Northern Trust Open: Most Intriguing Stories of the Week

The PGA Tour’s west coast swing continues this week at the historic Riviera Country Club.

As seems to be the case with any event in and around the Los Angeles area, the celebrities are sure to be out in full force for the Pro-Ams on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

But come Thursday, it is all about the professionals, which is a part of what makes the Northern Trust Open a more prestigious event than most of the others on the west coast.

Here are this week’s three most intriguing storylines.


Phil Mickelson

With the absence of Tiger Woods, Mickelson is probably the most high-profile player on the PGA Tour right now.

This obviously means that he will garner even more attention than usual. It is also a contributing factor as to just why so much attention has been given to Mickelson’s slow start to the 2009 season.

As Mickelson enters his fourth event of the year, his best finish thus far has been a tie for 42nd at the Buick Invitational.

Coming from the fifth-ranked player in the world, Mickelson’s 2009 stats have been nothing short of shocking.

Mickelson currently ranks 182nd on the PGA Tour in driving accuracy, 145th in greens hit in regulation, and 99th in putts per round.

Mickelson, who is typically known as a genius around the greens, currently ranks 176th on the tour in scrambling, which is probably the most shocking of all his struggles in 2009.

What has to be most concerning to Mickelson, at the moment, is that his struggles have not been limited to just one part of his game; he is severely struggling with every single aspect of his game right now. 

Mickelson will enter the Northern Trust Open as the defending champion this week, so it will be interesting to see whether or not this is the week he will be able to regain his form.

Whatever the outcome for Mickelson this week, as we begin to approach some of the World Golf Championship events and ultimately the Masters in just two months, Mickelson is certainly on the clock as far as shaking the rust off his game.

Ryo Ishikawa

The next Tiger Woods?

If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a hundred times, so go ahead and roll your eyes along with everyone else who just read that last question.

It’s humorously too early to compare this 17-year-old Japanese phenom to a player with 14 career major wins and could already be arguably considered the greatest golfer of all-time.

However, Ishikawa obviously has an abundance of talent, and there is a tremendous amount of excitement surrounding his PGA Tour debut this week at the Northern Trust Open.

Ishikawa won his first Japanese Tour event as a 15-year-old amateur.

Ishikawa turned pro at the age of 16 and during his first full season as a professional, he earned more than $1.1 million on the Japanese Tour.

Currently ranked 67th in the world golf rankings, Ishikawa is playing this week and at the Arnold Palmer Invitational through sponsors' exemption.

A strong finish this week could gain Ishikawa entry into the Accenture Match Play Championship. A couple of strong finishes could even land Ishikawa inside the top-50 in the world golf rankings, which, of course guarantees him an invitation to the Masters.

Over 375 media credentials from over 144 outlets have been issued for the Northern Trust Open, which is significantly more than last year and is being attributed mostly to Ishikawa’s large following of Japanese press.

We’ve seen some highlights of him on the Japanese and Asian tours, but this week we will get our first glimpse of how this youngster fares against the best players in the world.

Tiger Woods

Did I miss something?  What in the world is Tiger Woods doing on this list, you may be asking yourselves.

Well, no, Tiger Woods in not playing in the Northern Trust Open this week and you didn’t happen to overlook any breaking news in the world of golf.

However, Woods could make an announcement this week that would make you forget the Northern Trust Open is even being played.

There has been a lot of speculation that Tiger Woods could make his return to the PGA Tour as early as next week’s Accenture Match Play Championship.

If Woods were to decide to make his return to competitive golf at the Match Play Championship, he would need to commit to the tournament by Friday evening.

So, basically by Friday, we will know for sure whether Woods will be making his return next week. If he does commit to the tournament, it will be the biggest news to hit the golf world in a very long time.