Masashi “Jumbo” Ozaki has died.
“Jumbo” is considered Japan’s greatest golfer of all time. PDO
Japan’s most successful professional golfer of all time Masashi “Jumbo” Ozaki has died at the age of 78, says, among other things BBC.
Ozaki died about a year earlier as a result of colon cancer.
Nicknamed Jumbo for his long openings, Ozaki won no fewer than 94 tournaments on the Japanese tour in his career. He was ranked in the top 10 of the world golf rankings for nearly 200 weeks and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2011.
Ozaki’s path to the top was not conventional. He initially played baseball professionally, but switched to golf and won his first professional tournament in 1973, at the age of 26. He took his last victory at the age of 55.
In Major tournaments, Ozaki never achieved victory, but finished in the top ten in The Open, Masters and US Open, among others. On international tournament trips, he even took his own sushi chef with him, so that the party would feel more at home outside of Japan.