Kite Stays in a League of His Own : Golf: He birdies five of last seven holes to win by three shots, his second victory in three weeks.

Tom Kite said when he first came on the PGA Tour in the early 1970s, he was amazed by the streak that Johnny Miller was on at the time.

“I remember being totally amazed how easy he was making the game look and how well he was playing at that time,” Kite said of Miller, who won eight tournaments in 1974, “and consequently how he was able to separate himself from the field.”

Kite is now on a similar streak and he said he is simply riding it out.

Kite surged on the back nine Sunday at Riviera Country Club to win the Nissan Los Angeles Open by three strokes.

He shot a four-under par 67 in the final round of the rain-shortened, 54-hole tournament. He had a three-round score of 206, seven under par.

After 11 holes, Kite was four shots behind the leader at the time, Jay Don Blake, but he made up ground in a hurry.

He made birdies on five of the last seven holes for his first victory in a tournament he regards as one of the most prestigious on the tour.

In four tournaments this year, Kite, the reigning U.S. Open champion, has won twice and finished second once.

He shot a final-round 64 at La Costa to finish one stroke behind Davis Love III in the Tournament of Champions.

He was a record 35 under par two weeks ago in the 90-hole Bob Hope Classic, which he won by seven shots with a 62 on the final day.

He also shot a 62 last November in the PGA Grand Slam event at PGA West, only to lose in a playoff to Nick Price.

“I don’t know how long it will last, but in the last six months or so I have been able to shoot some of those Johnny Miller-type scores,” Kite said.

Kite, 43, earned $180,000 for his victory at Riviera to push his earnings over the $8-million mark as the all-time leading money winner.

Defending champion Fred Couples, Payne Stewart, Dave Barr and Donnie Hammond finished in a tie for second with 54-hole scores of 209.

“All the credit goes to Tom. He’s playing some of the best golf in his career,” Stewart said. “He’s also the hardest worker we have on the tour.”

Said Kite: “I’m playing so well now and the thing I’m having the most fun with is being patient. It’s so easy to get impatient when things don’t go exactly the way you want them to go.”

Kite was one over par after nine holes on Sunday and lagging back in the pack.

Then he made his birdie run, starting on the 12th hole with an 18-foot putt. Another 18-foot putt got him a birdie at the 14th hole. Then he dropped a 20-foot putt for another birdie at the 15th hole.

That was a pivotal hole for him as Paul Azinger, the leader at the time, bogeyed the 16th. Kite’s birdie at 15 put him in the lead for the first time and then he ran away with the tournament.

Kite got a par at No. 16, and then birdied the par-five, 578-yard 17th with a sand wedge shot to six feet, where he made his putt.

However, he saved his best for last at the par-four, 447-yard 18th hole, regarded as one of the toughest finishing holes on the tour.

“It’s not often that you see 18 play as short as it was because it was downwind,” Kite said. “I had a two-shot lead, but in the back of my mind I knew that 17 and 18 were playing straight downwind and it was quite possible for some of those players who were four under to birdie those holes.

“So I wanted to be aggressive as I could and challenge that pin and the shot turned out better than I dreamed of.”

Kite hit a seven-iron to within three feet of the hole and then made his birdie putt while the gallery in a crowd of 52,400 cheered.

“It’s really nice to win on a great golf course and, obviously, great courses draw great fields,” Kite said. “So you’re not having a pretty good week, you’re having a a real good week when you can beat the caliber of players we have on this golf course.”

Kite said he looked at the leader board early in his round.

“But after I made my birdie putt on 12, I decided not to watch it for a while,” he said. Kite said he asked his caddie, Mike Garrick, how he stood after his second shot on the 17th hole.

“I asked him, ‘Are we tied for the lead?’ and he said, ‘I think we’re one up.’ But I didn’t see a leader board from 12 through 18.”

Asked to assess his game at this stage of his career, Kite said:

“It’s the maturing of Tom Kite. The swing has gotten progressively better. The putting stroke has gotten really good.

“When you can’t trust your game when it’s going like it is right now, when are you ever going to trust it? You might as well sit back and enjoy and watch it. I’m almost like I’m a spectator.”