Kurt Kitayama only had to look around at the players next to him in the practice area and right below him on the leaderboard at Bay Hill to know what he was up against Sunday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
"You can't ignore it. You got to know where you're at and you know who is there and just embrace the whole situation, I guess," Kitayama said after a final two hours of pure theater for his first PGA Tour win.First came the wild tee shot that sailed out-of-bounds on the ninth hole that led to triple bogey and let an All-Star cast -- Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton and Harris English -- back into the tournament.
The tap-in for an even-par 72 was the easiest shot he faced all day, giving him a one-shot win over McIlroy and English. "I know Kurt more from European tour stuff," McIlroy said. "But he's done really well. He's persevered and played wherever he could get starts and all of a sudden he's won one of the biggest events on the PGA Tour. So good for him."
Spieth was among six players who had at least a share of the lead over the final two hours. He missed four straight putts inside 8 feet from the 14th through the 17th holes -- three of them for par. After taking the lead with a 15-foot birdie putt on the 13th hole, he played his last five holes in 3 over.
The finish kept everyone guessing, especially when there was a five-way tie for the lead deep in the round, all of them one swing or one putt away from potentially winning.
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