As an avid follower of any sport you often find yourself surfing the web, looking to keep abreast of what is happening around the globe in your chosen sport.
Golf is no different, and I am forever looking at the results of the various tours, studying not only who is leading and/or winning a tournament, but looking to see who produced a good final round or someone of note who just played well.
Following this past week’s edition of the ZoZo Championship what was really pleasing was seeing the name Ryo Ishikawa just off the leading pace for all four days of the PGA Tour event, ultimately resulting in the now 32-year-old’s superb share of fourth place behind Collin Morikawa.
The effort earned Ishikawa a cheque for $374,000, his biggest PGA Tour payout in nine long years, while it is also his highest finish in a PGA Tour event since 2014.
Looking closer, Ishikawa was one of only two players in the limited 78-player field to post four rounds in the 60s, while it was the 18-time Japan Golf Tour winners first PGA Tour top-10 in seven years.
If you thought Rory McIlroy’s arrival into professional golf’s winners’ circle in early 2009 was big news, it was nothing compared to Ishikawa’s Munsingwear Open KSB Cup win on 20th May, 2007 when the then amateur became the youngest winner of a men’s regular tournament on the Japan Golf Tour.
Ishikawa, who was competing in his first Japanese Tour event, was aged just 15 years and 8 months and was quickly being touted to become the first Japanese-born player to win one of the four men’s majors.
Back then, McIlroy was four years older than Ishikawa had been, and was nudging close to 50 DP World Tour counting events, both as an amateur and pro, before he captured his first success at the 2009 Dubai Desert Classic.
Ishikawa turned professional in 2008 and won another Japan Golf Tour tournament, the Mynavi ABC Championship. By the close of 2008 he had become the youngest ever player to reach the top 100 of the Official World Golf Rankings.
On 28 June 2009, Ishikawa won the Gateway to the Open Mizuno Open Yomiuri Classic on the Japan Golf Tour to qualify for the 2009 Open Championship, the first major event he qualified for without receiving a special exemption. It was also the year in which he first competed on the PGA Tour, albeit in just a handful of events.
With four wins on the Japan Golf Tour in 2009, in September, Ishikawa became the youngest golfer ever to reach the top 50 of the Official World Golf Rankings, while he easily topped the Tour money list.
Ishikawa caught the attention of American golf fans at the 2010 U.S. Open when he arrived on the tee wearing a bright bubblegum pink outfit.
There was a sombre side to the Japanese golfing idol when in March 2011 Ishikawa announced that he will be donating all of his 2011 tour earnings, plus an additional ¥100,000 for every birdie made during the year, to the Japan earthquake relief efforts.
On 11 March 2012, the one-year anniversary of the Japan earthquake, Ishikawa finished runner-up to George McNeill in the Puerto Rico Open, his highest PGA Tour finish thus far. Just over a week later, Ishikawa became a member of the PGA Tour. The second-place finish earned Special Temporary Membership by exceeding $411,943, or 150th on the PGA Tour’s 2011 money list.
He made 13 cuts in 23 events in his debut season in 2012, finishing 149th on the money list and missing the FedEx Cup playoffs (ranked 141st).
The 2014 PGA Tour season was a career best for Ishikawa, finishing 72nd on the money list by earning $1.38m over the course of the season, helped by a $528,000 payday when finishing runner-up at the Shriners Hospital Open. However, the following 2015 wraparound season was disappointing, missing 11 of 28 cuts and losing his Tour card.
While back home in 2015, he won two Japanese Tour events and added another in 2016, while injuries would beset Ishikawa, playing just six 2015/16 PGA Tour events while in the 2017 season he missed 12 of 20 cuts, finishing well down the FedEx Cup standings.
Ishikawa returned to the PGA Tour for the 2019/20 season playing only five events, making the cut in three but earning a paltry $20,000.
Though there was better fortune in his beloved homeland, returning to the winners’ circle in the latter half of 2019 and winning three times. Last year, he captured his 18th Japan Tour title, winning a third Visa Taiheiyo Masters, a decade after winning his second.
With Sunday’s top-10 ZoZo finish, Ishikawa earned an exemption into the next FedExCup Fall event, the World Wide Technology Championship in Mexico, in two weeks, and he did not hesitate to accept the opportunity at another crack against the stars from the PGA TOUR.
“I’m really happy to finish in the top 10,” he said.
It’s been great to play in a PGA Tour event here in Japan. The atmosphere was amazing. I felt really good playing in front of the Japanese fans.
“I’m always hoping to get back on the PGA Tour. It’s been about five years since I’ve been back, but I’ve always been trying to rebuild myself so that I can go back. I just really feel like it’s never too late to achieve that, so I’m always working hard for it.”
At age 32, Ishikawa is still some two years younger than McIlroy and I am sure I’m not alone in wishing his strong ZoZo showing can lead to a resurgence in the fortunes of this ultra-talented Japanese golfer and back to those lofty heights of 15, 16-years ago.
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