Jim Ferrier facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jim Ferrier
Personal information
Full name	James Bennett Elliott Ferrier
Nickname	Undertaker, Wolf
Born	(1915-02-24)24 February 1915 Sydney, Australia
Died	13 June 1986(1986-06-13) (aged 71) Burbank, California, U.S.
Height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Weight	192 lb (87 kg; 13.7 st)
Nationality	Australia  United States
Spouse	Norma Kathleen Jennings Ferrier (m. 1938–79, her death) Lorraine Ruth (Devirian) Sheldon (m. 1980–86, his death)
Career
Turned professional	1941
Former tour(s)	PGA Tour
Professional wins	36
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	18
PGA Tour of Australasia	13
Other	5
Best results in Major Championships (Wins: 1)
The Masters Tournament	2nd: 1950
U.S. Open	T5: 1950
The Open Championship	T44: 1936
PGA Championship	Won: 1947
British Amateur	2nd: 1936
Achievements and awards
Sport Australia Hall of Fame	1985

Jim Ferrier (born James Bennett Elliott Ferrier) was a famous professional golfer from Australia. He was born on February 24, 1915, in Sydney and passed away on June 13, 1986.

Jim started as a talented amateur golfer in Australia during the 1930s. In 1940, he moved to the United States and became a professional golfer in 1941. He then joined the U.S. PGA Tour. Jim made history by winning the PGA Championship in 1947. This made him the first Australian and the first golfer from the Southern Hemisphere to win a major professional golf title. He became an American citizen in 1944.

Jim Ferrier's Early Life and Golf Beginnings

Jim Ferrier grew up in Manly, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. His father, John Bennett Ferrier, taught him how to play golf. John was a very good golfer himself. Jim started playing golf at the Manly Golf Club when he was just four and a half years old. His father worked as the secretary of this club.

Jim went to school at Sydney Grammar School. When he was a teenager, he hurt his leg playing soccer. This injury caused him to have a noticeable limp for the rest of his life.

Becoming a Golf Champion

By his mid-teens, Jim was already playing golf at a very high level. He left school to focus more on his golf game. At age 15, he became the club champion at Manly for the first time.

Jim won his first big state-level competition in 1931. This was the New South Wales Amateur Championship. He won this title again in 1934, 1937, and 1938. From the age of 16, Jim played for New South Wales seven times in team matches. He had a great record, winning 7 out of 10 matches.

He almost won the Australian Open in 1931 when he was only 16. He finished second again in 1933 and 1935. But he finally won the Australian Open twice, in 1938 and 1939, while still an amateur. He also won the Australian Amateur title four times (1935, 1936, 1938, 1939). This ties him for the most wins in that event. Jim also won eight other important Australian professional tournaments in the 1930s.

Jim had the chance to play with famous golfers like Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen. He also played with American stars like Harry Cooper when they toured Australia in 1934.

In 1936, Jim finished second in The Amateur Championship at St Andrews in Scotland. This was the best result for an Australian in that old championship at the time. On the same trip, he became the first Australian to win the Golf Illustrated Gold Vase in England. He traveled around the world by ship for these events.

Jim also worked as a golf reporter and writer for Australian newspapers. In 1938, he married Norma Kathleen Jennings. He taught her to play golf, and she became a good player too.

Moving to the USA and Becoming a Pro

In 1940, Jim Ferrier went to the United States as a golf journalist. He wrote for The Sydney Morning Herald. He was not allowed to play in the U.S. Amateur tournament that year. This was because of some rules about amateur golf that were different in Australia and the USA.

Even as an amateur, Jim played in some professional tournaments in 1940, including the Masters Tournament. He won his first tournament in the USA in 1940, the Chicago District Amateur Championship.

In March 1941, Jim became a professional golfer. He joined the PGA Tour as a club professional in Illinois. He also signed a deal with Wilson Sporting Goods for his golf equipment.

During World War II, Jim and his wife worked in defense factories near Chicago. This was part of the process for them to become American citizens. Jim also served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1945. While in the Army, he won his first PGA Tour event, the Oakland Open, in December 1944.

