Japanese teenager Ryo Ishikawa has taken up special temporary membership on the PGA Tour for the rest of the 2011 season.
Ryo able to accept unlimited sponsor's exemptions for rest of 2011
Japanese teenager Ryo Ishikawa has taken up special temporary membership on the PGA Tour for the rest of the 2011 season.
Ishikawa will now be able to accept unlimited sponsor's exemptions for the remainder of the season although, in reality, that just means the four Fall Series events as he didn't qualify for the FedExCup play-offs which start next week and run until the end of September.
The 19-year-old has won $577,136 in 10 starts in America this season and because that figure is greater than the money banked by the player who finished 150th in the 2010 money list, he has become eligible for special temporary membership.
If he is able to earn more than the 125th finisher on this year's money list - currently Billy Mayfair with $538,493 - Ishikawa would be fully exempt on the PGA Tour in 2012 and that would save him a trip to Q-School.
By far his biggest purse - $473,136 - came in the recent WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone where he played in the final group and finished tied fourth. Had he won that event he would have become the youngest winner on the PGA Tour in 100 years.
Record-breaker
Ishikawa is a nine-time winner on his home Japan Tour and has broken several records.
He became the youngest winner ever of a men's regular tournament when capturing the Munsingwear Open KSB Cup at the age 15 years and 8 months.
And last year he shot a final round 12-under-par 58 to win The Crowns tournament by five strokes - the lowest score ever carded on the Japan Tour.
It remains his intention to focus on America though and he said after his tied fourth place at Bridgestone: "I'd like to play 100 percent on the (PGA) Tour."
Earlier this year, Ishikawa announced that he would be donating all his 2011 tour earnings, plus an additional 100,000 yen for every birdie he makes, to the Japan earthquake relief efforts.
