Thursday, January 22, 2009

17-Year-Old Millionaire Gets Masters Invite



In a time in which Michelle Wie & Ty Tryon both signed multi-million dollar endorsement deals before hitting their first shots as professionals, Ryo Ishikawa did it the old-fashioned way. The 17-year-old high school senior does double duty as a touring pro on the Japan Tour, and is the youngest professional to win his way to a 100 million...YEN that is (which is roughly $1.1 Million USD).

In November, Ishikawa won the Japan Tour's mynavia ABC Championship as a professional, after having won the Tour's Munsignwear Open KSB Cup as a 15-year-old amateur in 2007!

After being a part of Team Asia in the recent Royal Trophy competition, in which Asian players competed against and BEAT European players in a Ryder Cup-like team event, Ishikawa has garnered a lot of attention.

Earlier this week he received invitations the the Northern Trust Open, where the defending champion is Phil Mickelson, and the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, which Tiger Woods won in stunning fashion last year. As if he wasn't already going to be playing in two great tourneys against the PGA Tour's elite (unlike this week's event!), his third invite of the week is to play in the Masters!

Ishikawa is apparently elated and I'm excited to see how he will fare. He has risen to 60th in the Official World Golf Rankings, currently ahead of such notables as Woody Austion, '08 Ryder Cupper Chad Campbell, Scott Verplank, DJ Trahan and current 2nd round leader at the Bob Hope, Pat Perez (who is 90th).

I couldn't find much on Ishikawa, except for the clip above, but obviously he has caught the attention of the right people. It will be very interesting to see how a 17-year-old, however talented, handles himself against the best in the world.

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