53 Facts About Jim Ferrier

James Bennett Elliott Ferrier was an Australian professional golfer from Manly, New South Wales.

Jim Ferrier won the PGA Championship in 1947, among his 18 Tour titles, and was the first Australian and first golfer from the southern hemisphere to win a professional golf major title.

Jim Ferrier was born in Sydney, son of John Bennett Jim Ferrier, who had worked as both an insurance clerk and an employee of American Tobacco Company, and his Australian-born wife, Louisa Elliott.

Jim Ferrier was raised in Manly, a suburb, and was taught golf as a youth by his father, a low-handicap player, who was born of Scottish descent in Shanghai, China, with family from Carnoustie, Scotland.

Young Jim Ferrier injured a leg playing soccer in his teens, and he had to contend with a significant limp for the rest of his life.

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Jim Ferrier was playing to a handicap of scratch by his mid-teens, when he left school to be able to play more golf; he was club champion for the first time at Manly at age 15.

From age 16, Jim Ferrier represented New South Wales seven times in Australian Men's Interstate Teams Matches, in 1931,1933,1934,1935,1936,1937, and 1939 and he compiled an overall head-to-head record of 7 wins and 3 losses in those events.

Jim Ferrier played for New South Wales in the 1932 Kirk-Windeyer Cup, winning all his matches.

Jim Ferrier was runner-up in the 1931 Australian Open at the age of 16, taking a six on the 72nd hole to lose by one stroke to five-time champion Ivo Whitton.

Jim Ferrier finished runner-up in that championship in 1933 and 1935.

Jim Ferrier broke through to win in both 1938 and 1939, still as an amateur.

Jim Ferrier won the Australian Amateur title in 1935,1936,1938 and 1939; his four titles in that event is tied for most with Michael Scott.

Jim Ferrier was victorious in eight further significant Australian professional Open events during the 1930s.

Jim Ferrier had the opportunity to play exhibitions at Manly Golf Club with world-class players such as Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen, along with Australian Joe Kirkwood, Sr.

Jim Ferrier played with Harry Cooper in 1934, when an American team made a tour of Australia; the team included stars such as Paul Runyan, Denny Shute, and Craig Wood.

Jim Ferrier was runner-up in 1936 to Hector Thompson by 2-up, in The Amateur Championship at St Andrews; this was the best result by an Australian to that juncture, in the world's oldest amateur championship.

On that same trip to the British Isles, Jim Ferrier became the first Australian to win the Golf Illustrated Gold Vase, at the Ashridge Golf Club; this was one of the most prestigious amateur events in England.

Jim Ferrier traveled by ship from Australia to Britain, then on to the USA by ship after his British golf events, flew across the North American continent, then returned to Australia by ship across the Pacific, making a global circuit.

Jim Ferrier met Sarazen and woman pro Helen Hicks on ship, and played with them in Australia.

Jim Ferrier worked as a golf reporter and writer for several Australian publications.

Jim Ferrier married Norma Kathleen Jennings on 12 January 1938 at All Saints Church of England, Woolhara, Sydney.

Jim Ferrier taught Norma to play golf, and she eventually reached a three handicap, being proficient enough to help her husband with his game.

In 1940, Jim Ferrier went to the United States as a golf journalist, writing for The Sydney Morning Herald.

Jim Ferrier was not allowed to qualify for the US Amateur, due to an Australian golf manual published earlier in the year that he was contracted to receive royalties from.

Jim Ferrier scored his first win in the USA in the 1940 Chicago District Amateur Championship, at the Riverside Golf Club.

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In January 1941, Jim Ferrier lost to George Dawson in the 36-hole final of the Miami Biltmore Hotel Amateur Championship.

Jim Ferrier turned professional in March 1941 and joined the PGA Tour as a club professional, based at the Elmhurst Country Club in Elmhurst, Illinois, near Chicago, joining the Professional Golfers Association of America.

Jim Ferrier signed a golf equipment contract with Wilson Sporting Goods.

Jim Ferrier served in the US Army from 1944 to 1945, rising to the rank of staff sergeant.

Jim Ferrier performed the very rare feat at the Victory Bond San Francisco Open held at the Olympic Club, in the first and fourth rounds; despite this, Ferrier finished well behind champion Byron Nelson.

Jim Ferrier was the first Australian to win a major, and at the time this gave him a lifetime exemption to PGA Tour events.

Jim Ferrier returned to Australia on a trip in 1948, and lost an 18-hole playoff in the Australian Open to Ossie Pickworth, who won his third straight title.

At the 1950 Masters, Ferrier led Jimmy Demaret by three shots with six holes to play, but finished two strokes back as the runner-up to Demaret.

Jim Ferrier scored 16 of his 18 PGA titles between 1947 and 1952, with a peak of five wins in 1951; that was second on Tour to Cary Middlecoff.

Jim Ferrier was second leading money winner on the Tour that year, behind only Lloyd Mangrum.

Jim Ferrier greatly scaled back his PGA Tour competition from 1954, and took a financially lucrative club professional's job with the Lakeside Country Club in suburban Los Angeles, for eight years.

Jim Ferrier did return to playing more Tour events in the early to mid 1960s, with some success.

Jim Ferrier was runner-up in the 1960 PGA Championship at age 45.

The present-day Champions Tour had not yet been created, although Jim Ferrier did play some events on that Tour in the early 1980s, but struggled.

Jim Ferrier became a member at the same city's Wilshire Country Club.

On 6 January 1955, Jim Ferrier appeared on the television game show You Bet Your Life hosted by Groucho Marx, of Marx Brothers fame.

Jim Ferrier was paired with Marilyn Pierce, a dog trainer and former model.

Jim Ferrier died in Burbank, California, in 1986 at the age of 71.

Jim Ferrier did not begin playing the American PGA Tour full-time until 1946, the year he turned 31 years old.

From 1946 to 1953 inclusive, Jim Ferrier finished in the top-25 of Tour events a total of 202 times.

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Jim Ferrier was the first Australian to win one of the four men's professional championships.

Jim Ferrier was the first player from the Southern Hemisphere to win a major.

Jim Ferrier's example set the stage for the international success of stars such as South African Bobby Locke, and fellow Australian Peter Thomson.

Until the arrival of South African Gary Player on the US Tour in the late 1950s, Jim Ferrier was the most successful non-American in that Tour's history, or at least since Tommy Armour played in the 1920s and 1930s.

Jim Ferrier was certainly the most successful non-American of his era.

Jim Ferrier was made a member of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame with its inaugural class in 1985.

Jim Ferrier received an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Jim Ferrier's portrait is in the Australian National Portrait Gallery.