The first tournament of the Olympics Year is ready to start in Singapore. The opening event for the 2020 "SMBC Singapore Open" will start from January 16th at Sentosa Golf Club.

On 14th Tuesday, pre-tournament press conferences were held, and representing JGTO, Ryo Ishikawa confronted the press from all over the world.
Ryo spoke with fluent English saying, "it is always a pleasure to play in Singapore and I enjoy playing amongst the best players from all over the world."

This year, Singapore Open has 3 Olympic medalists from Rio 2016, Gold Medalist Justin Rose (ENG), Silver Medalist Henrik Stenson (SWE), and Bronze Medalist Matt Kuchar(USA).

Ryo will be in the same groupings with Justin Rose and Defending Champion Jazz Janewattananond.
"I admire Justin and Jazz is one of the best player in Asia, so I am honored to be in such a good group."

As for the Olympics representation, Hideki Matsuyama sits at the top with 21st on WR, Shugo Imahira is at 2nd position with 33rd on WR, and Ryo is at 3rd position with WR at 83rd. There is only 2 spots for the Olympics Representation and it will be determined just after the June's US Open. Ryo's time is running out, but he is eager to aim for a miracle and also gather the attention from all of the golf fans toward Japanese Men's golf.
"So many sports are gathering attentions toward the Olympics, but so few are concerned about golf. Not much know about the repetition quotas, and I don't want the fans to be left out to find out who will be the players representing Japan. If I could talk extreme, if I could win the US Open, I will climb up the WR ladder, but I just don't want to talk about possibilities. I know the task is really high, but I want to constantly do well on the tournaments in February and March so that I could be in that 2nd place for the Representation."

Ryo didn't take any holiday breaks during the New Years, he practiced until December 31 and restarted from January 2nd. He played a practice round with Satoshi Kodaira on January 3 rd.
"I really hope all of the games at the Olympics will be exciting and successful, including golf."

It will be the best way to start the year, if Ryo could win amongst the Rio 3 medalist at this week's Singapore Open.