American Kurt Kitayama produced a fine comeback and a strong finish on a marathon Sunday to claim a one-shot victory at the Oman Open, his second European Tour title of the season.
Kitayama carded a final round 70 for a seven-under-par total of 281 at Al Mouj Golf to finish one shot ahead of the quartet of Spain’s Jorge Campillo, France’s Clement Sordet, Germany’s Maximilian Kieffer and Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti.
For Ireland’s Gavin Moynihan a final round of 73 saw him finish at two under par and in a tie for 12th. The Dubliner picked up a cheque for €23,293 in a few that represents continued improvement after his struggles on tour last season.
Paul Dunne’s final round of 73 saw him finish in a tie for 58th at seven over par. Moynihan now moves on to the Qatar Masters in Doha next week where he will be joined by Irishman Cormac Sharvin.
“It feels great to win. My comeback this morning helped set up this final round. I was back in contention and with it being continuous rounds it helped me cruise into the next one,” Kitayama, winner of the Mauritius Open, said.
Kitayama had been in a strong position after 18 holes but suffered a dismal start to his third round on Saturday with a quadruple bogey eight and dropped shots in the next two holes before bad light ended play.
So the 26-year-old was seven shots off the pace with 33 holes left to complete on Sunday.
Yet after completing his third round with a 71 on the back of six birdies and an eagle, he then made four birdies in the final round to clinch victory.
“This week, coming in off three missed cuts, not having good weekends in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, felt like a grind, especially after the start of the third round. So it feels great after going through that,” Kitayama added.
Sweden’s Peter Hanson, Belgium’s Thomas Pieters and Denmark’s Joachim Hansen were tied for sixth, two shots behind Kitayama.
Collated final round scores & totals in the European Tour Oman Open Al Mouj Golf, Muscat, Oman (British unless stated, par 72):
281 Kurt Kitayama (USA) 66 74 71 70
282 Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 69 70 71 72, Clement Sordet (Fra) 71 71 70 70, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 71 69 68 74, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 69 78 66 69
283 Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 70 69 71 73, Peter Hanson (Swe) 71 73 66 73, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 68 75 69 71
284 Ashley Chesters 73 74 68 69, Chris Paisley 71 72 69 72, Scott Jamieson 67 76 66 75
286 Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 72 70 72 72, Gavin Moynihan (Irl) 69 73 71 73, Jeff Winther (Den) 73 73 69 71, Joost Luiten (Ned) 69 77 68 72, David Horsey 68 76 70 72, Jordan Smith 71 76 70 69
287 Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 70 72 71 74, Sean Crocker (USA) 72 72 70 73, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 71 72 75 69
288 Hugo Leon (USA) 71 71 72 74, Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 72 72 68 76
289 David Drysdale 70 76 70 73, David Borda (Spa) 72 74 74 69, Louis De Jager (Rsa) 71 77 70 71, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 70 72 70 77
290 Deyen Lawson (Aus) 72 72 73 73, Max Schmitt (Ger) 71 73 72 74, Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 70 75 75 70, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 71 69 72 78
291 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 75 73 69 74, Brandon Stone (Rsa) 70 70 80 71, Richard McEvoy 72 74 72 73, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 70 78 71 72, Nick Cullen (Aus) 72 76 70 73, Adrien Saddier (Fra) 68 76 72 75, Scott Hend (Aus) 73 74 71 73, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 71 75 76 69, Justin Walters (Rsa) 73 73 72 73
292 Filippo Bergamaschi (Ita) 72 74 72 74, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 72 76 71 73, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 75 73 70 74, Thomas Detry (Bel) 70 73 76 73, Jin-ho Choi (Kor) 73 73 74 72
293 Adri Arnaus (Spa) 70 78 70 75, Espen Kofstad (Nor) 72 70 71 80, Matteo Manassero (Ita) 72 76 73 72, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 72 75 71 75, Matthew Baldwin 70 75 71 77, Romain Langasque (Fra) 72 75 71 75, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 68 79 72 74, Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 77 71 72 73, Robert Macintyre 71 74 70 78, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 72 73 72 76, Bradley Dredge 74 72 74 73
294 Oliver Wilson 72 74 73 75, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 73 71 74 76
295 Paul Dunne (Irl) 74 74 74 73, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 71 77 76 71, John Catlin (USA) 76 72 73 74
296 Victor Perez (Fra) 73 75 73 75, Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa) 75 73 74 74
298 Guido Migliozzi (Spa) 73 73 73 79, Matthew Southgate 75 70 78 75, Yusaku Miyazato (Jpn) 67 79 75 77, Scott Vincent (Zim) 68 80 71 79
299 Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 72 74 75 78, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 70 78 75 76, Ashun Wu (Chn) 76 71 79 73
301 Andy Sullivan 72 75 75 79
302 James Morrison 72 76 75 79
