2025 3M Open leaderboard: Akshay Bhatia storms into tie on top, Kurt Kitayama stuns with a 60 in Minnesota

Bhatia and Thorbjørn Olesen share the 54-hole lead at the 3M Open

For the second time this week, an 11-under 60 was posted at TPC Twin Cities with Kurt Kitayama lighting up the. 2025 3M Open on Saturday morning to match the course record and fall just shy of the vaunted 59 Club. Kitayama made 12 birdies and one bogey (on the difficult par-3 17th) in his round as he put together one of the best ball-striking days one will see anywhere.

Gaining 4.4 strokes on the field with his iron play -- while posting top 10 performances around the green and with the putter -- Kitayama caught fire on his front nine, shooting a 7-under 28 to put 59 firmly in play. It looked like he would ultimately get there ... until he reached the last two holes.

After a birdie on the 16th, Kitayama was 11 under on his round and needed to go par-birdie on the final two holes, the 18th being a reachable par 5. However, a wayward tee shot into the short-sided bunker on No. 17 meant he needed an eagle at the last to become the 15th man to shoot a 59 on the PGA Tour. Despite his best efforts at holing out a wedge with his third, he could only manage birdie and settled for a 60 to tie the course record set earlier in the week by Adam Svensson. 

With that round, Kitayama set a benchmark for the rest of the field in the third round, posting a clubhouse lead of 17 under that was just three ahead of the 36-hole leader Thorbjørn Olesen. Only two men, Olesen and Akshay Bhatia, were able to best that number going into Sunday's final round in Minnesota as Bhatia posted one of the lowest marks of Moving Day with a 63.

The first page of the leaderboard is heavily congested entering Sunday's final round, and it will absolutely be a fight to the finish just outside Minneapolis.

Bhatia was the first to enter the clubhouse at 18 under as he used a pair of flurries to go 8 under for the day and jump into the lead. He made four straight birdies from No. 3 to No. 6 and added five more on the back -- with one bogey mixed in -- as he got the broomstick working on the greens to surge up the leaderboard. 

Olesen, meanwhile, stalled out of the gates with five straight pars, allowing the field to catch up to him. However, he made up for that quickly with a birdie on the 6th and then fired a 6-iron at the flag on the 8th for a hole-in-one to jump back into a share of the lead. 

A bogey on No. 9 dropped him back one off the pace, but he added two birdies on his back nine to take the lead alone once again into Sunday at 18 under. Olesen is looking to close out his first career win, and while it was a scratchy start for both he and Jake Knapp in the final pairing, Olesen eventually settled in and was able to maintain a share of the lead with 18 holes remaining. 

The leaders

1. Akshay Bhatia, Thorbjørn Olesen (-18): Bhatia and Olesen will make up the final pairing Sunday, and a win would mean different things for each man. For Olesen, it would mark be his first career win on the PGA Tour and secure his full-time status for 2026 while also pushing him to 56th in the FedEx Cup standings and guaranteeing him a spot in the playoffs in two weeks. For Bhatia, it would be his third career win -- marking the third straight year with a win on Tour -- pushing him into the top 20 in the standings with an inside track for the Tour Championship. 

Their challenge in getting there won't only be battling with each other in the final pairing but also holding off a robust pack of contenders behind them on a course that has yielded a ton of low scores this week. It's hard to see a path to winning by simply avoiding mistakes on Sunday, and both Bhatia and Olesen will have to fight off the nerves and attack a gettable golf course to secure a win. 

Contenders

T3. Kurt Kitayama, Takumi Kanaya, Sam Stevens, Jake Knapp (-17)
T7. Alex Noren, Chris Gotterup, Pierceson Coody (-16)
T10. Jesper Svensson, William Mouw (-15)
T12. Wyndham Clark and three others (-14)

Kitayama will try to do what Svensson couldn't earlier this week, which is back up his 60 with another strong round. Svensson shot a 75 on Friday after his opening 60 and fell out of contention; Kitayama will need to avoid a similar letdown after one of the best rounds of his career. If he can, he'll have a chance at an all-time comeback from eight strokes off the pace coming into the weekend. 

Kanaya and Stevens weren't part of the main story Saturday, but they kept plotting along and playing well in the third round to get into that group just one off the lead. Kanaya is the former top amateur in the world, looking for his first PGA Tour win, while Stevens has a pair of top 10s this season but is hoping to add his first win as well. 

Knapp, like Olesen, got off to a slow start with 11 straight pars to open his round, but closed it out in style five birdies in his last six holes to move into T3 and keep his hopes at a second PGA Tour win alive. Knapp's been in this position a few times this season and has struggled to finish off rounds on Sunday, but he will get another crack at it from two groups back of the leaders. 

