Ishikawa is eyeing Puerto Rico prize – Golf Feature
Ryo Ishikawa, who has recently been invited to the Masters Tournament scheduled to be held in April, is playing the Puerto Rico Open, with an aim to register his first win of the 2012 golf season.
After the first-round finish on Thursday, March 8, 2012, he seemed to be moving on the right track.
Ishikawa scored a two-under par 70 in the opening round to finish four strokes off the pace set by Matt Jones and George McNeill.
According to Ishikawa, he was expecting strong winds at the Trump International Golf Club, Puerto Rico.
"The winds can be strong, so I have to be patient," Ishikawa said after the practice round finished on Wednesday. "Everything is good, I am playing good, and I am looking forward to playing tomorrow".
He is scheduled to play alongside Argentineans, Angel Cabrera and Andres Romero, in the first two rounds and is looking confident to turn his dream of a win into reality.
On a course that offered a number of hurdles and difficulties for the players to score low, Ishikawa did not seem to have any trouble in making his shots. His each and every shot looked calculated and knew what he was doing.
Prior to the event, many golf experts believed that Ishikawa may falter again and will not be able to impress his fans as he used to do in the past.
However, his opening round performance has stunned all his critics and proved that he has what it takes to be a superstar.
Throughout the round, only the par-four seventh challenged him, where he missed the par shot converting it into a bogey.
Otherwise, he was spectacular with his shots on the course and did not provide any chance to his critics to comment anything negative about him.
Recently, he was given exemption for the Masters Tournament for the second time in his career.
Most of the golf analysts criticised tournament officials because, according to them, it does not make any sense to give him the exemption for the second time.
They are of the view that there are many other outstanding players trying to get their names listed as participants.
Therefore, Ishikawa must have all this in his mind. He is trying to prove that even if he had not been given the exemption, he could have qualified through getting his name listed among the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Rankings.
If his current season's performances are evaluated, he does not have anything special to mention in his records. His best finish in 2012 came in the Farmers Insurance Open, where he was tied for 13th.
The last tournament that he played was World Golf Championships – Accenture Match Play Championship and defeated Bill Haas 1-up in the opening round.
However, he failed to keep his momentum going and lost to Paul Lawrie 1-up in the very next round to get knocked out.
His fans and supporters believe that the reason behind his poor performances in the start of the season is his movement from one part of the world to another to participate in PGA events.
The tough routine makes him stiff and tired, which in turn is reflected in his unimpressive performances.
However, Ishikawa believes that he is now back in his momentum and ready to stun his opponents on each and every field that he will enter.
There is no doubt that the Japanese youngster has the capability to record good scores on the leaderboard and register wins on the PGA Tour as he used to do on Japan Golf Tour.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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