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Masashi “Jumbo” Ozaki, arguably the greatest Japanese golfer of all time, died Tuesday at age 78 after battling colon cancer.
Ozaki won 113 tournaments all over the world, 94 of them on the Japan Golf Tour, becoming an inspiration to 2021 Masters winner Hideki Matsuyama.
Ozaki became a constant at Augusta National Golf Club in 1972, but he did not compete there from 1980 to 1987.
Out of his 49 major championship appearances, 19 were at the Masters, with his best finish coming in 1973, when he tied for eighth.
Ozaki also earned a tie for 10th at the 1979 Open Championship and a tie for sixth at the 1989 U.S. Open.
He rose to No. 5 in the world ranking in 1996 at age 49 and spent over 200 straight weeks inside the top 10. Ozaki was often overlooked for never winning outside Japan, except for the New Zealand PGA Championship. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2011.
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“He is an indispensable, one-of-a-kind figure in discussing men’s golf, both now and in the future,” the tour said in a social media post.
Ozaki won the Japan Open five times and the Japan PGA Championship six times. He led the Japan Golf Tour money list a record 12 times, including five in a row from 1994 to 1998. He won his final money title in 2002, when he was 55.
Ozaki played in the 1996 Presidents Cup, partnering with Vijay Singh to beat the American duo of Fred Couples and Davis Love III. He qualified for the 1998 team but decided against the trip to Australia, and his brother Joe played instead.
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