Kosaku Shimada, former chairman of the Japan Golf Tour Organization, died of pancreas head cancer Monday, Japanese golf officials said Friday. He was 64.
A winner of 15 tournaments, including the 1968 Japan PGA Championship and the 1976 Japan Open, Shimada served as a board member of the Japan Professional Golf Association and became the first chairman of the JGTO, which became independent of the JPGA in 1999.
Shimada was in the top post of the JGTO until he became its honorary chairman in March this year.