Yo, America: Ryo Ishikawa Has Arrived

Right as this story goes live, Ryo Ishikawa (pronounced "Yo") will be hitting his first tee shot on the PGA Tour at this weekend's Northern Trust Open (leaderboard). Why should you care?

Because the 17-year-old Japanese phenomenon is Tiger Woods meets Michelle Wie meets Yao Ming.

Ishikawa isn't just another young golfer, he is the young golfer, having won a Japan Tour event when he was 15 years, 8 months of age, the youngest ever on that tour. He didn't stroll up to the Northern Trust Open this week avoiding the light bulbs, he burst on the scene wearing yellow pants and speaking to nearly 400 credentialed members of the media, twice the number the last time Woods played at Riviera.

He is the next big thing in golf, at least for the moment, and will play the PGA Tour four times this season, including the Masters, to give us a preview of what's to come.

"He's fully equipped," said Ryuji Imada, who moved to the United States from Japan as a teenager and won more than $3 million on the tour last year. "He's got the game, he's got the charisma and he can handle the media attention."

Ishikawa won another Japan Tour event last season as a professional and has become the youngest player ever to break the top-100 in the Official World Rankings. When you think about youth on the PGA Tour, names like Anthony Kim, Ryan Moore and even Hunter Mahan come to mind. What would Mahan think about all this attention at 17?

"I wouldn't know what to do," he added. "I would probably have to call my mom and go: 'What do I do? I want to eat. What do I do?' "

You can follow Ishikawa and all the other players at the Northern Trust Open right here for first-round action.