Ishikawa, 17, to play at Riviera

Nestled between the golf geezers ranked No. 59 in the world, Dudley Hart, and No. 61, Woody Austin, lies a genuine adolescent sensation -- and one who’ll make his PGA Tour debut at Riviera Country Club next month.

Ryo Ishikawa, a human being even younger than David Archuleta, will cross the Pacific to play Feb. 19-22 in the Northern Trust Open at 17 years 5 months and 2 days old, one month before he plays in Orlando, Fla., at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, having accepted Palmer’s invitation there.

How this will affect his work at a Tokyo high school remains in question, but a hundred million yen often can ease classroom pressures.

Ishikawa just became the youngest Japanese athlete to earn that much -- about $1.1 million -- in one year, and he did so largely by winning the Mynavi ABC Championship on Nov. 2, despite admitting he wanted to cry for help during the round and that his hands shook such on No. 18 that he found it “like a scene from a ‘manga’ comic story.”

Even before that closing par replete with a trip into the pond guarding the green, Ishikawa already long stood as the youngest man or boy to win a Japan Tour event. That became true in May 2007, when Ishikawa won the Munsingwear Open KSB Cup at 15 years 8 months, on tour attempt No. 1. The youngest winner previously had been Seve Ballesteros, who won the 1977 Japan Open at 20.

From there he waited eight more months to turn professional and sign a hefty endorsement deal. He comes equipped with a nickname that translates roughly to “Shy Prince,” which hasn’t kept him from indicating he might like to break Tiger Woods’ record of winning the Masters at 21 years 3 months old.

Born in Saitama, a suburb north of Tokyo, Ishikawa in 2008 became the youngest winner of a Japanese athlete-of-the-year award, undercutting Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Boston Red Sox pitcher who had won it at age 19 in 1999.

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chuck.culpepper@yahoo.com