Japan TV ratings will surely plummet further if golfing heart throb Ryo Ishikawa does not qualify for next week’s Masters.
News of 14-time Major winning Tiger Woods withdrawing from his first Masters since 1995 will surely hurt worldwide coverage of the season’s first Major and viewing audience in golf-mad Japan will dip lower if the 22-year old Ishikawa doesn’t win this week’s Shell Houston Open and the final automatic invitation into the Masters.
At this stage there is just one Japan-born player in the Masters and that is Hideki Matsuyama who qualified by being inside the top-50 in the World Rankings at the end of 2013.
Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa looking to play in sixth straight Masters but needing to win this week’s Shell Houston Open. (Picture: Fran Caffrey www.golffile.ie)
Ishikawa has played every Masters since 2009, competing three times on a special invitation.
He secure a best Masters finish of 38th last year after closing with a career-best 68.
However prospects of a sixth Masters showing remains high as he’s in the midst of his best season on the PGA Tour, ranked 27th in the FedExCup thanks to three top-10s; he matched his career-best finish with a runner-up showing at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Ishikawa missed the cut in his only previous Shell Houston Open appearance, shooting 77-72 last year.
Organisers have drawn Ishikawa to play the opening two rounds of the $US 6.2m event in the company of Ireland’s Padraig Harrington and Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts and with all three needing to win this week to then travel on to Augusta, GA.
Here and thanks to the PGA Tour is four other players, including Harrington, who would dearly love to be teeing up in the Masters.
Padraig Harrington: The three-time major winner is in danger of missing the Masters for the first time since 1999. He has just one top-10 (T8, 2011) in seven Shell Houston Open appearances. This season, he’s 189th in the FedExCup after making just three cuts in seven starts. In 14 trips to the Masters, Harrington has four top-10s. His best finish at Augusta National is T-5 (2002, ’08).
Charles Howell III: The Augusta native narrowly missed qualifying for the Masters via the 2013 FedExCup standings. He finished 35th; the top 30 qualify for the Masters. He played every Masters from 2002-08, but has played just once since (T19, 2012). He finished 10th at last year’s Shell Houston Open, his first top-10 in nine appearances. He’s 22nd in this season’s FedExCup.
Geoff Ogilvy: The former U.S. Open champion missed last year’s Masters. It was the first time he wasn’t at Augusta National since 2005. He’s never missed the cut in seven Masters appearances, finishing in the top 30 five times. He finished a career-best T4 in 2011. Ogilvy made the cut in his first six Shell Houston Open appearances, including four top-10s, but has missed the cut in his past two. He’s 138th in this season’s FedExCup, but is coming off a T11 at last week’s Valero Texas Open. It was his first top-25 in 10 starts this season.
Matt Jones: The Australian is the highest finisher in last year’s FedExCup who’s not exempt for the Masters. He finished a career-best 32nd in the FedExCup last year. He finished 38th in last year’s Shell Houston Open after missing the cut in his first three appearances. He’s never played in the Masters. Jones is 75th in this season’s FedExCup.
