Ryo Ishikawa’s first round score at Japan Golf Tour Championship likely to cost him the US Open
Japan’s teenage golf sensation, Ryo Ishikawa seems least interested in participating in the second major of the season, The US Open at Congressional next week, when he pulled in a disastrous first round score of 12-over par, 83, on Thursday at the second
major of the year, the Japan Golf Tour Championship.
Only 109 players among the field were able to complete 18 holes when the round was put off because of heavy rains that inundated the greens and fairways.
Ishikawa is resting at the bottom of the leaderboard, carding the third worst round of the day and appears less likely to be making through the cut at the end of second round. Masanori Kobayashi, who has turned out to be Ishikawa’s worst nightmare, finished
on top of the leaderboard with his splendid score of two-under, 69 on a difficult rain soaked course.
Kobayashi defeated Ishikawa in Totoumi Hamamatsu Open two weeks ago on the difficult playoff hole and seems to be in a perfect position to clinch the title at Japan Golf Tour (JGT).
JGT has the least points on the PGA Tour rankings and Ishikawa needed a strong finish to break into the Top 50 to reserve a place in the US open. He managed to climb up to 49th position after his runner-up finish at Totoumi Hamamatsu Open, but
currently rests at 51st position after the conclusion of HP Byron Nelson Championship at Wentworth, Surrey.
The 19-year-old prodigy, Ishikawa has clinched 10 professional wins in his short career. He became the youngest winner on the JGT when he won the Munsingwear Open KSB Cup In 2007 at the age of 15. He turned professional in 2008 and went ahead to bag consecutive
events on the tour and became the youngest ever to break into the Top 100 on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR). He is coming out of a strong finish at the Masters earlier in the season where he finished tied for the 20th.
With his lopsided first round performance, Ishikawa will now need a miracle to make it to the top and also in the US Open next week.
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