Ryo Ishikawa

Captain Greg Norman went with youth -- and his gut instinct -- in this Captain's Pick from Japan. Norman's decision to choose Ryo Ishikawa, who turned 18 on Sept. 17, as one of his two Captain's Picks -- making him the youngest player in the history of the competition -- was based on a number of factors, but one of the strongest arguments in Ishikawa's favor was his outstanding play on the Japan Golf Tour in 2009. He won the Mizuno Open in late June by three strokes despite an up-and-down final round. In early August, he won the Sun Chlorella Classic by leading wire to wire and finishing with a birdie on the final hole to earn a one-stroke win over Brendan Jones. Then in early September, he fired a second-round 65 to take the lead and went on to win the Fujisankei Classic by five strokes over Daisuke Maruyama. The victory was his third in six Japan Golf Tour events over a 10-week period and kept him in first place in the Japan Golf Tour's Order of Merit (official money list). He also improved to 47th in the Official World Golf Ranking, becoming the youngest player to ever make the top 50. Ishikawa showed promise early in his career when, in 2007, the 15-year-old amateur won the Munsingwear Open KSB Cup on the Japan Golf Tour, making him the youngest winner of a Japanese men's event and the only teenager to win on the Japan Golf Tour since it was formed in 1973. He turned professional in early 2008 at age 16 and by the close of 2008, had become the youngest golfer to be ranked in the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

« Back to International Team