Kurt Kitayama kept his cool as everyone else on the leaderboard collapsed to win the Oman Open by one stroke yesterday.
The American finished on a seven-under par total of 281, one stroke ahead of Spaniard Jorge Campillo, Frenchman Clement Sordet, German Maximilian Kieffer and Paraguayan Fabrizio Zanotti.
The top five entered the event with a total of just three European tour victories between them – one to Kitayama, who has never won on the US tour, two to Zanotti – and the pressure told in the end.
“It feels pretty good to get the win,” said Kitayama against the backdrop of the Indian Ocean.
“The comeback in the third round definitely helped me going into the final round and to get back in contention. With it being a continuous round kind of helped me cruise into the next one.
“I was watching the leaderboard to know where I was, especially coming down the stretch and when you take the lead you want to know where everyone else is and where in the course they are and see what holes you have coming up and you set up yourself for that.
“This win feels really good because when I won my first title I was playing really well so I felt it was coming, this week, however, I came here after three missed cuts and I did not have good weekends in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. So I had to grind through this, especially after the bunker shot, so it feels great to just grind through all that.”
High winds and sand storms earlier in the tournament led to a marathon final day at the at Al Mouj course as Kitayama played 33 holes on Sunday.
In the three holes he had managed before low light stopped the third round on Saturday,
the American had dropped six shots to fall seven strokes off the lead. Over the last 13 holes of the third round on Sunday, he was seven under heading into the final round three strokes behind leader Zanotti. Kitayama playing in one of the last groups, was still two shots back with three holes left. Kieffer and Sordet had taken the lead after Zanotti, who had four birdies and three double bogeys in the round, dropped two shots on 16. Then Sordet three-putted for a bogey on 18 to make Kieffer the sole leader. The German responded by bogeying 17. Kitayama then made birdies at 16 and 17 to move into the lead at the end.
Meanwhile, last year’s champion, Joost Luiten, took a slice of 12 th place after a third round 68 and final round 72 saw him overcome the disappointment of a five over par 77 in round two. He was joined by Frenchman Victor Dubuisson, Ireland’s Gavin
Moniyhan, Denmark’s Jeff Winther and English duo David Horsey and Jordan Smith, who carded an impressive final round three under par 69.
Leading scores
281-Kurt Kitayama (USA) 66-74-71-70 282-Jorge Campillo (ESP) 69-78-66-69, Maximilian Kiefer (GER) 69-70-71-72, Clement Sordet (FRA)71-71-70-70, Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR) 71-69-68-74
283-Joachim B. Hansen (DEN) 70-69-71-73, Peter Hanson (SWE) 71-73-66-73, Thomas Pieters (BEL) 68-75-69-71
284-Ashley Chester (ENG) 73-74-68-69, Scott Jamieson (SCO) 67-76-66-75, Chris Paisley 71-72-69-72
286-Victor Dubuisson (FRA) 72-70-72-72, David Horsey (ENG) 68-76-70-72, Joost Luiten (NED) 69-77-68-72, Gavin Moynihan 69-73-71-73, Jordan Smith 71-76-70-69, Jeff Winther (DEN) 73-73-69-71 287- Sean Crocker 72-72-70-73, Benjamin Hebert 70-72-71-74, T Jaidee (THA) 71-72-75-69.
Kurt Kitayama poses with the Oman Open trophy in Muscat yesterday.
