lead, Kitayama made it an adventure down the stretch. Still, Stevens continued a terrific season with his ninth top 25 finish and third top 10, moving inside the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings (27th) to create an inside track to the Tour Championship. Grade: A-
T3. Jake Knapp (-21): Knapp continues to knock on the door for a second PGA Tour win, but his bogey on the 18th will sting him for a bit. Like Stevens, there are some long-term silver linings to review as he’s now inside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings (47th) with the T3 finish. If he can stay there over the next two weeks, he’ll get to the BMW Championship and lock up a spot in all eight signature events next season, which is a big deal for any young player on Tour. Grade: B+
T10. Chris Gotterup (-18): Perhaps he ran out of gas after three straight weeks of playing in contention, but Gotterup didn’t have his A-game on Sunday, as he was only able to produce a 2-under 69. Still, it’s a third straight top 10 finish on Tour moves him to 20th in the FedEx Cup, giving him a great chance at making it to East Lake at the end of August. He’s making a late run at the right time to not only get himself into all the big events next year but give United States Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley plenty to think about as captains picks loom in a couple weeks. Grade: B
