Eight shots back on Friday. Course record Saturday. Birdie blitz Sunday. Hello, Kurt Kitayama. If you blinked this weekend, you might’ve missed Kitayama morphing into a laser-guided birdie machine at the 2025 3M Open. Coming into the weekend barely above the cut line, he turned TPC Twin Cities into his personal highlight reel—and casually walked off with his second PGA Tour win and $1,512,000, his second biggest payday of his career.
His weekend was truly remarkable, especially considering his season to date had been pedestrian at best. His booger sugar play Saturday and Sunday may have just saved his season with one of the most ridiculous weekends we’ve seen all year.
Kitayama barely sneaked into the weekend, making the cut by one at 6-under. (The course was playing easy, but still.) Through Friday, most guys would have been cool with finishing Top 25 in the tourney and cashing a six-figure check. But not Kurt. Not this week. Not this tourney. Kurt decided to torch the course instead.
He fired a career-low, course-tying 60 (-11). That’s not a typo. That’s just 18 holes of full-send golf, punctuated by six approaches inside six feet—aka, “tap-ins for tour pros.”
Sunday? Just a tidy little 65, featuring birdies on five of the first seven holes. At that point, the field knew. Unless you were going to shoot 30 on the back nine, there was no catching the man from Chico.
While he’s struggled this year with putting (ranked 155th in SG: Putting), his tee-to-green game is elite. Like, “PGA Tour Top 15 in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee” elite.
So when he finally synced his approach shots with a few putts actually dropping, the dam burst. One CBS analyst called it “surgical.” We call it “Tiger on a sugar rush.”
This win didn’t just earn Kitayama a trophy and a giant check—it vaulted him into the FedExCup Playoffs, where he’ll now head to Memphis with momentum. He is also guaranteed his tour card through 2027 and an invite to Augusta next April. Congrats to Kurt and his team. Heaters have proven once again to be nearly impossible to beat.
Winners & Losers from Sunday at the 3M:
- Winners: Matt Wallace and David Lipsky. The two ex DP World Tour stars fired final round best 7-unders, both jumping 13 spots on the leaderboard, landing in T-3 position.
- Loser: Thorbjørn Olesen. At one point in the tournament, after hitting a dart for a hole-in-one, he was leading. Sunday, his game turned to crap and he shot himself out of contention with a final round 2-over, 73.
- Loser’ish: Amateur Michael La Sasso. The young gun dropped 28 spots on the board Sunday after posting a final round 2-over. Still, he finished up T-44, which is pretty good considering he’s an amateur and starting up his final year at Ole Miss this fall.
- Winner: Kevin Roy. He jumped 38 spots on Sunday, the best in the field to finish up T-28. His tidy 64 on Sunday earned him much-needed FedEx Cup points.
- Winner: Kevin Kisner. The NBC broadcaster and TGL star made only his 2nd cut of the year in MN, finishing T-28. His 6-under 65 was easily his most impactful round of the year. Now, back to your day job!
3M Open Payouts:
WIN. Kurt Kitayama, $1.512 million
2. Sam Stevens, $915,600
T3. Jake Knapp, $410,025
Matt Wallace, $410,025
Pierceson Coody, $410,025
David Lipsky, $410,025
T7. Takumi Kanaya, $263,900
Alex Noren, $263,900
Williams Mouw, $263,900
T10. Chris Gotterup, $220,500
Noah Goodwin, $220,500
T12. Wyndham Clark, $186,900
Taylor Montgomery, $186,900
T14. Thorbjorn Olesen, $140,700
Chris Kirk, $140,700
Adam Svensson, $140,700
Mac Meissner, $140,700
Taylor Moore, $140,700
Jesper Svensson, $140,700
T20. Gary Woodland, $95,508
Brendan Valdes, $95,508
Christiaan Bezuidenhout, $95,508
Ben Kohles, $95,508
Emiliano Grillo, $95,508
T25. Harry Higgs, $69,020
Akshay Bhatia, $69,020
Thomas Rosenmueller, $69,020
T28. Kevin Roy, $50,590
Kevin Kisner, $50,590
Tom Kim, $50,590
Nate Lashley, $50,590
Nick Hardy, $50,590
Cameron Champ, $50,590
Victor Perez, $50,590
Rickie Fowler, $50,590
Carson Young, $50,590
Seamus Power, $50,590
Chad Ramey, $50,590
T39. Garrick Higgo, $34,860
Greyson Sigg, $34,860
Joel Dahmen, $34,860
Max Homa, $34,860
Austin Eckroat, $34,860
T44. Jhonattan Vegas, $24,696
Zac Blair, $24,696
Patrick Fishburn, $24,696
Joseph Bramlett, $24,696
Troy Merritt, $24,696
Adam Hadwin, $24,696
Matthieu Pavon, $24,696
Alex Smalley, $24,696
T52. Adam Scott, $20,118
Isaiah Salinda, $20,118
Mackenzie Hughes, $20,118
Camilo Villegas, $20,118
T56. Rico Hoey, $19,320
Brice Garnett, $19,320
David Skinns, $19,320
Vince Whaley, $19,320
T60. Mark Hubbard, $18,396
Matti Schmid, $18,396
Trevor Cone, $18,396
Ben Silverman, $18,396
Luke Clanton, $18,396
Cristobal Del Solar, $18,396
Sam Burns, $18,396
T67. Matt McCarty, $17,472
Taylor Pendrith, $17,472
Sam Ryder, $17,472
Niklas Norgaard, $17,472
T71, Antoine Rozner, $16,968
Henrik Norlander, $16,968
73. Steven Fisk, $16,716
74. David Ford, $16,548
75. Taylor Dickson, $16,380