Once the ‘Bashful Prince,’ Ryo Ishikawa still has eyes on the throne

For Ryo Ishikawa, life more than a decade ago looked slightly different that it does today: Whether he was in America or at home in Japan, every shot played was captured by TV crews, and every post-round interview drew a massive scrum of golf writers. His pressers would take so long that his agent would bring a stool for Ishikawa to sit on while the latter answered every media question, those answers sure to make sporting headlines back home.

Before the emergence of Hideki Matsuyama, now an eight-time PGA TOUR winner, Ishikawa was the darling of Japanese fans and media, all of whom were desperate to embrace a sporting hero that would inspire a golf-mad nation.

At 15, Ishikawa wrote a slice of golf history by becoming the youngest winner on the Japan Golf Tour in 2007. By the time he turned 20, the boy who earned the nickname “Bashful Prince” – given for his charm, good looks and youthful exuberance – was already a nine-time winner, a top-50 player in the world and a two-time Presidents Cup International Team member in 2009 and 2011.

Ishikawa ventured to the U.S. in search of more success and spent five seasons on the PGA TOUR from 2013 to 2017. He competed against the likes of Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh, and notched two career-best runner-up finishes before a back injury cut short his American dreams.

While he seems to have been in the game forever, Ishikawa is still only 32 – just five months older than Matsuyama. And while his swing speed may be a touch slower these days, Ishikawa has rebuilt his game by winning four times at home in the past four years in preparation for a final throw of the dice in an effort to make his mark on the PGA TOUR.

Ishikawa’s impressive T4 finish at the recent ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, where he was the highest finishing local golfer in Japan’s lone PGA TOUR event, received more coverage in some of the local newspapers than Collin Morikawa’s six-shot triumph, and the performance fueled the fire in his belly.

He did not hesitate to respond with a firm “yes” when asked if he would accept an automatic exemption into the next FedExCup Fall event at the World Wide Technology Championship in Mexico this week.

“I'm always hoping to get back on the PGA TOUR,” he said while surrounded by Japanese media following the ZOZO. “It's been about five years since I've been back, but I've always been trying to rebuild myself so I can go back. I really feel like it's never too late to achieve that, and I'm working hard for it.

“I'm happy to finish in the top 10. I'm really, really pleased about that,” added Ishikawa, whose last top 10 on TOUR was in the 2016 CIMB Classic in Malaysia.

The likeable Japanese star currently has 127 non-member FedExCup points and effectively needs to finish solo second in Mexico to climb into the top 125 on the FedExCup Fall points list. Were he to do that, and stay there through the conclusion of the season-ending RSM Classic in two weeks, he’d get his TOUR card.

Another top 10 in Mexico would get him into the next event – the Butterfield Bermuda Championship – and enhance his prospects of getting back to the promised land in golf. If he fails, Ishikawa is expected to compete in PGA TOUR Q-School at TPC Sawgrass in December.

Ishikawa is excited not only for his own prospects but also for Japanese golf in general. He spoke with a sense of pride after 22-year-old Kensei Hirata and 21-year-old Ryo Hisatsune finished T6 at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, marking an unprecedented three Japanese players in the top 10. Hirata is also at the World Wide Technology Championship this week, while Hisatsune opted to play in the DP World Tour’s penultimate event in South Africa, the Nedbank Golf Challenge. He is 10th in the Race to Dubai rankings and should he remain there at season’s end would earn a PGA TOUR card for 2024.

“I think there is currently a lot of momentum, especially for players in their early 20s, which we didn’t see back in 2019 (the first year of the ZOZO),” said Ishikawa. “I think (it) is a period of change and this is a great opportunity for them, and just the fact that a PGA TOUR event is here in Japan and they’re in the field shows how competitive the game has become since 2019. The motivation is high.”