Ryo Ishikawa (石川 遼, Ishikawa Ryō, born 17 September 1991), also known by the nickname "Hanikami Ōji" (ハニカミ王子, literally, "Bashful Prince"), is a Japanese professional golfer.
| Ryo Ishikawa 石川 遼 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) | |||||||
| Personal information | |||||||
| Nickname | Hanikami Ōji (Bashful Prince) | ||||||
| Born | 17 September 1991 Matsubushi, Saitama, Japan | ||||||
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) | ||||||
| Weight | 72 kg (159 lb) | ||||||
| Sporting nationality |  Japan | ||||||
| Residence | Matsubushi, Saitama, Japan | ||||||
| Career | |||||||
| Turned professional | 2008 | ||||||
| Current tour(s) | Japan Golf Tour | ||||||
| Former tour(s) | PGA Tour | ||||||
| Professional wins | 20 | ||||||
| Highest ranking | 29 (29 November 2009)[1] | ||||||
| Number of wins by tour | |||||||
| Japan Golf Tour | 19 | ||||||
| Other | 1 | ||||||
| Best results in major championships | |||||||
| Masters Tournament | T20: 2011 | ||||||
| PGA Championship | T29: 2013 | ||||||
| U.S. Open | T30: 2011 | ||||||
| The Open Championship | T27: 2010 | ||||||
| Achievements and awards | |||||||
| |||||||
Amateur career
editOn 20 May 2007, Ishikawa became the youngest winner ever of a men's regular tournament on the Japan Golf Tour by winning[2] the Munsingwear Open KSB Cup at the age 15 years and 8 months.[3] He competed as an amateur and it was Ishikawa's first tour appearance. He finished one shot ahead of Japan's 9th top ranked player at the time, Katsumasa Miyamoto. The highest ranked player on the Official World Golf Ranking who took part in the event was Toru Taniguchi who finished T13, 6 shots shy of Ishikawa. Taniguchi ranked number 86 in the world after the event.[4]
Professional career
editIshikawa turned professional in 2008[5] 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.
Ishikawa played in PGA Tour tournaments for the first time in 2009. He was cut from the Northern Trust Open, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the 2009 Masters Tournament. He finished 71st at the Transitions Championship.
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.
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.[6]
Ishikawa dominated the Japan Golf Tour for much of the 2009 season and was the top-ranked Japanese player in the World Rankings. On 18 October, he tied for second at the Japan Open, losing to Ryuichi Oda on the second hole of a playoff. He finished the season as the money list leader on the Japan Golf Tour with ¥183.52 million.[7]
At the Japan GTO awards, held in December 2009, Ishikawa earned 9 titles. In addition to top money earner, he was named MVP, best scoring average (69.93), best putting average (1.724), highest birdie haul (4.42), etc.[7]
On 2 May 2010, in the final round of The Crowns, he shot a 12-under-par 58 to win the tournament by five strokes. The 58 was the lowest score ever carded in a Japan Golf Tour event, eclipsing a 59 achieved in the first round of 2003 Acom International by Masahiro Kuramoto, and lowest ever on any major golf tour.[8] His round consisted of 12 birdies and six pars.[8] However, because the course was a par-70 (versus the par-72 courses where some players shot 59), the record is not the lowest in relation to par.
Ishikawa caught the attention of American golf fans at the 2010 U.S. Open. Wearing a bright bubblegum pink outfit, he played under par on the first day and was tied for second after the second day before falling back over the weekend.[9]
On 30 March 2011 Ishikawa announced that he will be donating all of his 2011 tour earnings, plus an additional ¥100,000 for every birdie he makes during the year, to the Japan earthquake relief efforts.[10]
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.[11] The second-place finish earned Special Temporary Membership by exceeding $411,943, or 150th on the PGA Tour's 2011 money list.
Ishikawa played on the PGA Tour in 2013.[12] He made 13 cuts in 23 events, finishing 149th on the money list and missing the FedEx Cup playoffs (ranked 141st). He played the Web.com Tour Finals and finished 13th to retain his PGA Tour card for 2014.
