Japanese golf icon Masashi ‘Jumbo’ Ozaki has died at the age of 78. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2011.
Masashi ‘Jumbo’ Ozaki passed away on Tuesday at the age of 78 due to colon cancer. Ozaki won a record 94 tournaments on the Japan Golf Tour Organization (JGTO), including five Japan Open titles and six Japan PGA Championships. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2011. His only victory outside Japan came in 1972 at the New Zealand PGA Championship.
Most Successful Golfer in JGTO History
No golfer has dominated Japanese golf like Ozaki. With 94 career wins, he leads the all-time list by a wide margin—43 more than second-place Isao Aoki. He also won the Japan Tour’s Order of Merit a record 12 times. Thanks to his domestic success, Ozaki spent a total of 200 weeks ranked in the world’s top 10 and played a key role in popularizing golf in Japan. Though his international wins were limited, he posted top-10 finishes at the Masters in 1973, the U.S. Open in 1989, and The Open Championship in 1979.
A Unique Life On and Off the Course
Nicknamed ‘Jumbo’ for his 1.81-meter, 90kg frame and massive drives, Ozaki thrilled Japanese crowds with his all-or-nothing playing style and became a household name. His path to golf was unconventional—he was a promising baseball talent who won a national high school championship and played professionally for three years before switching to golf at age 23. He won his first JGTO event in 1973 at age 26 and continued winning until age 55, claiming his final title nearly three decades later.
Ozaki also ventured into music in the late 1980s, releasing three singles that all charted in Japan, further cementing his status as a cultural icon.