Kurt Kitayama, the “Anyone But Rory” No-Name, Wins the Arnold Palmer Invitational

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Rory McIlroy 2023 Arnold Palmer Invitational
Rory McIlroy reacts on the 17th green during the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill GC on Mar 5, 2023 in Orlando, Fla. (Photo by Michael Reaves via Getty Images)

In my opinion, Rory McIlroy is the biggest (little) fraud in all of golf. As someone who has seen his maneuverings behind the scenes, I can tell you flat out that the ‘oh shucks, golly gee’ demeanor he puts on in those puffball interviews you see on PGA Tour TV (NBC, CBS, Golf Channel) is not the real Rory.

The real Rory is the narcissist who tried to publicly shame PGA major champion Steve Elkington for having the nerve to guess Rory was so rich he was worth more than $100 million.

“More like $200 million and there’s more where that came from,” tweeted the clown prince of golf, before the tour advised him to quit drunk tweeting.

It’s also the smug twerp, who after winning the Canadian Open (not the British!), somehow thought trolling Greg Norman was the classy thing to do. The real Rory is also the punk who told Phil Mickelson to “f### off” in the new Netflix documentary.

Anyways… With that stated, I was thrilled when the clown prince missed his birdie putt on 18 at Bay Hill. And I was even more pumped when a relative no-name like Kurt Kitayama birdied the 17th to hit -9 and then made par on the 18th to beat Rory and the “powerhouse field” at the Arnold Palmer, which absolutely ruined the weekend of the tour and its propaganda media, which a week earlier mocked LIV Golf after so-called “little-known” Charles Howell III won the Mayakoba event, ahead of the LIV superstars like Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Cam Smith, et al. Except Howell, a former PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, who along with Mickelson, is the only player in tour history to earn more than $1 million for 20 straight seasons (2001-2020). Bottomline: he is far more “known” than the unknown 30-year-old Kitayama.

Kurt Kitayama Wins 2023 Arnold Palmer Invitational
Kurt Kitayama plays his shot from the 14th tee during the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill GC on Mar 5, 2023 in Orlando, Fla. (Photo by Sam Greenwood via Getty Images)

For example, look at the above photo of Kitayama, playing the 14th hole on Sunday at Bay Hill. Notice not a single fan is shown. He was in the final group and near the top of the leaderboard, yet the galleries had zero interest. They were all ahead, following the groups featuring Rory, Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler, etc.


The opinions expressed in this column are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of Pro Golf Weekly.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Haha was thinking of your hatred of Rory yesterday and here it is in words.

    Dude. You really need to get over this Rory derangement. Yes he’s a fake and phony but he’s not as bad as you suggest, and overall he’s good for the game.

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