Ishikawa got nine top-25s and made 14 cuts during the 2014 season, including a second-place finish at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open and a T-5 at the unofficial ISPS Handa World Cup of Golf.
Professional wins (20)
editJapan Golf Tour wins (19)
edit| Legend |
|---|
| Japan majors (3) |
| Other Japan Golf Tour (16) |
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory |
Runner(s)-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 23 May 2007 | Munsingwear Open KSB Cup (as an amateur) |
−12 (72-69-69-66=276) | 1 stroke | Katsumasa Miyamoto
|
| 2 | 2 Nov 2008 | Mynavi ABC Championship | −9 (70-70-70-69=279) | 1 stroke | Keiichiro Fukabori
|
| 3 | 28 Jun 2009 | Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open Yomiuri Classic | −13 (69-65-68-73=275) | 3 strokes |  David Smail
|
| 4 | 2 Aug 2009 | Sun Chlorella Classic | −17 (65-68-71-67=271) | 1 stroke |  Brendan Jones
|
| 5 | 6 Sep 2009 | Fujisankei Classic | −12 (69-65-68-70=272) | 5 strokes | Daisuke Maruyama
|
| 6 | 4 Oct 2009 | Coca-Cola Tokai Classic | −14 (71-68-66-69=274) | 1 stroke | Takeshi Kajikawa
|
| 7 | 2 May 2010 | The Crowns | −13 (68-70-71-58=267) | 5 strokes | Hiroyuki Fujita, Paul Sheehan
|
| 8 | 5 Sep 2010 | Fujisankei Classic (2) | −9 (66-71-68-70=275) | Playoff | Shunsuke Sonoda
|
| 9 | 13 Nov 2010 | Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters | −14 (70-72-65-67=274) | 2 strokes | Brendan Jones
|
| 10 | 11 Nov 2012 | Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters (2) | −15 (67-69-69-68=273) | 1 stroke | Michio Matsumura
|
| 11 | 6 Jul 2014 | Nagashima Shigeo Invitational Sega Sammy Cup | −10 (69-71-67-67=274) | Playoff | Koumei Oda
|
| 12 | 20 Sep 2015 | ANA Open | −16 (68-68-67-69=272) | 2 strokes | Yūsaku Miyazato
|
| 13 | 6 Dec 2015 | Golf Nippon Series JT Cup | −14 (68-68-63-67=266) | 5 strokes | Yoshinori Fujimoto, Koumei Oda
|
| 14 | 28 Aug 2016 | RIZAP KBC Augusta | −15 (66-68-70-69=273) | 5 strokes | Michael Hendry, Brad Kennedy, Tadahiro Takayama
|
| 15 | 7 Jul 2019 | Japan PGA Championship | −13 (65-67-71-66=269) | Playoff |  Hwang Jung-gon
|
| 16 | 25 Aug 2019 | Shigeo Nagashima Invitational Sega Sammy Cup (2) | −20 (67-66-67-68=268) | 4 strokes |  Juvic Pagunsan
|
| 17 | 8 Dec 2019 | Golf Nippon Series JT Cup (2) | −8 (68-70-68-66=272) | Playoff | Brad Kennedy
|
| 18 | 13 Nov 2022 | Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters (3) | −8 (68-66-69-69=272) | Playoff | Rikuya Hoshino
|
| 19 | 23 Jun 2024 | Japan Players Championship | −21 (66-64-69-68=267) | 1 stroke | Kota Kaneko
|
Japan Golf Tour playoff record (5–5)
| No. | Year | Tournament | Opponent(s) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2009 | Japan Open Golf Championship | Yasuharu Imano, Ryuichi Oda
|
Oda won with birdie on second extra hole |
| 2 | 2010 | Fujisankei Classic | Shunsuke Sonoda
|
Won with par on fourth extra hole |
| 3 | 2011 | Totoumi Hamamatsu Open | Masanori Kobayashi
|
Lost to birdie on second extra hole |
| 4 | 2014 | Nagashima Shigeo Invitational Sega Sammy Cup | Koumei Oda
|
Won with birdie on third extra hole |
| 5 | 2018 | Golf Nippon Series JT Cup | Hwang Jung-gon, Satoshi Kodaira
|
Kodaira won with birdie on first extra hole |
| 6 | 2019 | Japan PGA Championship | Hwang Jung-gon
|
Won with eagle on first extra hole |
| 7 | 2019 | Golf Nippon Series JT Cup | Brad Kennedy
|
Won with birdie on third extra hole |
| 8 | 2022 | ANA Open | Tomoharu Otsuki
|
Lost to eagle on first extra hole |
| 9 | 2022 | Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters | Rikuya Hoshino
|
Won with birdie on second extra hole |
| 10 | 2024 | BMW Japan Golf Tour Championship Mori Building Cup | Hiroshi Iwata
|
Lost to par on first extra hole |
Other wins (1)
edit- 2008 Kansai Open
Results in major championships
editResults not in chronological order in 2020.
