Ryo Ishikawa on Marrying Young, Juggling Golf and Family

Ryo Ishikawa (Photo by Issei Sakakibara)

In the final installment of "Straight Talk With Ryo"... his revealing column for The Asahi Shimbun... Japan's top golfer discusses his decision to "get married early".

As you may remember, news broke last year that the once Bashful Prince had gotten engaged to a former Junior High School classmate, creating something of a media frenzy.

In this remarkably honest piece the Japanese champion reveals that as far back as 2007... when he was just 15-years-old... he was becoming aware the eventual challenges of creating a quality family life in the intense world of professional golf.

Ryo Ishikawa is only twenty but he displays, in his column, the "maturity-beyond-his-years", that we've witnessed since he won the Munsingwear Open five years ago, becoming the youngest winner ever on the Japan Golf Tour .

The legendary Ishikawa integrity does not however preclude a romantic spirit that also comes through in his writing.  When explaining his decision to marry young he says, simply "I’ve always felt that my fiancee is the only woman I could imagine marrying".

We'll be seeing a lot of Ryo Ishikawa on this side of the Atlantic in the coming weeks. A schedule that includes this week's Crown Plaza Invitational, The Memorial Tournament, the Fedex St. Jude Classic and The US Open at The Olympic Club, will give the newly-fianced golf star and his bride-to-be a kind of dress rehearsal for what the future might hold.

The final stop on this US swing will be the Travelers Championship here in CT where we'll be looking forward to see our favorite golfer competing at TPC River Highlands for the first time.

Thank you again Noriko Imano for your unique insights... and if you'd like to read more about Ryo, we've got a lot.