Asian teen titans Noh Seung-yul of South Korea and Japanese superstar Ryo Ishikawa are looking to renew their friendly rivalry at the Asia-Pacific Panasonic Open starting today.
The 19-year-olds are relishing the opportunity of outdoing each other at the ¥150 million (US$1.7 million) showpiece at the Rokko Kokusai Golf Club’s East course jointly sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour.
“Noh is a great player. We first met when we were 14 in a Japan-versus-Korea junior match. I played against him and he beat me! I’ve been following his progress ever since,” said Ishikawa, last year’s Japan Tour No. 1 and the current money list leader.
Noh, who is the older of the two by about four months, is also heading up the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit although his career tally of two victory falls rather short of Ishikawa’s current haul of eight.
The talented Korean was disappointed they were not paired up for the first two rounds but is dreaming of a Sunday shootout.
“I was expecting to play with Ryo but it didn’t turn out that way,” said Noh, who instead drew Japanese legend Jumbo Ozaki. “I hope we can play together in the last round. It will be very exciting. The last time we played in the same group was in the Korean Open last year where he shot a couple of strokes better than me.”
While the laidback Noh has a shot at rewriting Asian golf history by becoming the youngest ever Asian Tour No. 1, he is still not quite as famous back home as Ishikawa is in his native land.
Ishikawa, who has won twice this season in Japan, has the appeal of a pop star thanks to his good looks and dashing play but Noh is not envious.
“I’m not so famous like Ryo. Maybe I have to win a Major to be as famous as he is. It doesn’t bother me,” said Noh, who won the Maybank Malaysian Open in March. Ishikawa is also hoping to contend this Sunday.
“We’ve not had a chance to play much together. Hopefully we can play together on Sunday afternoon in the last match,” said the teen nicknamed the “Bashful Prince” by the local media.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
A man fell from the 6.4m-high Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during Wednesday night’s game between the Pirates and the Chicago Cubs. Right after Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run double in the seventh inning to put the Pirates ahead 4-3, players began waving frantically for medical personnel and pointing to the man, who had fallen onto the warning track. The fan was tended to for approximately five minutes by members of both the Pirates and Cubs training staffs as well as PNC personnel before being removed from the field on a cart. The team issued a statement shortly
RSS