The Japanese Tiger Woods?

The Japanese Tiger Woods?

Ryo Ishikawa will make his debut at Riviera this Thursday. He is a 17 year old phenom from Japan and has been dubbed the Japanese Tiger Woods in his home country. Here are a few of the more interesting facts about this kid taken from pgatour.com.

Last month, Ryo opened his own private practice range. The facility will eventually have four greens seeded with the same strain of bentgrass that's found at Augusta National Golf Club. The sand in the bunkers was chosen because it's similar to the sand at Augusta National, too.

Last year, Ryo won more than 100 million yen ($1.1 million) -- the youngest to eclipse that milestone on the Japan Tour.

Published reports have the high school senior earning in excess of $10 million in endorsements.

When he turned pro at the age of 16 years, 3 months and 24 days, Ryo told the media that his dream is to be the youngest Masters champion. He'll have several years to eclipse his idol, Tiger Woods, who got his first of four Green Jackets in 1997 at the age of 21 years, 3 months.

It was also being suggested that if Tiger came back for the match play in two weeks as the #1 seed, he could be matched up versus this kid as the #64 seed. Highly doubtful but that would be cool to watch.