Kitayama was born in Chico, California, some 87 miles north of Sacramento, and graduated from Chico High School in 2011. Although his height was just 5–6, he was the Senior co-captain and starting point guard on the basketball team, while leading the Panthers to a 27–2 record and the 2011 California Northern Section Title.[3] In the Championship Game, he scored 31 points and had 6 assists as Chico beat city-rival Pleasant Valley High School by a score of 67–54.[4]
Kitayama's older brother Daniel played golf 2007–2008 at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and later came to work as a professional caddie.
After high school, Kitayama attended the University of Nevada-Las Vegas from 2011 to 2015, where he was named to the Academic-All Mountain West team three consecutive years.[5] He won the Jackrabbit Invitational held in Primm, Nevada, in 2014 as well as 2015.
Kitayama's best World Amateur Golf Ranking was 47th.
Professional career
Kitayama turned professional in 2015. He played mostly on the Web.com Tour in 2016 and 2017 with little success and was ranked 1174 in the world at the end of 2017.
In November 2018, he finished tied for 3rd place in the European TourQ-School to earn a place on the 2019 European Tour. In just the second event of the season, the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, played in late 2018, he won by two strokes.[6] The event was co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Tour and the Asian Tour. The win lifted him into the top 200 of the world rankings. In March 2019, he became the fastest player to two wins in European Tour history when he won the Oman Open in only his 11th career appearance.[7]
In February 2022, he recorded a 3rd place finish at The Honda Classic. In May 2022, Kitayama improved upon this performance, recording a T2 finish at the Mexico Open.
In July 2025, he earned his second PGA Tour victory at the 3M Open[10]. In the third round, he shot a career-best and tournament-record-tying 60 that put him within one of the leaders.[11] The win moved him into the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings and secured a spot in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.[12]
NT = No tournament QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play "T" = Tied Note that the Championship and Invitational were discontinued from 2022. The Champions was discontinued from 2023.
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