GOLF

Woods gets Westwood, Ishikawa at British Open

Tuesday 14th July, 06:09 AM JST

TURNBERRY, Scotland —

Tiger Woods can expect even more attention than usual the first two rounds of the British Open, as he is playing with Lee Westwood of England and Japanese teen Ryo Ishikawa.

Woods has never played with the 17-year-old Ishikawa, who made history at 15 when he won on the Japan Golf Tour, the youngest winner on a sanctioned circuit. They met briefly in Arizona at the Accenture Match Play Championship, captured by dozens of photographers.

Ishikawa picked up his third career title on the JGTO tour last month at the Mizuno Open Yomiuri Classic, the final qualifier in Japan for the British Open. He has played in four U.S. PGA Tour events this year, missing the cut in three of them. He has also received a special invitation to play in the PGA Championship on Aug 13-16, the final major of the season.

Wire reports

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14 Comments

sk4ek at 07:42 AM JST - 14th July

Well I'm sure this will do wonders for poor Ryo-kun's nerves... Gee, do you think they could've upped the pressure a bit more??
pawatan at 07:52 AM JST - 14th July

Gee, do you think they could've upped the pressure a bit more??

Well, if he's going to play on the big tours he better get used to that pressure real quick. It's not high school golf, sometimes you're going to get paired with the best in the world.

Should be fun to watch!
GJDailleult at 07:58 AM JST - 14th July

Tiger Woods should expect more attention because he is playing with a Japanese teenager???? Excuse me but he is Tiger Woods, he always gets ALL the attention. What planet is the writer living on? Actually, don't answer that, I know the answer. Ishikawa and the media attention he gets are bashed a lot on this site, sometimes unfairly, but this article is just too far over the top.
xpompey8 at 09:07 AM JST - 14th July

Tiger Woods will get the usual attention. I just hope the Japanese media doesn't get in his way.
1trickster at 09:17 AM JST - 14th July

perfect opportunity to sport the pink pants on the world stage
ratpack at 09:45 AM JST - 14th July

Just another day at the office for Tiger. I think Ishikawa will be blown away by the crowds that will amass for him.....cough cough...opps i mean Tiger. Tigers normal gallery is usually twice (3 times) the size of what Ishikawa has ever played in front of....but this time i guess there will be dozens more bus loads because of the Lee Westwood home crowd factor and the throng of Japanese people and curious onlookers wanting to watch if Ishikawa can live up to the 17 year old sensation hype. Last week Ishikawa said he thinks he might go into double digits. Well when you consider that Jim Furyk (the person who came fifth) at the last British open was in 10 over, no doubt his pridiction may come true. But it all comes down to the course and how the weather plays in the British Open (Tiger won in 2006 by shooting 16 under par; Harrington won by 7 under in 2007 and 3 over in 2008). I hope Ishikawa doesn't try to impress with his slamming drives off the tees because there will be a heap of bunkers he will be hitting out of for his next shots. Tiger usually threads his way around the British open courses very rarely using driver at all off the tees so no doubt the japanese media will make a big thing about how Ishikawa outdrove tiger on this hole and that hole.....but lets wait to see the final scores. Booming drives are one thing. Great course management is another. No doubt Ishikawa will learn more in the first 2 days watching Tiger and Westwood than he ever will learn in a lifetime playing against his peers back in Japan. Good luck. It will be great to watch.
ultradodgy at 10:19 AM JST - 14th July

GJDailleult - given the consolidated news media industry here, the sheer size of the travelling Japanese press packs for stories like this is simply brain-boggling. Seriously, Tiger probably will be a little taken aback at how much bigger the pack is. I'm always shocked at how many folks are needed to get that one photo opp.

But anyway, good luck to Ishikawa. As another poster noted, he gets bashed a lot here but as far as I see he's a good, decent kid who is handling the pressure with grace and good humour. Far nicer role model than cranky, nationalistic Ichiro or hermit Matsui.
sk4ek at 10:42 AM JST - 14th July

And my other comments aside, I heartily agree--what better learning opportunity for a young golfer than to be teamed with the sport's greatest player on one of its most challenging courses??
GJDailleult at 12:04 PM JST - 14th July

ultradodgy, you're right, by attention they mean the media circus going on around Woods, not attention on Woods personally. Got it now, thanks!
stirfry at 12:56 PM JST - 14th July

Isao Aoki was a class act...Jumbo Ozaki wasn't very good (internationally), and got caught cheating as well (the ol' foot wedge)...lets hope the kid follows Aoki
lostrune2 at 04:05 PM JST - 14th July

Tiger Woods would be just fine - he's used to tiger-eye focusing in any situation. It's the others that should be worried.

The non-golf Japanese media stampede would have a lot more people around their way. And if they get in the way of Tiger's backswing, they shouldn't expect a peaceful wa harmonic bow coming back their direction.
Altria at 05:09 PM JST - 14th July

Good luck to the lad. It'll be an amazing experience playing with Tiger at 17.

Totally expect him to bomb out under all that pressure, but he'll no doubt be happy enough just to be there.
herefornow at 05:15 PM JST - 14th July

I'll take odds the kid doesn't come within ten strokes of Tiger after two rounds. By his own admission, he's pretty good by Japanese standards, but is no where near world class. Especially in his short game, which The Open demands. Even so, as others have said, it should be a great learning experience for him. I just hope NHK and the other TV stations can keep some perspective in reporting it. And, that when he misses the cut, they'll still cover it.
smithinjapan at 10:25 PM JST - 14th July

If he's getting more attention simply because he's playing with a Japanese kid, then that's a shame. I'm assuming the 'more attention' will be largely from Japanese media. Tiger deserves the attention he gets because he's earned it. Ishikawa, while he deserves some attention and hopefully in the future will deserve more, does NOT deserve to be under so much pressure at his age, and will hurt him from the 'deserving' the more I mentioned.

Anyway, I hope they both have a good game, and I hope Ishikawa doesn't buckle. Good luck, kid!