If it weren't for the 18th hole, Gotterup would be tied for the lead as he's rather surprisingly struggled on the par 5 closing hole this week. Still, no one other than Scottie Scheffler is playing better golf than him on the planet right now, and he's an extremely serious threat. 

Wyndham Clark couldn't quite keep pace with Gotterup in the same group on Saturday, but he's only four off the lead and he will have an opportunity to go out an hour before the leaders and try to post a clubhouse lead for them to think about coming in. 

2025 3M Open updated odds, picks

Odds via DraftKings

• Akshay Bhatia (7/2)
• Thorbjørn Olesen (9/2)
• Jake Knapp (13/2)
• Kurt Kitayama (7-1)
• Sam Stevens (8-1)
• Chris Gotterup (9-1)
• Takumi Kanaya (12-1)
• Pierceson Coody (16-1)
• Alex Noren (16-1)

Bhatia was the move entering Saturday -- as was Knapp going into Friday -- so there's confidence here from the early week decisions. The one man worth adding at this point would be Gotterup at 9-1 as it feels like he has value. Noren at 16-1 is intriguing given he's shown the ability to get really hot for stretches and pile up birdies. Even those just two back have to be thinking about a 63 or 64 on Sunday to win outright without a playoff, and those are two guys I feel can go out and do that. 

[Jul 26, 2025 at 5:39 pm ET · Robby Kalland]

Knapp started the day in second place, but couldn't get out of first gear for much of the day, making 11 straight pars to open his third round. That dropped him four shots off the pace of the leaders on a day filled with low scores at TPC Twin Cities, but he finally got it going on the back nine with four birdies in his last five holes to get into the mix at T3, one behind Akshay Bhatia and Thorbjørn Olesen. 

[Jul 26, 2025 at 5:07 pm ET · Robby Kalland]

It took five hours, but Kurt Kitayama has finally been unseated at the top of the leaderboard. Akshay Bhatia is the first man go reach 18 under at the 3M Open after birdieing the 18th with an up-and-down from long of the green in two to shoot an 8-under 63 and the clubhouse lead. He was quickly matched at 18 under by Thorbjørn Olesen on the course as he birdied the 14th to tie Bhatia, who will now wait to see where he stands when play ends on Saturday. No matter what happens, he's going to be in one of the final pairings and will have a great chance at a win on Sunday. 

[Jul 26, 2025 at 4:38 pm ET · Robby Kalland]

Gotterup is now part of the 4-way tie at the top (Alex Noren doubled the 17th to fall back to 15 under) after his latest birdie, courtesy of an incredible shot out of the rough to leave a tap-in birdie. Gotterup is now 7 under for his round and still has the drivable 16th and reachable par-5 18th yet to play. 

[Jul 26, 2025 at 4:31 pm ET · Robby Kalland]

Kurt Kitayama stood alone at 17 under for a much longer time than expected on Saturday, but he finally has lots of company at the top of the leaderboard after a flurry of action at TPC Twin Cities. Noren has made three straight birdies to join the lead, Bhatia has back-to-back, while Coody finally got to that 17 under number after a red-hot start to his round got him into contention quickly. 

[Jul 26, 2025 at 3:57 pm ET · Robby Kalland]

The hottest man on the PGA Tour not named Scottie Scheffler is now T2. Gotterup won two weeks ago at the Scottish Open and finished third at the Open Championship, but despite two straight weeks in contention at significant events he stayed in the field at the 3M Open and is lurking menacingly on the leaderboard again. After making the turn in a 4-under 31, he's birdied two of the first three holes on the back side to get to 6 under on his round and 16 under for the tournament. That's got him in a tie for second with Pierceson Coody and Thorbjørn Olesen, one back of Kurt Kitayama, and he's proving his game wasn't just a good fit for the links but can travel anywhere. 

[Jul 26, 2025 at 3:28 pm ET · Robby Kalland]

The 54-hole leader got off to a sluggish start with five straight pars to open his round on a day when birdies have been flying around, but he's woken up some late in his front nine with a birdie on No. 6 followed by a hole-in-one on the 209-yard par-3 8th to jump back into a share of the lead at 17 under. 

We've seen a number of players fire it close at the 8th today to set up birdies, but Olesen took it a step further by throwing one right at the flag and having it bounce in the cup. That's certainly one way to reclaim the co-lead in the tournament and if he goes on to win, he'll look back at that 6 iron on the 8th as one that went a long way to getting him there. 

