Kurt Kitayama produced a remarkable final day comeback at Al Mouj Golf to win his second European Tour title of the season at the Oman Open.
The American, who won his first European Tour title at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open at Anahita earlier this season, played a marathon 33 holes on the final day after sandstorms and high winds delayed play in Muscat.
When darkness suspended play on Saturday evening, Kitayama was seven strokes off the pace after a quadruple bogey, and consecutive bogeys on the first three holes of his third round.
Returning on Sunday morning, Kitayama played the next 15 holes seven under par to sign for a round of 71 and a five under par total after the third round.
Starting his final round, he quickly moved up the leaderboard with birdies on the second and third holes as he chased five other players who shared or outright held first place at various points during the afternoon. Jorge Campillo set the clubhouse target of six under par after finishing an hour and a half before the final group.
Bogeys on the seventh and 11th holes cancelled out Kitayama’s early gains but two consecutive birdies on the 16th and 17th holes saw him take first place outright as Maximilian Kieffer dropped a shot on the 17th hole. Kitayama parred the final hole for a seven under par total, finishing one stroke ahead of Campillo, Kieffer, Clemént Sordet and Fabrizio Zanotti.
Joachim B. Hansen, Peter Hanson and Thomas Pieters shared sixth place on five under par.
Player quotes
Kurt Kitayama: “It feels great to win. My comeback earlier this morning helped set up this final round. I was back in contention and with it being continuous rounds it helped me cruise into the next one.
“The birdie on 17 was a good speed, and I saw it die on the hole. I had a tough read on it and thought if I caught part of the lip it would fall in – and it did.
“Being in the final group helped me. You want to know where you are, especially coming down the stretch. When you take the lead you want to know where everyone is on the course and you see what holes you have coming up and you set yourself up for that.
“This one feels really good. When I won the first one I was playing really well and it felt like it was coming. This week, coming in off three missed cuts, not having good weekends in Abu Dhabi and Dubai this felt like a real grind, especially after the start of the third round – so it feels great after going through that.”
Final scores
281 K Kitayama (USA) 66 74 71 70,
282 C Sordet (Fra) 71 71 70 70, F Zanotti (Par) 71 69 68 74, M Kieffer (Ger) 69 70 71 72, J Campillo (Esp) 69 78 66 69,
283 P Hanson (Swe) 71 73 66 73, J Hansen (Den) 70 69 71 73, T Pieters (Bel) 68 75 69 71,
284 S Jamieson (Sco) 67 76 66 75, C Paisley (Eng) 71 72 69 72, A Chesters (Eng) 73 74 68 69,
286 J Smith (Eng) 71 76 70 69, J Luiten (Ned) 69 77 68 72, J Winther (Den) 73 73 69 71, V Dubuisson (Fra) 72 70 72 72, G Moynihan (Irl) 69 73 71 73, D Horsey (Eng) 68 76 70 72,
287 S Crocker (USA) 72 72 70 73, B Hebert (Fra) 70 72 71 74, T Jaidee (Tha) 71 72 75 69,
288 H Leon (Chi) 71 71 72 74, S Soderberg (Swe) 72 72 68 76,
289 L De Jager (RSA) 71 77 70 71, D Borda (Esp) 72 74 74 69, H Tanihara (Jpn) 70 72 70 77, D Drysdale (Sco) 70 76 70 73,
