Ryo Ishikawa accepts temporary PGA Tour membership
We could be seeing a lot more of Japanese sensation Ryo Ishikawa in the near future. At least that appears to be the case, after the 20-year-old accepted special temporary membership on the PGA Tour for the rest of the 2012 season.
With $582,471 in earnings so far this season, Ishikawa has already bypassed No. 150 on the 2011 PGA Tour money list, thereby allowing him to add six additional events to his tour schedule. Non-members are only allowed to play up to 12 events per year (seven can be sponsor exemptions), so this definitely gives Ishikawa the chance to play his way onto the tour next season if he can make more than the 125th ranked player on the 2012 money list.
Even better news for Ishikawa is he now has unlimited sponsor exemptions at his disposal, so he doesn't have to worry about playing his way into the field if he has an off week.
With that in mind, you have to wonder if he'll use the additional tournaments to hone his game and go all in for for his tour card. If you'll recall, Ishikawa accepted temporary membership last season but never ended up playing in another PGA Tour-sanctioned event.
You could make the case that just three months into the season he's in a much better position to make the most of the special temporary membership. But honestly, nobody has a clue what's going to happen at this point. Until Ishikawa dips into his additional starts, it would appear we're back to discussing a non-story that already occurred last season.
