Kitayama grabs early lead at the Honda Classic

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Kurt Kitayama came into the Honda Classic with 25 previous appearances on the PGA Tour, most of them ending by missing the cut.

He’s on track to do a bit better this week.

Kitayama — ranked No. 289 in the world — was nearly flawless at PGA National on Thursday, shooting a 6-under 64 to take an early one-shot lead over Rory Sabbatini at the Honda Classic. It was Kitayama's best score in 69 rounds on the PGA Tour, fueled by a career-best run of four consecutive birdies on his second nine.

And he qualifies as a surprise leader, considering even he didn’t expect a start like this.

“Maybe not a start like that, but I felt like I’ve been playing well, and I’ve started to figure out my putting to kind of find this kind of round,” said Kitayama, a California native and former UNLV golfer who has missed cuts 64% of the time — 16 out of 25 — in tour events.

Among the other early Round 1 finishers, Peter Uihlein, Aaron Rai and Andrew Kozan all shot 67s and were three shots back. Brooks Koepka, a Palm Beach County native basically playing a home game this week, was in a group at 68. And Joaquin Niemann, the winner at Genesis last week, was 4 under through 12 before giving it all back and settling for an even-par 70.

“I didn’t do anything to really deserve to be 4- or 5-under,” Koepka said. “That’s a great score here. Just kind of ho-hummed it around.”

Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., was the top Canadian among early finishers at 1 under. Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., and Michael Gligic of Burlington, Ont., finished at even par.

Taylor Pendrith pf Richmond Hill, Ont., Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., and Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., had later tee times.

After several days of off-course drama coming