NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pennsylvania, May 17 (Reuters) – Kurt Kitayama rode a red-hot putter to card a sizzling seven-under-par 63 on Sunday that tied the major championship record for lowest final-round score and propelled him into contention at Aronimink Golf Club.
Kitayama is just the second player to shoot a 63 in the final round of a PGA Championship, joining Brad Faxon in 1995, and the ninth overall to do so at one of golf’s four majors.
“The putter God,” Kitayama told reporters when asked to explain the round. “I felt like I was holding the world out there. What my eye saw, that’s what the ball was doing. And that’s a good feeling. I think just the putter kind of carried me today.”
Kitayama stood 10 shots behind 54-hole leader Alex Smalley when he teed off in the day’s fourth pairing. He opened with three consecutive birdies and added four more during a bogey-free round that beat the week’s previous low score by two strokes.
He walked off the course inside the top 10 at three under for the week and three shots off the lead before Smalley had teed off.
“It was kind of one of those rounds for me that the putter clicked. I was just rolling it,” Kitayama said. “It was just lights out for me.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in TorontoEditing by Toby Davis)
