Sponsor apologises for golfer Ishikawa

Japanese teenage golf star Ryo Ishikawa's main sponsor apologised yesterday after he was found to have driven without a valid licence.

"Although this matter is all due to his own carelessness, we extremely regret it as his contracted company," the sponsor, Panasonic, said on its official support site for the 19-year-old golfer.

"We deeply apologise for disorder this has created in society," read the statement in Japanese.