Torakichi “Pete” Nakamura was one of the most successful and most famous Japanese golfers of the 20th century. His success in international competition became a source of pride for a country seeking to regain the respect of the world after the catastrophe of the Second World War, and also helped to make golf one of Japan’s most popular sports.

Nakamura was born into a farming family in Yokohama. His first contact with golf was as a caddie, in which capacity he worked from the age of 14. While doing so, he practised the sport on the courses outside working hours, apparently using lost clubs and balls to hone his skills. By 1935 he was in a position to make his debut as a professional golfer. He won his first competition at national level, the Japan Open Golf Championship, in 1950, and took the same trophy again in 1954.

In 1957 the Canada Cup, the precursor of the modern World Cup of Golf, was held at the Kasumigaseki Country Club in Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo. Nakamura and his team-mate, Koichi Ono, competed against an American team consisting of Sam Snead and Jimmy Demaret, and beat them to win the cup. In the same competition, Nakamura also won the individual title. These successes in a competition which was the first to be televised in Japan triggered a boom in the popularity of the sport; today, the nation boasts more golf courses than any other country in the world except the US.

On the back of their victory in this competition, Nakamura and Ono became, in 1958, the first Japanese golfers of the postwar era to be invited to compete in the US Masters tournament. These achievements in international golf came while Nakamura was also enjoying a remarkable run of success on the domestic front. In the same year as his Canada Cup triumphs, he won the Japan Open Golf Championship for the third time and the Professional Golf Association of Japan Championship Series for the first. He was to repeat the latter achievement in 1958, 1959 and 1962.

In 1969 Nakamura graduated to the senior tour; he was to continue to play past the age of 80. In 1974 he became the chairman of the Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association of Japan, in which capacity he coached some of the country’s leading female golfers, such as the internationally famous Hisako (“Chako”) Higuchi.

Nakamura was noted for his diminutive stature (5ft 2in), which made his achievements on the golf course even more remarkable. It is said that his trademark two-step swing was devised to compensate for his lack of height. For the benefit of Westerners, he took the nickname Pete, but he was long known in Japan as “Tora-san” (“Mr Tiger”), after the first syllable in his personal name. In addition to his prowess on the links, Nakamura was the popular author of various books aimed at amateur golfers. His expertise also served him in good stead as a designer of courses, such as the huge 18-hole course at the Fuji Oyama Golf Club near Mount Fuji.

Torakichi Nakamura, golfer, was born on September 17, 1915. He died on February 11, 2008, aged 92