Muscat: Kurt Kitayama kept his cool as everyone else on the leaderboard collapsed to win the Oman Open by one stroke on Sunday.
The American finished on a seven-under par total of 281, one stroke ahead of Spaniard Jorge Campillo, Frenchman Clement Sordet, German Maximilian Kieffer and Paraguayan Fabrizio Zanotti.
The top five entered the event with a total of just three European Tour victories between them — one to Kitayama, who has never won on the US tour, two to Zanotti — and the pressure told in the end.
“This one feels really good because when I won the first one I was playing really well and it just felt like it was coming,” Kitayama told the European tour website.
“This week I came in off three missed cuts and not having good weekends in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. It feels great to grind through all of that.”
High winds and sand storms earlier in the tournament led to a marathon final day at the at Al Mouj course as Kitayama played 33 holes on Sunday.
In the three holes he had managed before low light stopped the third round on Saturday, the American had dropped six shots to fall seven strokes off the lead.