Thursday, July 16, 2009

"Nice Bah-dee!": Ai-chan vs. Ryo-kun on YouTube

Ryan Ballengee has the bad news on the U.S. Women's Open ratings (shorter version: Cristie Kerr is killing the tour ;) ). It's worth remembering, though, that the LPGA gets a significant amount of change from its contracts with Korean and Japanese TV. I'll bet the ratings there were pretty good. In lieu of the information needed to settle that bet, check out part of the coverage for yourself. You don't need to understand Japanese to appreciate the 10 minutes of U.S. Women's Open highlights from Ai Miyazato's, Momoko Ueda's, and Mika Miyazato's final rounds. (The younger Miyazato was rocking the orange ball, while Ai-chan was making everything she was looking at and Momo-chan had the yips on the back.)



The 1st-round highlights remind me that Ai-chan was +4 through her 1st 4 holes of the Open, so played the last 68 in E. That's how close she is to winning on the LPGA!



But Ai-chan is so 2004 in Japan. Everyone is nuts over the latest teen sensation, Ryo Ishikawa. Especially mothers of teen-age boys:



It's Open week, and Ryo is paired with Tiger and Lee Westwood (in case you hadn't heard), which means it's time for an hour-long bio of the 17-year-old. Here's part 1 (lots of home videos from when he was younger):



[Update 1 (12:28 pm): How about that?! Ryo opened with a 68 at the Open Championship! He tied playing partner Lee Westwood and beat Tiger by 3 shots. It's just 1 round, but way to go, Ryo!]

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