What do you do with a Triple Bogey? –8-holes left of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard

lead with the 18th hole still to play. One by one… some of the top rated players in the world, came to 18 and failed to deliver. Yet… “The Project” continued to plug away… keeping his mind focused on the prize. Kitayama birdied the par 3 – 17th hole, setting himself up for a run at the title with one hole to go, and a one shot lead.

Pulling his drive to the left rough, we were talking he would best to lay up short of the green and then go at the cup with a wedge. Well… that’s what his caddie should have been telling him, but he was truly focused pulled out the club and with that swing… was lying 2 – pin-high on the left side of the green roughly 48-feet from the cup.

Needing a simple 2-putt for a victory, Kitayama, lined up the putt and let it roll. Nearly making that birdie putt… the ball was literally hanging over the edge of the hole and just wouldn’t fall. He marked the putt as a courtesy to his playing partner Viktor Hovland to finish before he closed out the tournament. He was so concerned placing the ball back in to position to make the less than 1 inch putt to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.

Can you imagine a 1-inch putt being worth $3.6 million.

Priceless… definitely describes that effect that “The Project” –a.k.a. Kurt Kitayama had on the field as Kitayama hit his first t-shot out-of-bounds left on the dog-leg 10th hole. Then putting his second drive from the 10th-tee into the bunker. Laying 3 at that point with a terrible lie, he faced the challenge… “Never Give Up.” Pretty much how he described himself as a college student, while others had coined him with the manicure “The Project” – not a great shot maker… but a “Work in Progress.” Grinding and not giving up… Kurt came away from number 10 with a triple bogey 7.

His triple bogey 7 dropped him from 11-under par, down to -8 and into a tie with Jordan Spieth. Then Spieth moved ahead… then let that lead slip away.

At one point… I made a comment that seemed like “No One” wanted to win. But Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Resort course, wasn’t giving it up easy. The ultimate winner of the Cardigan Sweater would have to earn that victory.

And the battle was on to the finish.

At one point on the back nine… there were 6 players tied for the

Kitayama talked about playing on no fewer than 10 professional tours around the world and it came down to simple possibilities to make this happen, to make his first victory on the PGA Tour such a memorable event.