| Tournament | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masters Tournament | CUT | CUT | T20 | CUT | T38 | |||||
| U.S. Open | T33 | T30 | CUT | CUT | ||||||
| The Open Championship | CUT | T27 | CUT | CUT | CUT | |||||
| PGA Championship | T56 | CUT | CUT | T59 | T29 | CUT |
| Tournament | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masters Tournament | ||||||
| PGA Championship | CUT | |||||
| U.S. Open | T51 | CUT | 63 | CUT | ||
| The Open Championship | NT |
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
NT = no tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
edit| Tournament | Wins | 2nd | 3rd | Top-5 | Top-10 | Top-25 | Events | Cuts made |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masters Tournament | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
| PGA Championship | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 3 |
| U.S. Open | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 4 |
| The Open Championship | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| Totals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 25 | 10 |
- Most consecutive cuts made – 3 (2012 PGA – 2013 PGA)
- Longest streak of top-10s – 0
Results in The Players Championship
edit| Tournament | 2015 |
|---|---|
| The Players Championship | T8 |
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Results in World Golf Championships
editResults not in chronological order before 2015.
| Tournament | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Championship | T42 | 68 | ||||||||||
| Match Play | R16 | R64 | R32 | NT1 | ||||||||
| Invitational | T53 | T4 | T50 | |||||||||
| Champions | T17 | T41 | T66 | T67 | NT1 |
1Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
NT = no tournament
"T" = tied
Team appearances
editProfessional
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Week 48 2009 Ending 29 Nov 2009" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
- ^ Munsingwear Open KSB Cup 2007 Archived 2 August 2012 at archive.today
- ^ "Reuters: Golf-Japan hails schoolboy as world record breaker". Reuters. Archived from the original on 9 July 2007. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ Official World Golf Ranking – 20 May 2007
- ^ "Sjoholm moves into top 10 as Ishikawa turns pro – 16 Jan 2008". OWGR. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ "Week 36 – Steve Stricker is the New World Number Two after Victory at the Deutsche Bank Championship". OWGR. Archived from the original on 11 September 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ a b The Daily Yomiuri, 8 December 2009, p. 18
- ^ a b "Ishikawa's 58 sets major-tour record". Associated Press. 2 May 2010.
- ^ Ryo Ishikawa Shines at Pebble in Bubblegum Pink Archived 25 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine Golfblips, 17 June 2010
- ^ "Ryo Ishikawa to give 2011 golf earnings to Japan disaster victims". The Guardian. UK. 31 March 2011. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
- ^ "Ishikawa becomes member for 2012". PGA Tour. 19 March 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
- ^ "Five internationals join Tour for 2013". PGA Tour. 20 November 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
External links
edit- Ryo Ishikawa at the Japan Golf Tour official site
- Ryo Ishikawa at the PGA Tour official site
- Ryo Ishikawa at the Official World Golf Ranking official site
- Panasonic Ryo Ishikawa official site
- Type of golf equipment used by Ryo Ishikawa