Posted on March 11 2019
Kurt Kitayama produced a remarkable comeback at Al Mouj Golf to win his second European Tour title of the season at the Oman Open.
The American was a single shot off the lead after 36 holes of the weather delayed event but started his third round with a quadruple bogey eight and dropped further shots on the second and third before darkness ended proceedings on day three.
That left him seven shots off the lead heading into a marathon Sunday of 33 holes but he made six birdies and an eagle to sign for a 71 and keep his hopes alive heading into round four.
He was still two shots back with three holes to play on an attritional final day but birdies on the 16th and 17th saw him sign for a 70 and get to seven under, a shot clear of Spaniard Jorge Campillo, German Maximilian Kieffer, Frenchman Clément Sordet and Paraguay's Fabrizio Zanotti.
Kitayama came through all three stages of the Qualifying School to earn his rookie season and now has two wins in just 11 European Tour starts after his victory at the Afrasia Bank Mauritius Open at Anahita.
He ended 2018 190 in the World Golf Rankings but with this win he rises to 105
What's in the bag?
Kitayama used his new TaylorMade M5 driver to great effect all week as he averaged 328 yards off the tee putting him 1st in that statistic. The new driver has their Speed Injected Twist Face in which drivers have resin injected into the heads to make them legal.
His fairway wood is an older model, a TaylorMade M2 and he also carries the new TaylorMade GAPR Mid utility iron. All of these clubs have Graphite Design shafts.
Shifting to the irons, Kitayama uses a combo set of TaylorMade’s. His 4-iron is a P750 whilst the rest of the bag, from five-iron to pitching wedge, are the bladed P730’s. He used each of them to hit 71% of greens throughout the week.
He carries three wedges, two TaylorMade Milled Grind models with 52 and 56 degrees of loft respectively. He also carries a 60 degree TaylorMade HI-Toe wedge.
Finally his only club in the bag not made by TaylorMade is the putter, which is an Odyssey Toulon Design Atlanta.
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