BANGKOK, Thailand -- Japanese teenager Ryo Ishikawa will become the youngest player to contest the Ryder Cup-style Royal Trophy golf tournament after he was nominated to join the Asian team to take on Europe next month.
Asia captain Joe Ozaki named the 17-year-old Ishikawa, one of Japan's most popular sportsmen, as the eighth and final team member for the Jan. 9-11 team match play tournament.
Ishikawa became the youngest winner of a regular men's tournament and the first teenager to win on the Japan Golf Tour when he claimed the 2007 Munsingwear Open as an amateur in his first Tour appearance, aged 15 years and eight months.
He rallied for a thrilling victory at the Myanavi ABC Championship last month for his second Japan Tour win and first since becoming the tour's youngest player to turn professional.
"Ryo Ishikawa is a very strong and exciting addition to our Asian Team for the Royal Trophy," former PGA Tour regular Ozaki said in a statement Tuesday. "He shows a level of maturity well beyond his years. At such a young age he is already the winner of two Tour titles and also finished second twice this year."
Ishikawa joins a strong Asian team which includes South Koreans Charlie Wi and S.K. Ho, three-time 2008 tournament winner Prayad Marksaeng and two-time Asian Tour Order of Merit champion Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand, Japan's Hideto Tanihara and Toru Taniguchi and 2007 Asian Tour Order of Merit champion Liang Wenchong of China.
"I am also looking forward to learning from the experience of playing together with some very experienced players, being led by captain Ozaki and playing against a strong selection of the best European golfers," Ishikawa said.
The third edition of the Royal Trophy, sanctioned by the Asian, Japan and European tours, will be held at Bangkok's Amata Spring Country Club. Europe won the first two Trophies in 2006 and 2007, while the 2008 competition was postponed in January due to a period of national mourning for the sister of the King of Thailand, who donated the trophy.
"The Royal Trophy is a great concept. It is not only a team competition between Europe and Asia, but it also plays a very important role in the promotion of the game of golf in the Asian region," Tadashi Koizumi, Japan Golf Tour chairman said. "We believe Ryo Ishikawa is a strong addition to Captain Naomichi 'Joe' Ozaki's powerful team of Asian champions."
The Europe team is waiting on the recovery of captain Seve Ballesteros from October brain surgery before announcing its lineup for the tournament.
