Ishikawa vows to relaunch golf career

Pandabelle -- really? Like at the U.S. Open or British? Not even close.

jerseyboy - The Opens are outliers for PGA play, even. Go play Shishido Hills West or Kawana Fuji in the summer and tell me the rough is not as tough or tougher than Greenbriar or Harbor Town or Colonial.

Ishikawa at the age of 22 has top 30 finishes in all 4 international majors. Yes, including both Opens.

the best thing he could do is live overseas and train and play the European/US tours. thatll do more for his golf than just playing Japanese titles. playing well overseas needs a differently level of committment and menatlity.

He's perfectly capable of playing fantastic golf, but he's got to eliminate distractions, get the media off his back, spend more time playing than appearing in commercials, and put more time in on foreign courses. He didn't peak too early--he never got near his peak.

I've played several of the JGTO courses here and there's plenty of rough.

Pandabelle -- really? Like at the U.S. Open or British? Not even close.

Ishikawa has vowed to relaunch his stuttering golf career after ending a title drought stretching back almost two years.

He's 22. He hasn't launched his first golf career internationally. Another fine example of the J media building someone up who hasn't proven his worth. I like Ryo but he has never been a "Tiger Woods". Ever. Hopefully he can develop in the future but relaunching and all this crap is BS.

And yes, he did get married very early but he wasn't doing well before the ring went on.

Japanese courses are well manicured as are all PGA tournament courses. The difference is the degree of difficulty, Japanese JPGA courses play like LPGA courses. They are mostly short with no real nightmare holes. Ishikawa needs to get back on the PGA tour, ban the Japanese media from dogging him around and get his game back against the best players on the hardest courses. Oh yeah, and have them close downd that Ryo Ishikawa Museum they built in his home town until he has some PGA hardware to go into it.

But winning in Japan, where courses are manicured within an inch of their lives, with practically no real rough to speak of

I've played several of the JGTO courses here and there's plenty of rough.

“Hopefully now I can break through at the world level,”

He's only 22, so there is still plenty of time. Just look at what Micelle Wie is doing this year on the LPGA tour. But winning in Japan, where courses are manicured within an inch of their lives, with practically no real rough to speak of, is far different than what is required on the "world level", especially the majors.

i'm gonna go out on a limb and say his marriage wrecked his career. he was waaay to young to get hitched.

Why does Japan always need to qualify themselves with "Japan's .........(insert foreign something)? Make your name on your own ability. You can't be like someone else, but you can outperform or underperform compared to others.

As matter of fact, Ishikawa was never that talented. He became popular because he was young, and Japanese consumers like new and young things.

Matsuyama is actually a talented player. He takes the game seriously. He let's his game do the talking, and you can see it in his record.

Yet another sports "superstar" who is more flash and style than substance.

I wonder if he's still doing those 'Speed Learning' commercials. Espritline is one of Japan's most bizarre companies out there. ((shiver))

He'll go nowhere.... its only because Matsuyama stole his limelight that he now wants to remake himself. He should have just shut up and put up the numbers first. Not go to the press and tell them what he's going to do.