How Kurt Kitayama Won the 2025 3M Open

Approach play produced 69% of Kurt Kitayama's advantage at the 2025 3M Open, and the putter produced 6%. He won anyway, 23 under par at TPC Twin Cities, by 1 stroke, with 9 bogeys on the card.

Data Golf earns the thank-you up front, because every strokes-gained number below comes from their work. Kitayama won at 23 under par, by 1 stroke, and the record says the win was built almost entirely in one place: approach play produced 69% of his advantage over the field, against a typical 2025 winner's share, to that point in the season, of 36%.

One footnote first: all 4 of his strokes-gained categories were positive this week, so none of these shares round down to zero for a lost category. The approach number is simply the largest by a wide margin, and with a margin of only 1 stroke for the tournament itself, every category was decisive; approach was just the most decisive of the four.

How the win was built

Scoring conversion: 32 birdies or better, 9 bogeys against a field average of 6.8, 0 double bogeys or worse, over 72 holes. Final round 65, +3.9 strokes against the field that day. 3rd after 54 holes, 1 back.

*Average share across the 30 earlier 2025 winners with a strokes-gained record. Shares count only the categories where the winner beat the field, so a category where he lost strokes reads 0%, and rounding can leave the four shares a point short of or above 100. Strokes gained: Data Golf. The field is the 76 players who completed all four rounds.

Off the tee, Kitayama gained 1.7 strokes on the field, good for 23rd in the 76-player field, top-third work and only 12% of his total advantage, just under the 2025 winner average of 14%.

Then the irons. He gained 9.7 strokes on the field, first of 76, almost 2.5 strokes a day better than the rest of the field with a mid-iron in hand. That single category supplied 69% of his week, against a typical 36%. The next-largest approach shares in the database belong to McIlroy at the Masters and Fox at the RBC Canadian Open, both at 62%, and Kitayama cleared them both. It was the largest approach share of the season to that point, though not the largest raw number; Scheffler posted bigger totals at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and The Open Championship.

Around the green, he gained 1.9 strokes, 11th of 76, 13% of the advantage against a typical 14%, and the short game did not need to carry anything this week.

The putter gained him just 0.8 strokes, 37th of 76, dead mid-field, only 6% of his total advantage against a typical 36% from that club: the lowest positive putting share of any 2025 winner to that point in the season.

Then the fifth of the Winner's Five, scoring conversion. He carded 32 birdies or better over 72 holes, nearly 1 every other hole, tied for the 2nd most in the database this season. He also made 9 bogeys against a field average of 6.8, more than the typical 2025 winner's 6.3, though 0 double bogeys or worse held the card together. The birdie total minus the bogey total nets to 23 under, exactly the winning score. Sunday was a 65, worth 3.9 strokes on the field that day, played from 3rd place, 1 stroke back after 54 holes.

The winning formula

Ball-Striking Blueprint, the 9th of the 2025 season. The rule: off the tee plus approach supplied at least 55% of the advantage, with approach the larger of the two. This week: tee-to-green: approach 69% + driving 12%.

Winning-formula ledger for 2025 through this event: Putting-Fueled Win 11, Ball-Striking Blueprint 9, Final-Round Takeover 6, Mistake-Free Win 5, Unclassified 2, Driving Domination 1, Short-Game Survival 1.

The label here is Ball-Striking Blueprint, the archetype for a week built from the tee and fairway rather than the greens, and this is the 9th time a 2025 winner has worn it. The rule requires the tee shot and approach together to supply at least 55% of the advantage, with approach the larger of the two; Kitayama's tee-to-green total came to 81%, comfortably clearing the bar.

Measured against the 8 earlier Ball-Striking Blueprint winners this season, whose approach shares ran from 30% up to 62%, Kitayama's 69% sits above every one of them. Only 3 other Ball-Striking Blueprint winners came at a similarly low-scoring event, Campbell at the Mexico Open (42%), Potgieter at the Rocket Classic (48%) and Fox at the RBC Canadian Open (62%), and none leaned on the irons this hard.

What this week added to the season

Across the 34 2025 winners before this one (30 with a strokes-gained record; the averages use those 30): average winning margin 1.8 strokes, average bogeys 6.3, average shares of advantage off the tee 14%, approach 36%, around the green 14%, putting 36%. This winner: margin 1, bogeys 9.

