Ryo Ishikawa needs to win the last 2 tournaments to steal away the Order of Merit title from current No.1 Shugo Imahira. Ryo finished his Round 1 at Casio with 3 under 14T and maintained his chance to the win. After the round, he attended the Donation Ceremony representing as the Casio's Host Pro.

This donation started last year as Ryo gained support from the main sponsor of the tournament, Casio to do a "birdie challenge". The same amount of Casio's electronic dictionary is donated according to the number of birdies Ryo Ishikawa makes within this season.
"I wanted to dedicate my golf to support the children's education."

Last year, he dedicated to donating 276 calculators, including 3 eagles, to elementary schools in Kochi, Tochigi and Shizuoka Prefectures. This season he has already counted up to 263, including 8 eagles. He still has 3 more days left this week and the season final next week, so the forecast is that he will be able to extend the numbers from last season.
"Is that so? I am so glad to hear that" said Ryo smiled with relief.

Today, he donated Casio's electronic dictionaries to 3 local elementary schools' students visiting the ceremony at the course.

Ryo played bogey free round along with his paired players Mikumu Horikawa and Yosuke Asaji. It is quite rare that all 3 players in the same group finishing bogey free. But Ryo seems to be a little disappointed.
"If I could play bogey free round, I wish I could have made more birdies. I couldn't get myself to gain chances today. If I was able to make 5 birdies, I may also pay the risk for few bogeys, but for me, I rather have that kind of round then playing safely with no bogeys."

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