In May 2007, as an amateur at the age of 16 he won The Munsingwear Open on the Japan Golf Tour. This marked a major watershed and was heralded as the renaissance of Japanese professional golf.   

Ryo turned professional in 2008 and by winning 4 times in 2009 he became the Japan Tour’s leading money winner at age 18. Ryo’s mercurial rise to golf stardom represented a much needed shot in the arm for the men’s Japan Golf Tour.

He gathers massive crowds at Japanese Tour events, crowds that rival Tiger Woods’s in the United States. He typically wears bright, flashy colors on the course, Mark Twain put it best when he said: “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society”.

His marketability and swashbuckling appeal has led the Japanese public to christen him as “The Bashful Prince”.

The golf ball he bashes over 275 meters during a drive has a miniature caricature of his face on it. To match this, the head cover on his driver (you guessed it!) has his likeness on it. It makes me wonder if his marketing people had a momentarily lapse and forgot they were working with “Hanikami Oji” (The Bashful Prince).

His father Katsumi an avid golfer himself introduced Ryo to the game when he was 7 and Ryo has never looked back. When Yonex reportedly spent a US$1 million developing a driver specifically for Ryo he said: “The ball feels lighter somehow. It’s a strange feeling, I’ve never hit it so far. I can have a real go at driving 320 meters now.”  

Last year, at 17 he finished tied for 56th at the PGA Championship in the US.  He was also selected by Greg Norman as a Captain’s pick for the President’s Cup where the best American players play the best International players. The 18-yearold put up such a spectacular performance that he tied Ernie Els of South Africa with 3 wins and 2 losses. This leads Tiger Woods himself to comment: “I’ve never seen an 18-year-old like this!”

As of this writing he is ranked 47th in the world. His optimized swing unleashes incredible length off the tee considering he stands at a mere 1.68 meters and weighs an unremarkable 66.5 kilograms. Pint sized stature by Western standards.

Ishikawa recently received an invitation to play at the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida.

He played well made the cut and finished 40th. At the conclusion of the 2nd round, (every round for that matter) upon the signing his scorecard he was instantly swarmed by the Japanese media as if he were a sage.

After three Japanese TV interviews and a further 20 minutes of golf “interrogation” encircled by 10 members of the Japanese print media he came up for oxygen. Still in good cheer, with his father Katsumi close at hand I asked Ryo a few questions.

Firstly, regardless of what you may think of his answers, he deserves an A+ for effort in trying to speak English. I know it was difficult for him but he insisted in answering in English without the aid of a translator. I asked what the biggest challenge was for him playing in the United States.

He said: “There are different grasses, different bunkers, those make me try different shots than what I’m used to on the Japanese Tour”.

In reference to Arnold Palmer, young Ryo said: “He is one of the people in the world I look up to”.  

With regard to handling pressure at such a young age Ryo said: “I’m so excited to be here, just nothing venture, nothing gained, I said to me”.

With the eyes of his nation keenly fixed upon him and the specter of high expectations, the young Japanese “prince of golf” ventures forth.

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