Tokyo, Dec. 24 -- Japan's most successful professional golfer, Masashi 'Jumbo' Ozaki, has died at the age of 78.
According to BBC sport, Nicknamed Jumbo because of his length off the tee, Ozaki won 94 times on the Japan Tour and topped the country's order of merit 12 times.
He was in the top 10 of golf's rankings for nearly 200 weeks and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2011.
"While golf has long been popular in Japan, it was Ozaki who brought a new vitality to the game and his emergence spawned an unprecedented growth in the game in the country," said his profile on the World Golf Hall of Fame website.
Ozaki was a professional baseball player before switching to golf and winning his first tournament in 1973 at the age o...