At Arnie's Place, Kurt Kitayama proves he is far from a work in progress

At long last, “The Project” is complete. Any doubters now? Just ask Kurt Kitayama to show you the big, shiny silver trophy and champion’s red alpaca sweater he took home on Sunday from the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard.

After a handful of close calls, and appearing in his 50th PGA TOUR start, Kitayama finally is a winner on the PGA TOUR. Finally a winner. After a crazy final round at Bay Hill during which six players owned at least a share of the lead at some point, that sounded awfully nice to Kitayama’s ears.

Kitayama, 30, survived a triple-bogey 7 on his ninth hole, where he blasted one of his two off-the-planet drives on the weekend out of bounds, and had endured a rough first nine after sleeping on a lead for the first time on TOUR. He was slipping fast from contention and tumbling in the wrong direction. But Kitayama faces adversity with a smiling, aw-shucks attitude that serves him well, despite the fact a safe may be falling toward him from the 85th floor. He turned to his caddie, Tim Tucker, on the ninth green, and told him that he’d be fine. Felt fine. For Tucker, an experienced bagman three weeks into this job, that was all he needed to hear.

A little more than two hours later, the 5-foot-7 and muscular Kitayama, a former high school point guard who likes the weights, was trying to squeeze into that red alpaca cardigan.

Kitayama finished birdie-par at Arnie’s Place, the birdie arriving at the difficult par-3 17th where he hit 6-iron onto the putting surface, then did something so few could do down the final holes at Bay Hill: he made the putt. This one was from 14 feet, went in dead-center, and eventually led him to a winning score of 9-under 279. He beat Rory McIlroy (70) and Harris English (70) by a shot. Kitayama shot 72-72 on the weekend.

“It’s pretty amazing,” said Kitayama, who three times had been a runner-up on TOUR, finishing second to some high-caliber winners: Xander Schauffele, Jon Rahm and McIlroy, two of whom have been world No. 1s. “Just to get your first win, I think, is an unbelievable thing. Lucky enough to have it at a special place, so that’s a bonus.

Kitayama became the first player to win in his first visit to Bay Hill since Robert Gamez holed his jolting closing eagle 2 from the 18th fairway to steal victory from Greg Norman in 1990, some 33 years earlier.

“I think he's been playing pretty well,” McIlroy said graciously of Kitayama. It was McIlroy who clipped him last November at THE CJ CUP in South Carolina. McIlroy fell six shots back early on Sunday but tried to mount a Palmer-like charge. “He's sort of persevered and played wherever he could get starts, and all of a sudden he's won one of the biggest events on the PGA TOUR. So good for him.”

McIlroy was undone by late bogeys at Nos. 14 and 15. He birdied the very gettable par-5 16th but could not get his 13-footer for birdie at 18 to fall. With big starts around the corner (including this week’s PLAYERS Championship and the Masters), McIlroy liked how he is trending, but he admittedly is not “there” quite yet.

A trio of finishers at 7-under 281, two shots back, also were scratching their heads after the frenzied finish. Jordan Spieth might have reason to be most disappointed. In a four-hole stretch beginning at the par-3 14th, Spieth – who had made four birdies in five holes to start his day – missed putts of 8 feet or closer on four consecutive holes. He walked away with three bogeys and a par on those holes, his chances irrevocably damaged.

“I wouldn't have hit any of the putts differently,” Spieth said. “I hit my line on every single one of 'em. I misread all four by just barely. I didn't look at a board all day. I had no idea where I stood until I was on 17, then I needed to know, like, what you need to do.”

Spieth’s fellow Texan, Scottie Scheffler, trying to defend his 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational title, was very much a factor, too. With Jon Rahm struggling at Arnie’s Place, Scheffler had a chance to return to No. 1. He needed birdie at 18 and had wedge in his hand to potentially force a playoff, but his approach spun back into thick rough right of the green and he made 5, not 3. Patrick Cantlay (68) was something of a late arriver, boosted by an eagle at the par-5 12th, but had three bogeys on the card; Englishman Tyrrell Hatton, another past champion at Bay Hill, shot 38 over his final nine, settling for 72, two shots short.

Kitayama had torn up the second nine at Bay Hill all week, playing it in 9 under across the first three days, making 11 birdies. Sunday, the birdies weren’t flowing quite so generously. It turns out that his lone one on the back nine, his magical deuce at 17, would be just enough. He strung eight pars around it, and that was good enough to land the victory he had chased so hard.

Tucker, who won 10 times with Bryson DeChambeau, got a call from Kitayama’s brother, Daniel, with whom he has caddied at Bandon Dunes, telling him that Kurt was looking for a new full-time caddie at the WM Phoenix Open a few weeks back. Tucker happened to be on business in Phoenix at the time. When he first saw Kitayama hit golf balls, one thought crossed his mind: This kid is world-class. Kitayama just had to believe that.

“If you clean up the driver a little,” Tucker told him, “these guys (on the PGA TOUR) won’t know what hit them. That’s how I feel.”

It certainly took Kitayama a lot of work, a lot of sweat, to reach this point. He played anywhere he could get a tee time, and he twice lost his privileges on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Kitayama was dubbed “The Project” back in his early days at UNLV roughly a decade ago. He was raw, but he had some talent, too, and he was such a good guy that his teammates wanted him to stick around. So he did. He showed up every day, and his teammates would watch him grind to get better.

Steadily he progressed, first at college, then on some developmental tours, and even on the DP World Tour, where he won twice. He lives in Las Vegas, and he has improved through playing money games with Schauffele and Collin Morikawa. Nothing has been easy. In his post-round news conference, he reeled off 10 tours on which he has competed. (He forgot one; the number was 11). There is no place like the PGA TOUR, and nothing like being a winner on it. He once won a tournament on the Asian Development Tour where he was paid afterward in cash. Good thing that didn't happen on Sunday. His haul was $3.6 million, which nearly doubled his career earnings.

Looking back all those days long ago, when he was nicknamed The Project, he was asked how far he felt from a day such as this one at Bay Hill.

“Really far,” Kitayama said Sunday night, clad in that tight-fitting sweater. The smile refused to leave his face.

“Look at him,” Tucker said just moments after Kitayama’s triumph, as he stood accepting a chorus line of congratulations from some of the world's top players. There was Scheffler, and McIlroy, and English, and a few others in the scoring area. “Look at his smile. He got the monkey off his back. ... Proving to yourself that you can play with the big boys, he did that and some. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with him the rest of the year.

"He’s legit.”

He has the sweater, and trophy, to prove it. The Project is complete.