Set against the 34 winners before him this season (30 with a full strokes-gained record, supplying the averages), the typical margin was 1.8 strokes and bogey count 6.3. Kitayama won by 1 and made 9 bogeys, a smaller margin and nearly 3 more mistakes than a typical winner, while carrying the largest single-category share the season had seen.

The approach number held up over time: as of this event it ranked 3rd among winners to date, and it was still 3rd of the 40 winners with a strokes-gained record once the season closed, meaning only 2 winners all year posted a bigger approach week.

TPC Twin Cities has one other year in the database. Jackson Koivun won the 2026 3M Open at 25 under, by 3 strokes, also a Ball-Striking Blueprint week, but built differently: approach carried 51% against 14% off the tee, and putting supplied 35%, a category Kitayama got almost nothing from. Two data points at one course is a pattern worth watching, not a rule about the course.

The Data Action angle

The record shows a putter that never got hot and a birdie tally that kept climbing anyway. The strokes-gained record explains why: the approach numbers were large enough that an ordinary putting week did not matter, and large enough to absorb 9 bogeys, more than a typical winner makes, without the card ever getting away. A card with 32 birdies or better over 72 holes does not happen because a putter gets hot; it happens because the ball keeps finishing somewhere a putter does not have to work hard to convert.

What the record cannot say is that approach is why he won. With a margin of just 1 stroke, every one of his 4 categories was decisive; take away any single one and the tournament likely goes the other way. It can say the distribution: 69% from the irons, 12% off the tee, 13% around the green, 6% from the putter. It can also say he closed from behind rather than the week being decided on Sunday: his final round gained 3.9 strokes on a total advantage of roughly 14.0, so most of the edge was built by Saturday night, when he stood 3rd, 1 stroke back.

The amateur translation

I want to walk this carefully, because nobody needs me telling them to hit a 7-iron like Kurt Kitayama. He beat the field with his approach shots, over and over, and left the putter with almost nothing to do; 9.7 strokes better than the field with the irons over 4 rounds is about an easy next shot, not flag-hunting.

The scoring principle underneath it: a close approach shot matters less because it might go in and more because it removes the hard part of the next shot. A putt from 15 feet is a two-putt you don't think about; a ball in the right section of the green is one fewer chip, one fewer bunker shot, one fewer nervy comebacker.

At a 5 handicap, your version of this is picking the safer half of the green so a miss is a two-putt from 25 feet instead of a short-sided chip. At a 15, forget the flag and pick the club that reaches the middle, because a short-sided miss is the double bogey waiting to happen. At a 25, landing anywhere on the green counts as a win, and the front edge, on or just short, is the same target scaled down to your game.

The homework, one piece of it. Over your next few rounds, on every approach shot, note where it finished: short, long, left, right or on. That comes from Fred Shoemaker; you will find your own pattern faster than anyone can teach it to you, because feel misleads. Data Action Golf's approach zones do that tracking for you, and the Sweet Spot read finds the yardage you score from. Course IQ is built around that exact middle-of-the-green decision.

Three findings

1. Approach did the separating. He led the 76-player field in that category, and his 69% share is the largest for that club by any winner in the database this season, well above the 62% posted by McIlroy and Fox.
2. The story was volume, not tidiness. He made 9 bogeys against a field average of 6.8, more mistakes than a typical 2025 winner, but 32 birdies or better, tied for the 2nd most of any winner this season, bought back every one of them. The birdie total minus the bogey total nets to 23 under, the winning score exactly.
3. He closed from behind rather than running away. Kitayama started Sunday in 3rd place, 1 stroke back, and shot a 65 worth 3.9 strokes on the field. Most of his edge over the field was already built by Saturday night; Sunday finished the job rather than deciding it.

Better data always means better golf. This week, better golf meant giving the putter almost nothing to do.

How to read these numbers

Strokes gained figures are Data Golf's, summed over the winner's four rounds and stated against the field's average for each round, so a positive number is strokes better than the field. Field ranks compare the 76 players who completed all four rounds. "Share of advantage" is the Data Action Golf reading: a category's strokes gained as a percentage of the winner's total across the categories where he beat the field. The 2025 winner average share is the mean of that figure across the season's earlier winners with a strokes-gained record, so it moves as the season goes on. The winning-formula label is assigned by fixed rules checked in a set order; the first rule that fits wins, and the labels describe how one week's advantage was distributed, nothing more. These numbers describe this tournament. They do not predict the next one. Full method: how Data Action Golf reads a winner and what strokes gained measures.