290 M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 70 75 75 70, D Lawson (Aus) 72 72 73 73, G Bhullar (Ind) 71 69 72 78, M Schmitt (Ger) 71 73 72 74,
291 J Walters (RSA) 73 73 72 73, T Aiken (RSA) 75 73 69 74, M Korhonen (Fin) 70 78 71 72, S Hend (Aus) 73 74 71 73, N Cullen (Aus) 72 76 70 73, B Stone (RSA) 70 70 80 71, A Saddier (Fra) 68 76 72 75, A Pavan (Ita) 71 75 76 69, R McEvoy (Eng) 72 74 72 73,
292 N Colsaerts (Bel) 72 76 71 73, T Detry (Bel) 70 73 76 73, J Choi (Kor) 73 73 74 72, F Bergamaschi (Ita) 72 74 72 74, D Fichardt (RSA) 75 73 70 74,
293 R Macintyre (Sco) 71 74 70 78, B Dredge (Wal) 74 72 74 73, A Arnaus (Esp) 70 78 70 75, R Jacquelin (Fra) 68 79 72 74, M Manassero (Ita) 72 76 73 72, Z Lombard (RSA) 72 75 71 75, R Langasque (Fra) 72 75 71 75, N Bertasio (Ita) 72 73 72 76, J Wang (Kor) 77 71 72 73, M Baldwin (Eng) 70 75 71 77, E Kofstad (Nor) 72 70 71 80,
294 O Wilson (Eng) 72 74 73 75, M Kawamura (Jpn) 73 71 74 76,
295 J Catlin (USA) 76 72 73 74, P Figueiredo (Por) 71 77 76 71, P Dunne (Irl) 74 74 74 73,
296 V Perez (Fra) 73 75 73 75, J Van Zyl (RSA) 75 73 74 74,
298 S Vincent (Zim) 68 80 71 79, M Southgate (Eng) 75 70 78 75, G Migliozzi (Ita) 73 73 73 79, Y Miyazato (Jpn) 67 79 75 77,
299 S Sharma (Ind) 72 74 75 78, A Wu (Chn) 76 71 79 73, C Bezuidenhout (RSA) 70 78 75 76,
301 A Sullivan (Eng) 72 75 75 79,
302 J Morrison (Eng) 72 76 75 79,
149 R Ramsay (Sco) 70 79 0 0, D Lipsky (USA) 72 77 0 0, C Syme (Sco) 70 79 0 0, S Brown (Eng) 72 77 0 0, L Herbert (Aus) 75 74 0 0, M Orrin (Eng) 78 71 0 0, J Harding (RSA) 74 75 0 0, R Rock (Eng) 70 79 0 0, L Gagli (Ita) 72 77 0 0, E Molinari (Ita) 72 77 0 0, M Lee (Aus) 71 78 0 0,
150 C Wood (Eng) 72 78 0 0, P Langfors (Swe) 75 75 0 0, R Karlsson (Swe) 72 78 0 0, P Waring (Eng) 73 77 0 0, K Reitan (Nor) 75 75 0 0, G Coetzee (RSA) 75 75 0 0, N Lemke (Swe) 72 78 0 0,
151 A Cañizares (Esp) 68 83 0 0, L Johnston (Sco) 75 76 0 0, D Gavins (Eng) 73 78 0 0, N Elvira (Esp) 74 77 0 0, S Kim (USA) 72 79 0 0,
152 J Singh Brar (Eng) 77 75 0 0, B Wiesberger (Aut) 72 80 0 0, K Koivu (Fin) 74 78 0 0, R Paratore (Ita) 73 79 0 0, G Green (Mas) 75 77 0 0, D Burmester (RSA) 74 78 0 0, R Gouveia (Por) 74 78 0 0, P Larrazábal (Esp) 72 80 0 0,
153 T Pulkkanen (Fin) 74 79 0 0, M Pavon (Fra) 74 79 0 0, K Broberg (Swe) 75 78 0 0, B Ritthammer (Ger) 73 80 0 0, D Howell (Eng) 75 78 0 0, R Wattel (Fra) 73 80 0 0, K Samooja (Fin) 72 81 0 0, K Johannessen (Nor) 78 75 0 0, A Karlsson (Swe) 75 78 0 0, R Fisher (Eng) 74 79 0 0, J Kruyswijk (RSA) 72 81 0 0, S Gallacher (Sco) 72 81 0 0, G Forrest (Sco) 72 81 0 0,
154 S Chawrasia (Ind) 77 77 0 0, D Law (Sco) 75 79 0 0, L Slattery (Eng) 79 75 0 0, M Warren (Sco) 77 77 0 0, P Lawrie (Sco) 71 83 0 0,
155 S Brazel (Aus) 73 82 0 0, T Murray (Eng) 72 83 0 0, C Jin (Chn) 76 79 0 0,
156 M Schwab (Aut) 74 82 0 0,
157 T Bjørn (Den) 73 84 0 0, K Pratt (Aus) 76 81 0 0, B Evans (Eng) 74 83 0 0,
158 A Quiros (Esp) 75 83 0 0, S Gregory (Eng) 77 81 0 0, J Dantorp (Swe) 79 79 0 0, O Fisher (Eng) 78 80 0 0,
161 H Park (Kor) 75 86 0 0, I Cantero Gutierrez (Esp) 75 86 0 0, M Kinhult (Swe) 79 82 0 0, M Burrow (am) (Eng) 77 84 0 0,
162 J Lagergren (Swe) 76 86 0 0,
164 A Al Rumhy (am) (Oma) 82 82 0 0,
168 O Al Mulla (Ksa) 83 85 0 0,
** A Levy (Fra) 68 RT 0 0, C Shinkwin (Eng) 75 RT 0 0, G Fdez-Castaño (Esp) 76 RT 0 0, H Porteous (RSA) 76 RT 0 0, M Siem (Ger) 76 RT 0 0, S Manley (Wal) DQ 0 0 0,
