More consistent Kurt Kitayama returns to Bay Hill to defend

ORLANDO, Fla. – Kurt Kitayama returns to Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club & Lodge as a different player than the one who won last year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. The Kitayama who won last year at Bay Hill – holding off a leaderboard that featured the likes of Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth – was much more unpredictable.

When he was on, he was capable of hanging with the best players in the world. But when he was off, he was off.

Not anymore. A more consistent Kitayama has emerged after he began working with swing instructor Chris Como last summer. Kitayama arrives at Bay Hill having made 10 consecutive cuts, including all five he’s played in 2024.

That’s much different than the player who arrived at Bay Hill last year. In 32 starts as a TOUR member before last year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, Kitayama made barely half of his cuts (17). But he also had four top-10 finishes, and he finished all four of those events in the top three. He challenged the likes of Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm in those events, as well, a testament to a self-belief that didn’t cower in the presence of some of golf’s best players.

Como said Kitayama’s combination of physical and mental attributes gives him the opportunity to be one of the best players in the world.

“He has a ton of speed, which is obviously helpful. He has that knack to get super-hot with his irons and hit balls really close (to the hole),” Como said. “The fact that he has been somewhat inconsistent off the tee historically, but still has the ability to hang in a round, shows he has no give-up in him from a mental and emotional perspective. He has the right raw ingredients physically with a really mature and well-developed mental game.”

It was the occasional foul ball that hurt Kitayama before. He hit two balls out-of-bounds in his win here last year, making a 7 in both the third and final rounds. One was a blocked tee shot on the par-5 fourth hole on Saturday. Then came a big miss left into Bay Hill’s driving range on the ninth hole of the final round. The triple-bogey didn’t derail him, however.

“(If) you’re in an uncomfortable situation, and whether it’s on the golf course or off, you just got to deal with it,” Kitayama said that Sunday. He knows about being outside his comfort zone, having played an estimated 10 tours around the world before arriving on the PGA TOUR in 2021.

Even after his win at Bay Hill, Kitayama missed the cut in seven of the next 10 individual events he played. But sprinkled in there was a T4 finish at the PGA Championship and a quarterfinal appearance at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. He hasn’t missed a cut since the Travelers Championship in June, however, and his streak of 10 straight cuts made is the 12th-longest active streak on TOUR.

“That was the biggest goal changing coaches, was to not have such an up-and-down year,” Kitayama said. Como said he aimed to “help (Kurt) drive it better, … but do it in a way that doesn’t undermine his iron play.”

Thus far in 2024, the plan seems to be working.

Kitayama has jumped nearly 100 spots in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee since last year. He was 126th (-0.12) in that metric in 2023 despite ranking 13th in clubhead speed (121.9 mph). This year, he’s 39th in SG: Off-the-Tee (+0.38) and 20th in SG: Approach-the-Green.

“I think when my swing got off, I wasn't really sure what I was doing, what I could do to get it back into form. When it was on, it was on, and I didn't have to really think about it,” Kitayama said. “Now it seems like when it gets off it's not as far off, and I'm starting to understand my swing a little more.”