Kurt Kitayama wasn’t going to have a chance to win the 108th PGA Championship at Aronimink on Sunday, but it didn’t stop him from grabbing a piece of history.
The 33-year-old, two-time PGA Tour winner began the final round at 4-over par and fired a tournament-best, bogey-free 7-under 63 to tie the lowest final-round score in Major Championship history. Kitayama is the ninth player in history to shoot 63 in the final round of a major and the first since Tommy Fleetood accomplished the feat at the 2023 U.S. Open.
“I felt like the first three days I was playing in such windy conditions, and it was so tough to get anything close,” said Kitayama, whose 63 is the lowest score of the week by two shots at Aronimink. “And today it was nice, wind was down. Just felt so much easier when the wind was down. And made it a little easier to score, because the first two days it was so windy, and where the pins were you had to play wind on your putts, and that makes it so difficult to play. Today you could just kind of read it out they were and didn't have to worry about any wind affecting it.
Here is the list of players to shoot 63 in the final round of a major championship, listed by recency:
It is the 21st round of 63 or better in the PGA Championship. The record, for any round, is 62, by Xander Schauffele and Shane Lowry, both in 2024 at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.
When he finished the round, Kitayama had soared 57 spots up the leaderboard into a tie for seventh at 3 under. There was still a lot of golf to be played, but what a performance. Kitayama hit 17 of 18 greens in regulation and made 141’, 5” worth of putts, including five from outside of 12 feet.
Kitayama got off to a white-hot start with birdies on each of his first three holes. At No. 1, he holed a 33-foot, followed a 19-footer on No. 2 and a 9-footer on No. 3.
“The putter God,” Kityama said. “I felt like I was holding the world out there. What my eye saw that's what the ball was doing. And that's a good feeling. I think just the putter kind of carried me today.”
Kurt Kitayama's 63 ties the lowest final round score in Major Championship history. pic.twitter.com/USkm1tdq9V
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 17, 2026
He would also birdie Nos. 6 and 9 to go out in 5-under 30.
Kitayama was flawless on the back side and birdied the short, par-4 13th playing 299 yards on Sunday, when he got up and down from a bunker, rolling in a 14-footer.
Kitayama capped off the brilliant day with a stellar approach to 13 feet on No. 18 and dropped the putt for a one last birdie.
“I think if the weather stays like this, the wind is pretty light, there might be another one,” he said. “But I don't know, final rounds are tough. I'm one of the first few groups. Less pressure for sure. I think we'll see some more under-par scores maybe, overall.”
