Japanese golf legend Masashi 'Jumbo' Ozaki has passed away at the age of 78.
Mr. Ozaki died after a battle with colon cancer, according to an announcement from the Japan Golf Tour Organization, of which Ozaki was instrumental in its formation and flourishing.
Over the course of nearly a decade, Ozaki was a regular member of the Official World Golf Ranking top 10 -- having landed in that elite range for some 200 weeks from 1989 through 1998. Ozaki dominated the Japan Golf Tour, winning 94 times and taking the money list title in a record 12 seasons (1973–1974, 1977, 1988–1990, 1992, and 1994–1998).
Ozaki -- who got his nickname because of his strength and powerful approach to the game -- was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2011.
Ozaki was a professional baseball player, playing with the Nishitetsu Lions from 1965 to 1967. He became a professional golfer at the age of 23, in 1970. A year later, he won the 1971 Japan PGA Championship, the first of five wins that year. In 1972, he won another nine times, before the formation of the Japan Golf Tour the following year.
His career was one of incredible longevity, capped with a final Japan Golf Tour win at the 2022 ANA Open at the age of 55 years, 8 months, 28 days. In April 2013, Ozaki, then 66, shot 9-under 62 -- one off his career-low round -- at Yamanohara Golf Club in the opening round of the Tsuruya Open.
"Shooting my age is not something I try to do," Ozaki said after the round. "But if you can’t shoot 6 under or 7 under when you play good golf, you don’t belong on the tour."
He continued playing on the Japan Golf Tour on occasion into 2019.
In the major championships, Ozaki's best finishes were an 8th-place effort in the 1973 Masters and a sixth-place finish in the 1989 US Open. His other top-10 major championship finish was T-10 in the 1979 Open Championship.
All told, Ozaki competed at the Masters 19 times, in 13 US Opens, 10 Open Championships and seven PGA Championships. He played on the PGA Tour sporadically across nearly 50 years as a pro, competing in 96 Tour-sanctioned events from 1972 to 2000. His best PGA Tour finish was a T-4 at the 1993 Memorial Tournament.
Ozaki played on the International Team in the 1996 Presidents Cup.
