ORLANDO, FL – Kurt Kitayama topped the Arnold Palmer Invitational leaderboard for many of Friday night in Bay Hill and was still there at the end of the round.
With time for a morning jersey for round two on a windy day at Bay Hill, Kitayama recorded 4-under 68, bringing him all the way down to 9-under in the tournament.
This held a 36-hole lead, two shots ahead of its nearest rival.
After ending his round, Kitayama, a comparatively unknown 30-year-old from Chico, California who jammed fooling around the world on smaller tours, watched a day wave of players – including several blue-blooded golfers – run in front of him.
Jordan Spieth, a three-time major championship winner, reduced Kitayama’s lead to simply one shot as he moved to 8-under after birdies at numbers 16 and 17.
He then took a bogey at 18 on a terrible carabiner that almost flew over the out-of-court fence, ending at 7 under, two shots behind the leader.
![Kurt Kitayama](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/230304kitayama.jpg?w=1024)
“I used to be very prepared to catch one other golf ball,” said Spieth. “I do not know the last time I hit a driveway like this. I hit quite a lot of good tee balls. This one wasn’t one among them.
Justin Thomas, two-time major winner and reigning PGA champion, attacked during his afternoon round, at one point taking him to 7-under a day before bogeyman 17 and 18 to complete with a 5-under, 4 shots from the lead.
“Yeah, it sucks, there is no other technique to say it,” Thomas said of his finish. “Roll a 7 under… but at the same time you are getting out of position here and it’ll bite you. So I had so much more good when I believed an excessive amount of about those last two lows. There are exponentially more positives than negatives today, and if anything, I’ll just try to make use of that to get going this weekend. “
Cameron Young, one among the best players over the last yr plus, was knocking on Kitayama’s door advantage, going to 8-unders before tapping 17 and double-up 18 to drop to 4-unders for the tournament.
Earlier in the day, Kitayama’s buddy Xander Schauffele, who lives near him in Las Vegas, shot 2-under 70 to get to 6-under with three losses to the lead.
There’s also Canadian Corey Conners after scoring the bottom round of the day, 66.
Also atop the table are US Open champion Matthew Fitzpatrick who shot 69 and is 5-under, Patrick Cantlay who also has 5-under, and Adam Scott and Scottie Scheffler who’ve 4-under.
That is quite a lot of big players hot on the heels of Kitayama, who’s in search of his first PGA Tour win after winning tournaments in Asia, Europe and the Sunshine Tour.
![Jordan Spieth](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/230304spieth.jpg?w=1024)
Kitayama believes he deserves it. He finished runner-up thrice in 2022, including losing to Rahm in Mexico and Schauffele at the Scottish Open.
“I put myself in good places,” said Kitayama. “I’m just attempting to get this win. It’s hard, especially with the guys I have been up against. So I just need to put myself in that situation to offer myself a likelihood. You will have some good breaks and this is de facto your tournament. So I just need to attempt to be there until the very end. “
Kitayama embraces the winding road he needed to travel.
“Not having success here early [on the PGA Tour] it was… disappointing, but I needed one other place to grow,” he said. “And he developed not only in golf. You may experience different cultures, travel. You end up in interesting places, places you’ll probably never go. So I believe that as a individual that I could develop, I handled adversity.
“Whenever you’re in a random country in Asia and you do not know what you are doing or where you are going, it’s quite frustrating and, frankly, a bit scary. No person speaks your language. I believe it helps you simply grow, just learn from that have of being in an uncomfortable situation.
Kitayama looked quite comfortable on Friday taking the lead.
Now he’ll try to remain comfortable as he tries to maintain the lead through the weekend.