diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 310cb701c..d394615d9 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -123,18 +123,10 @@ undeploy: kustomize ## Undeploy controller from the K8s cluster specified in ~/.
 .PHONY: kustomize
 KUSTOMIZE = $(shell pwd)/bin/kustomize
 kustomize: ## Download kustomize locally if necessary.
-ifeq (,$(wildcard $(KUSTOMIZE)))
-ifeq (,$(shell which kustomize 2>/dev/null))
-	@{ \
-	set -e ;\
-	mkdir -p $(dir $(KUSTOMIZE)) ;\
-	curl -sSLo - https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/releases/download/kustomize/v5.2.1/kustomize_v5.2.1_$(OS)_$(ARCH).tar.gz | \
-	tar xzf - -C bin/ ;\
-	}
-else
-KUSTOMIZE = $(shell which kustomize)
-endif
-endif
+	curl -sL https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/releases/download/kustomize/v5.2.1/kustomize_v5.2.1_$(OS)_$(ARCH).tar.gz -o kustomize-linux.tar.gz
+	tar -zxf kustomize-linux.tar.gz -C /usr/local/bin kustomize
+	chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/kustomize
+	rm -f kustomize-linux.tar.gz
 
 .PHONY: ansible-operator
 ANSIBLE_OPERATOR = $(shell pwd)/bin/ansible-operator