Golf
Kurt Kitayama Went From 63rd on the Arnold Palmer Invitational Odds Board to the OWGR’s Top 20 in a Single Weekend
Writing professionally since 2015, Jack Dougherty spent six years as a sportswriter with publications such as GoPSUSports.com, the Centre Daily Times, and the Associated Press before joining Sportscasting in 2020. He covers the NBA, the NFL, and the world of golf extensively and has added expertise on any team located in or around his hometown of Philadelphia. Yes, that includes the Philadelphia Eagles, the Philadelphia 76ers, and Philadelphia Phillies. When Jack isn't writing about sports, he's watching them or playing them as he regularly heads to the gym for some pickup basketball or the golf course to hit the links. He's also an avid participant in the sports betting scene who worked at a casino sportsbook for a year and learned the ins and outs of the industry before bringing his expertise to Sportscasting with one excellent gambling recommendation after another.
Get to know Jack Dougherty betterPublished06 Mar 2023
It hasn’t been a friendly year for longshots on the PGA Tour, especially in the more popular events. In the first three elevated events of the season, the winners were World No. 1 Jon Rahm, World No. 2 Scottie Scheffler, and Rahm again.
It looked as if we were heading toward another short-priced winner at the Arnold Palmer Invitational with Scheffler and Rory McIlroy battling for the lead down the stretch, but it was 220-1 longshot Kurt Kitayama who emerged from the pack to secure his first PGA Tour victory. By doing so, Kitayama vaulted from No. 46 in the Official World Golf Ranking to the top 20 for the first time in his career.
Kurt Kitayama was a 220-1 longshot to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational
Longshots win on the PGA Tour all the time, but they normally pop up at smaller tournaments with weaker fields. That wasn’t the case at the 2023 Arnold Palmer Invitational, which featured a $20 million purse and a field with 27 of the top 30 players in the OWGR.
As for the pre-tournament odds, Rahm (+700), McIlroy (+950), and Scheffler (+1100) were in a tier of their own at the top. The second tier was made up of Max Homa (+1900), Collin Morikawa (+2100), Justin Thomas (+2300), Will Zalatoris (+2400), and Xander Schauffele (+2400).
Then there was Kurt Kitayama all the way down the odds board at 220-1. There were 62 players ahead of him on the board in the 120-person field, so it’s fair to say sportsbooks didn’t give him much of a chance to win. And why would they?
Kitayama, who’s on just his second full season on the PGA Tour, was ranked No. 46 in the OWGR and didn’t have a win to his name yet. What are the odds of him besting a major-level field for his first PGA Tour victory? Well, 220-1, I suppose.
But Kitayama never flinched.
Kurt Kitayama vaulted inside the top 20 in the OWGR after winning the API
Kitayama wasn’t supposed to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational at 220-1 odds, but that’s the beauty of golf. The talent is so deep on the PGA Tour that anyone can win on any given week if they bring their A-game. That’s exactly what Kitayama brought to Bay Hill last weekend, and he held off some of the best players in the world on Sunday afternoon to notch his first career PGA Tour victory.
With the win, Kitayama vaulted from No. 46 in the OWGR to No. 19. The California native can now call himself a top-20 golfer in the world for the first time in his life, and he’s ranked higher than major winners Keegan Bradley, Shane Lowry, Hideki Matsuyama, and Adam Scott, among others.
Kitayama overcame enormous odds just to make it to the PGA Tour, and now he’s done the same to crack the top 20 in the OWGR.