[Jul 26, 2025 at 2:39 pm ET · Robby Kalland]

With how many birdies we saw early on Saturday, most expected Kitayama to have some company at 17 under pretty quickly once the leaders got on the course. However, Thorbjørn Olesen and Jake Knapp have both made five straight pars to start their day and Kitayama continues to hold the solo lead by two. Takumi Kanaya and Jesper Svensson (in the clubhouse with a 63) are tied for second at 15 under, but no one has threatened Kitayama's lead just yet after his incredible 60 in the morning. 

[Jul 26, 2025 at 1:33 pm ET · Robby Kalland]

While he couldn't close out history and shoot a 59, Kurt Kitayama has taken the early clubhouse lead on Saturday with a spectacular third round 60. After he birdied the 16th to get to 11 under, it looked like we might see the 16th round of 59 or better on the PGA Tour, as he needed just one more to get there. Unfortunately, a bogey on the long par-3 17th and a drive in the rough on the par-5 18th effectively ended those chances. He did hit a spectacular wedge on the 18th that took a peek at the hole for the eagle he needed as it spun by, but he had to settle for a birdie and an 11-under 60. 

Still, Kitayama matched Adam Svensson for the course record at TPC Twin Cities and moved himself up from T44 to the top spot on the leaderboard at 17 under. The 54-hole leader, Thorbjørn Olesen hasn't even teed off for his third round, and the conditions are ripe for scoring today, so Kitayama won't likely have a share of the lead by the end of the day, but at 17 under he should be within striking distance going into the final round and will have a ton of confidence coming off a phenomenal round of golf on Saturday morning. 

[Jul 26, 2025 at 1:15 pm ET · Robby Kalland]

A wayward tee shot on the long par 3 put him short-sided in the bunker and he could not get up-and-down to stay at 11 under for the day. He gave his par putt from outside 15 feet a strong run, but hit it with too much pace on the high side and ran it by. With the bogey, Kitayama falls back to 10 under and will need to produce an eagle on the par-5 18th in order to join the 59 club. 

[Jul 26, 2025 at 1:08 pm ET · Robby Kalland]

The story of Saturday at the 3M Open is Kurt Kitayama putting together an unbelievable round of golf with 11 birdies in his first 16 holes, meaning he needs just one more over his final two holes to shoot 59. That'd break the course record set by Adam Svensson on Thursday and make him the 15th man in PGA Tour history to shoot a 59 -- and the second this year after Jake Knapp did so at the Cognizant Classic. 

Kitayama's latest birdie came on the drivable par-4 16th, as he pulled his drive into the left greenside bunker but got up-and-down from the sand for birdie to move to 11 under on his day and extend his lead to three shots at 17 under for the tournament. 

[Jul 26, 2025 at 12:45 pm ET · Robby Kalland]

59 watch is officially on for Kurt Kitayama. He's 10 under on his round (and the solo leader at 16 under for the tournament) and needs two birdies in his final three holes to break 60 and set a new course record at TPC Twin Cities -- breaking the one that was set on Thursday by Adam Svensson's 60. Kitayama will have great opportunities to make those birdies he needs on the drivable 302-yard par-4 16th and the par-5 18th if he can hit two good tee shots coming in. 

[Jul 26, 2025 at 12:03 pm ET · Robby Kalland]

La Sasso's 63 has him at 13 under, one off the lead as the amateur out of Ole Miss put together a sensational third round. La Sasso made six birdies on his back nine, including one to close out his round on the 18th, and moved into T3 -- with the leaders still more than 90 minutes away from teeing off. The reigning individual NCAA champion had it working off the tee and on the greens, which is always a good combination, and was able to make his way around TPC Twin Cities without dropping a shot. He's already guaranteed his best ever finish in a PGA Tour event, but will have his sights set on a top 10 and possibly contending if the leaders can't push the lead out much further this afternoon. 

[Jul 26, 2025 at 11:21 am ET · Robby Kalland]

Kitayama is now T2 at 13 under, one off the lead, after a sensational 7-under 28 on the front nine. He'll now need to just shoot a 31 on the back to shoot a 59 and break the course record at TPC Twin Cities that Adam Svensson set on Thursday with his 60. 

PGA Tour

[Jul 26, 2025 at 11:03 am ET · Robby Kalland]

The NCAA individual national champion from Ole Miss is having a tremendous third round after making the cut on the number. La Sasso is 7 under thru 16, pacing for the low round of the day. He's birdied five of seven holes on the back nine to get into T3 at 12 under, two back of the leader. La Sasso has played in four events on Tour, but never made the cut before this week and now he could be in contention on Sunday.