The China Mail - Kitayama surges clear at Bay Hill, Rahm blown off course

Despite gusts of up to 30mph lashing the Bay Hill course, Kitayama reeled off five birdies on his way to a four-under-par 68 to move to nine under following his opening five-under-par 67 on Thursday.

The lone blemish on the 46th-ranked Californian's round came on the par-five 16th, where he needed four shots to reach the green and two-putted for a bogey six.

Kitayama said later he had relished the mental challenge of tackling the testing conditions in Orlando.

"It's always a fun challenge keeping yourself in the moment," Kitayama said.

"I feel like when you get conditions like this it's easy to kind of let things get away from you - for me it's just keeping myself focused the entire way."

Kitayama, 30, has taken a circuitous route to the PGA Tour, playing on the developmental Web.com Tour with little success after turning professional in 2015 before moving to the Asian Tour in 2018.

He moved to the European Tour in 2019, where he has two won twice, before finally earning a PGA Tour card in 2021.

Kitayama said the challenges of attempting to forge his career overseas have helped him develop his competitive temperament.

"Not finding success early (in US) was disappointing, but it took me somewhere else to grow," Kitayama said.

"Just dealing with adversity, really. When you're in a random country in Asia and you don't know what you're doing or where you're going, it's pretty frustrating and honestly kind of scary a little bit."

"So I think that helps you just grow, just kind of learn from that experience of being in an uncomfortable situation."

- Rahm blown off course -

But while Kitayama breezed through Friday's treacherous conditions, world number one and overnight leader Jon Rahm was blown off course as he struggled around Bay Hill.

The Spaniard had taken a two-shot lead on Thursday with a seven-under-par 65 but tumbled down the leaderboard on Friday with a four-over-par 76 to head into the weekend on three under, six adrift of Kitayama.

Teeing off on the 10th, Rahm bogeyed his second hole of the day but then birdied the 14th to reach the turn at level par.

But Rahm's round went pear-shaped down the stretch with three bogeys and a double-bogey seven in his final five holes.

Asked how he would characterize his round, Rahm jokingly dropped an F-bomb before replying: "It's firm, it's fast and it's blowing 30 miles an hour. It's a very difficult golf course.

"For most of the day I managed it. It's just the last five holes, even though I didn't feel like I was making bad swings, I just couldn't quite get it going and finished poorly the last stretch …

"Luckily I shot seven-under yesterday and I'm not too far off."

L.Kwan--ThChM