is a Japanese professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

er. Ozaki is often known as Jumbo Ozaki (ジャンボ尾崎 ''Janbo Ozaki'') on account of his height and length off the tee. He featured in the top ten of the Official World Golf Rankings for almost 200 weeks between 1989 and 1998. He is the most successful player of all time on the

Japan Golf Tour The Japan Golf Tour ( ja, 日本ゴルフツアー機構) is a prominent golf tour. It was founded in 1973 and as of 2006 it offers the third-highest annual prize fund out of the regular (that is not for seniors) men's professional tours after th ...

, having led the money list a record 12 times and won 94 tournaments, over 40 more than the second highest player. Ozaki was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2011.

Biography

Ozaki was born in

Kaifu District, Tokushima is a district located in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. As of June 1, 2019, the district has an estimated population of 18,863 and a population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant densi ...

. He was a professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

pitcher/outfielder from 1965 to 1967 with the

Nishitetsu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway, wh ...

, but he turned to professional golf at the age of 23 and won the

Japan PGA Championship The is a professional golf tournament on the Japan Golf Tour, and is one of the tour's four major championships. It was founded in 1926, making it one of the oldest professional tournaments in Japan, and is played at a variety of courses througho ...

the following year. Ozaki led the Japan Golf Tour in earnings in 1973–74, 1977, 1988–90, 1992, and 1994–98. Ozaki finished 8th at The Masters in 1973 and finished 6th at the U.S. Open in 1989. He competed at the Masters 19 times. He played occasionally on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

from 1972 to 2000, in 96 tournaments, though never more than nine in one year. In these starts, his best finish was a T-4 at the 1993

Memorial Tournament The Memorial Tournament is a PGA Tour golf tournament founded in 1976 by Jack Nicklaus. It is played on a Nicklaus-designed course at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, a suburb north of Columbus. The golf course passes through a large n ...

. Ozaki played on the International Team in the 1996 Presidents Cup. Ozaki built "AON Age" with his rivals Isao Aoki and

Tsuneyuki "Tommy" Nakajima Tsuneyuki "Tommy" Nakajima ( ja, 中嶋常幸; born 20 October 1954) is a Japanese professional golfer. Nakajima was born in Gunma. He turned professional in 1975. He has won 48 events on the Japan Golf Tour, ranking third on the most Japan Go ...

. Ozaki's brothers Tateo "Jet" and Naomichi "Joe" are also professional golfers and, like Masashi, have been extremely successful on the Japan Golf Tour with dozens of wins between them. Now in his seventies, he still plays on the Japan Golf Tour.

Professional wins (114)

Japan Golf Tour wins (94)

''*Note: Tournament shortened to 54 holes due to weather.''
¹Co-sanctioned by the

Asia Golf Circuit The Asia Golf Circuit was the principal men's professional golf tour in Southeast Asia from the early 1960s through to the mid-late 1990s. The tour was founded in 1961 as the Far East Circuit. The first series of five tournaments was held in 1962 ...

Japan Golf Tour playoff record (12–9)

Other Japan wins (18)

*1971 (5)

Nippon Series The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, :File:2014_JS_logo.png is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series ...

, Golf Digest Tournament, Miki Gold Cup (tie with Billy Casper), Setouchi Series Hiroshima leg *1972 (9) Wizard Tournament, Sapporo Open, Kanto Open,

All Nippon Doubles The All Japan Doubles or All Nippon Doubles was a professional golf tournament that was held in Japan from 1969 to 1973. A pairs event, it was founded by, and held at, Sapporo Kokusai Country Club in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaido and was an event on the ...

, Grand Monarch Tournament,

First Flight Tournament The First Flight Tournament was a professional golf tournament in Japan. Founded in 1972, it was an event on the Japan Golf Tour in its inaugural season in 1973. It was held at the Fuji Heigen Golf Club near Gotemba, Shizuoka Shizuoka can refer t ...

, Chiba Open, Asahi International *1976 Chiba Open *1984 Kanagawa Open *1985 Kanagawa Open *1992 Sanko Grand Summer Tournament

Other wins (2)

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Summary

*Most consecutive cuts made – 5 (twice) *Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (three times)

Results in The Players Championship

CUT = missed the halfway cut
WD = withdrew
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Team appearances

''This list may be incomplete.'' * World Cup (representing Japan):

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

Four Tours World Championship The Four Tours World Championship was an annual professional golf tournament that was played from 1985 to 1991. It was played between teams representing the four main professional tours: the American PGA Tour, the PGA European Tour, the PGA Tour of ...

: (representing Japan) 1986 (winners), 1987, 1989 * Presidents Cup (International team):

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ozaki, Masashi Japanese male golfers Japan Golf Tour golfers World Golf Hall of Fame inductees Japanese baseball players Nishitetsu Lions players Baseball people from Tokushima Prefecture 1947 births Living people