A record number of golf reporters is expected to cover next week’s Northern Trust Open mainly because the tournament will feature Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa,
organizers said on Wednesday. Schoolboy sensation Ishikawa, already one of the biggest sporting celebrities in his homeland, will make his debut on the PGA Tour in the Feb. 19-22 event at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California. “We’re still a few days away from the tournament and we’ve already credentialled 144 outlets and 375 media,” Toby Zwikel, media manager for the event, told Reuters. “This is our largest ever number and compares to a total of 106 outlets and 346 media in 2008. When all is said and done, I’m sure we will have at least 400 media at Riviera.” When world No. 1 Tiger Woods last played at Riviera in 2006, the media numbers totalled 209. “When we learned that between 100 and 200 Japanese media covered Ishikawa playing in the world junior championship in San Diego last year, we figured there was no way our existing media tent could cover all those people,” said Zwikel. “So we decided to expand the tent and it is considerably bigger than anything we have had before. It is 60 feet longer and a little bit wider.”
Zwikel said the Ishikawa factor had more than made up for the drop in numbers of U.S. and Canadian golf reporters covering the event.