Kurt Kitayama's Significant Swing Changes

[Valtiel]

After watching his near 59 and realizing I hadn't seen much of Kitayama in awhile, I was struck with the sense of "wait a minute....that's a completely different swing". Kurt always had a pretty unorthodox backswing with a lot of moving parts, and he seemed to feel the same way because he's totally overhauled it:



2025 swing on the left, 2023 swing on the right. First his address position has changed...his hands are up a bit and the club is less "toe up" at address. His shoulders appear more level now compared to the right shoulder lower + head tilt he used to have. Overall looking much more "conventional" now. 



From there his takeaway has flipped from what it was. Previously the hands worked a little more "in" while the clubhead worked outside them and a bit shut, kinda Fowler-esque. Now his hands are working out more and he's getting clubface more open earlier. You can see a big difference in his left arm which i'm guessing is probably his biggest "feel" difference here. His old swing was very "in and close" initially going back and moved to being dead vertical up to the top whereas his new swing...

 

...sees the club working back significantly flatter. He pushed his hands out to set the stage for a lot more "around" due to the fact IMO his swing was so "up" before that he probably needed a big feel to change to neutralize that. It also appears he is setting the bit of left wrist "bow" much earlier. 



His old swing saw both the hands the club working nearly dead vertical, Furyk-esque, whereas now he's swing his left arm much closer to his shoulder plane. All logical checkpoints for someone trying to neutralize an extremely steep/vertical backswing. That left wrist is also still bowed slightly in the new swing whereas it was actually cupped in the old. 



His old swing actually saw the hands come even further inwards, so *more* than vertical to the point it was tipping back towards the ball, and he'd kinda "motorcycle move" lay the club off in preparation for pulling down and hard left to get to the ball. The new swing has removed both of those moving parts. Wrists are already set in the position he "motorcycled" into previously, and he flipped the direction his hands went from the unusual 12:30 clockface direction to a far more conventional 11:30.

It will be interesting to see if this continues shifting or if this is where he settles. Either way this was as big a change as you'll typically see in a tour pro and a move away from being an outlier mechanically towards being simpler/more conventional.  

 

Edited July 27 by Valtiel

[MK7Golf21]

Looks like he was trying to flatten his swing, was crazy vertical before based on those gif’s you posted. 

[Valtiel]

4 minutes ago, MK7Golf21 said:

Looks like he was trying to flatten his swing, was crazy vertical before based on those gif’s you posted. 

Generally yeah, and critically by significantly changing takeaway and wrist conditions. 

[getitdaily]

I wonder if after today's win he'll go into the off-season with an intention to clean up p1 to p2. You dont see many guys take the hands toward the ball in that frame.

 

He's got lightning in a bottle this week but his year is VERY MEH.

Edited July 27 by getitdaily

[PedronNiall]

Looks a lot more like the guys you wanna look like at the top. 

 

 

Lot easier to do good things from where he is now than where he used to be, covering up that ear so he wouldn't hear anyone saying he was doing it wrong. 

 

Como stock just shot up.

[Valtiel]

7 hours ago, getitdaily said:

I wonder if after today's win he'll go into the off-season with an intention to clean up p1 to p2. You dont see many guys take the hands toward the ball in that frame.

Eh, not *too* unusual but that is what I was thinking as well re: "I wonder if he'll keep shifting...". If I had to guess he had a very ingrained feel of steepening the club in the backswing so he had to exaggerate the hands going out and the club coming "in" + the pretty flat shaft at P2.5/P3 in order to ultimately get to the position at the top which i'd imagine he might have been working backwards from. It wouldn't surprise me to see those exaggerations clean up a bit like you said once the whole thing gets integrated.

His putter is really the weak link though and it's taken being lights out with the iron game to cover for that. 

[golferdude54]

So he changed his depth and plane. It's pretty interesting how trying to start his takeaway like Tiger did with Butch with his left arm going out instead of in somehow made his hand path deeper later on in the backswing.

[MK7Golf21]

I was looking at his PGA Tour profile yesterday. Guy has made some money, made like 14.5 million in past couple years on the tour. This doesn't including sponsorship money he has made either.

 

Edited July 28 by MK7Golf21

[getitdaily]

33 minutes ago, golferdude54 said:

So he changed his depth and plane. It's pretty interesting how trying to start his takeaway like Tiger did with Butch with his left arm going out instead of in somehow made his hand path deeper later on in the backswing.

That takeaway is combined with less hip rotation early and thus less shoulder rotation early. So he's a touch outside to p2 and then just lifts and rotates hips and shoulders. His rotation was basically done by p3 before....

 

Momentum of movement...gotta love it.

[getitdaily]

29 minutes ago, MK7Golf21 said:

I was looking at his PGA Tour profile yesterday. Guy has made some money, made like 14.5 million in past couple years on the tour. This doesn't including sponsorship money he has made either.

 

Yep. He was all over leaderboards last year. Amazing...took his dp tour success and made it pay of against the big boys immediately. 

[MK7Golf21]

3 hours ago, getitdaily said:

Yep. He was all over leaderboards last year. Amazing...took his dp tour success and made it pay of against the big boys immediately. 

 

set for life, living the high life in only a couple years of playing on tour. He could retire if he happens to lose status and have someone help him do investments with some of the money. Would probably make money quicker that way now.

Edited July 28 by MK7Golf21

[getitdaily]

1 minute ago, MK7Golf21 said:

 

set for life, living the high life in only a couple years of playing on tour. He could retire if he happens to lose status and have someone help him do investments with some of the money. Would probably make money quicker that way now.

I have been a fan of his for a few years. When I watched dp tour events, he was an American who thrived so I pulled for him. Now, he rocks the Bridgestone ball so that makes me an even bigger fan. I'll root for him whenever he gets to the top in an event. 

 

Plus, his name is cool to say...kitty yama 

[Obee]

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing!

[tx_bayou]

@Valtiel your write-ups are awesome

[NosajNeelik]

He was trying Matt wolfish thing before I’m guessing 

[gators78]

On 7/28/2025 at 8:58 PM, tx_bayou said:

@Valtiel your write-ups are awesome

+1 this is very cool, thanks.

Edited July 30 by gators78

[golferdude54]

@Valtiel Why don't you start a thread of what the statistically worst ball striker on tour does that could be causing such poor ball striking?

 

As of this season, it's Braden Thornberry in my custom ball striking stat that involves driving distance on every hole, fairways hit, distance from edge of fairway when missed, and GIR + proximity. Last year, it was Taylor Montgomery who was last. Their swings are pretty non-textbook at first glance. 

 

Edited July 30 by golferdude54