Kurt Kitayama’s win at the 2025 3M Open on Sunday surpasses last year’s viewership by 40%

Kurt Kitayama recently captured a stunning victory at the 3M Open in Blaine. However, the 2025 3M Open proved to be a big win for CBS Sports, not just on the course but on screens across the country. In a post shared by Josh Carpenter on X on July 29, CBS reported that its final-round broadcast drew an average of 1.854 million viewers, marking a 40% increase over last year’s numbers.

The caption of the post reads:

"CBS Sports says it drew 1.854M viewers for Sunday's final round of the 3M Open, won by Kurt Kitayama. That big 40% increase is partially due to last year (Vegas) drawing just 1.323M going up against the Paris Olympics.

Prior two years were 1.665M (Hodges) and 2.154M (Finau)."

This year’s final round, which saw Kurt Kitayama emerge as the champion, significantly outperformed the 2024 edition. Last year, the event—featuring Tom Hoge (Vegas)—faced tough competition from the Paris Olympics and managed just 1.323 million viewers. In contrast, this year’s coverage peaked at 2.745 million viewers, showing a major boost in audience interest.

CBS also revealed that Paramount+ recorded its most-streamed 3M Open ever during Sunday’s coverage. The growth in both television and streaming numbers reflects the rising engagement around the tournament.

Looking back at the previous years, the 3M Open drew 1.665 million viewers in 2023 when Lee Hodges claimed the title and 2.154 million in 2022 during Tony Finau’s victory. With that, let's look at Kurt Kitayama's winning performance in detail.

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Kurt Kitayama rallies with final-round 65 to win the 3M Open 2025

Kurt Kitayama surged to victory at the 2025 3M Open on Sunday, July 27, firing a final-round 6-under 65 to secure his second career PGA Tour title. He finished the tournament at 23-under par, edging out Sam Stevens by just one shot.

Starting the day one stroke behind the leaders at TPC Twin Cities, Kitayama came out strong. He birdied the first three holes and added three more on the front nine, making the turn at 6-under for the round. Though the back nine saw him trade two birdies for two bogeys, his front-nine heroics proved enough to seal the win—Kitayama's first since the 2023 Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Stevens made a push of his own, carding a solid 66 but fell just short and settled for solo second place. Meanwhile, overnight leaders Thorbjørn Olesen and Akshay Bhatia stumbled on Sunday. Olesen dropped to T14 after a 2-over 73, while Bhatia tumbled 24 spots down the leaderboard following a disappointing 4-over 75. Here's a look at the leaderboard of the 2025 3M Open:

• 1. Kurt Kitayama: -23
• 2. Sam Stevens: -22
• T3. David Lipsky: -20
• T3. Matt Wallace: -20
• T3. Pierceson Coody: -20
• T3. Jake Knapp: -20
• T7. William Mouw: -19
• T7. Alex Noren: -19
• T7. Takumi Kanaya: -19
• T10. Noah Goodwin: -18
• T10. Chris Gotterup: -18
• T12. Taylor Montgomery: -17
• T12. Wyndham Clark: -17
• T14. Adam Svensson: -16
• T14. Chris Kirk: -16
• T14. Mac Meissner: -16
• T14. Taylor Moore: -16
• T14. Jesper Svensson: -16
• T14. Thorbjørn Olesen: -16
• T20. Christiaan Bezuidenhout: -15
• T20. Gary Woodland: -15
• T20. Brendan Valdes: -15
• T20. Ben Kohles: -15
• T20. Emiliano Grillo: -15
• T25. Thomas Rosenmueller: -14
• T25. Harry Higgs: -14
• T25. Akshay Bhatia: -14
• T28. Kevin Roy: -13
• T28. Kevin Kisner: -13
• T28. Tom Kim: -13
• T28. Nick Hardy: -13
• T28. Cameron Champ: -13
• T28. Rickie Fowler: -13
• T28. Victor Perez: -13
• T28. Carson Young: -13
• T28. Séamus Power: -13
• T28. Chad Ramey: -13
• T28. Nate Lashley: -13
• T39. Greyson Sigg: -12
• T39. Garrick Higgo: -12
• T39. Austin Eckroat: -12
• T39. Max Homa: -12
• T39. Joel Dahmen: -12
• T44. Jhonattan Vegas: -11
• T44. Zac Blair: -11
• T44. Patrick Fishburn: -11
• T44. Adam Hadwin: -11
• T44. Joseph Bramlett: -11
• T44. Troy Merritt: -11
• T44. Matthieu Pavon: -11
• T44. Alex Smalley: -11
• T44. Michael La Sasso (a): -11
• T53. Mackenzie Hughes: -10
• T53. Camilo Villegas: -10
• T53. Isaiah Salinda: -10
• T53. Adam Scott: -10
• T57. Rico Hoey: -9
• T57. Vince Whaley: -9
• T57. David Skinns: -9
• T57. Brice Garnett: -9
• T61. Mark Hubbard: -8
• T61. Trevor Cone: -8
• T61. Matthias Schmid: -8
• T61. Ben Silverman: -8
• T61. Cristobal Del Solar: -8
• T61. Sam Burns: -8
• T61. Luke Clanton: -8
• T68. Matt McCarty: -7
• T68. Taylor Pendrith: -7
• T68. Niklas Norgaard: -7
• T68. Sam Ryder: -7
• T72. Antoine Rozner: -5
• T72. Henrik Norlander: -5
• 74. Steven Fisk: -4
• 75. David Ford: -3
• 76. Taylor Dickson: -2