After the war, in 1946, Jim started playing on the PGA Tour full-time. That year, he made golf history. He was the first player to get two holes-in-one in the same PGA Tour tournament. This happened at the Victory Bond San Francisco Open.

Jim's biggest win was the PGA Championship in 1947. This is one of golf's four major championships. He was the first Australian to win a major title. This win gave him a special pass to play in PGA Tour events for the rest of his life.

In 1948, Jim returned to Australia and played in the Australian Open. He lost in a playoff to Ossie Pickworth. Ossie had also grown up at the Manly Golf Club and had even caddied for Jim there.

At the 1950 Masters, Jim was leading with only six holes left to play. But he ended up finishing second. He won 16 of his 18 PGA Tour titles between 1947 and 1952. In 1951, he won five tournaments, which was the second-highest number of wins on Tour that year. He was also the second-highest money winner on the Tour in 1951. Jim also won the Canadian Open two years in a row, in 1950 and 1951. He was known for being an excellent putter.

Later Years and Legacy

From 1954, Jim Ferrier played less on the PGA Tour. He took a job as a club professional at Lakeside Country Club in Los Angeles for eight years. He did play more Tour events in the early 1960s and had some success. He finished second in the 1960 PGA Championship when he was 45 years old. His last Tour win was in 1961, ending a nine-year period without a win.

Jim continued to play some Tour events into the late 1970s. However, his game was not as strong. Because he had a lifetime pass to play, he sometimes took spots that younger players could have used. This eventually led to new rules on the PGA Tour. These rules made sure that older players had to meet certain standards to keep playing in tournaments.

In 1955, Jim appeared on the TV game show You Bet Your Life, hosted by Groucho Marx. Jim Ferrier passed away in Burbank, California, in 1986 at the age of 71.

Jim Ferrier's Impact on Golf

Jim Ferrier had an amazing record in important Australian golf events in the 1930s. He won 10 Open events where professionals also played. He also won 8 major amateur events in Australia. His four wins in the Australian Amateur Championship tie him for the most wins ever. His second-place finish in the Amateur Championship in 1936 was the best by an Australian until 1954.

Jim did not start playing on the American PGA Tour full-time until 1946, when he was 31. But for the next eight years, he played incredibly well and consistently. From 1946 to 1953, he finished in the top 25 of Tour events 202 times. This is one of the highest totals over an eight-year period in Tour history. In 1950, he had 34 top-25 finishes, which is also one of the best single-season records.

His five wins on the PGA Tour in 1951 were the most by an Australian until Jason Day matched it in 2015. Jim Ferrier was ranked highly in the PGA Tour's statistical project, which looked at the top 500 players.

Jim was the first Australian to win one of the four major men's professional golf championships. He was also the first player from the Southern Hemisphere to win a major. His success paved the way for other international golf stars like Bobby Locke from South Africa and Peter Thomson from Australia. Jim's record in the U.S. was even better than theirs.

Before Gary Player from South Africa joined the U.S. Tour in the late 1950s, Jim Ferrier was the most successful non-American player in the Tour's history. He was definitely the most successful non-American of his time. Until Greg Norman came along in the 1980s, Jim was the most successful Australian on the U.S. Tour.

As he became more successful, Jim helped design a special set of golf clubs for Wilson Sporting Goods. Wilson also made a copy of his putter, called the Grandmaster, which he used to win the 1947 PGA Championship. This putter is now a collector's item.

In 1985, Jim Ferrier was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame as one of its first members. His portrait is displayed in the Australian National Portrait Gallery.

Writings by Jim Ferrier

• Jim Ferrier's Golf Shots, 1940, Australia.
• The Golf Clinic, 1949 (he contributed to this book)

Amateur Wins

• 1931 New South Wales Amateur
• 1934 Queensland Amateur, New South Wales Amateur
• 1935 Queensland Amateur, Australian Amateur
• 1936 Australian Amateur, Golf Illustrated Gold Vase
• 1937 New South Wales Amateur
• 1938 Queensland Amateur, Australian Amateur, New South Wales Amateur
• 1939 Queensland Amateur, Australian Amateur
• 1940 Chicago District Amateur

Professional Wins (36)

PGA Tour Wins (18)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	10 Dec 1944	Oakland Open	−3 (73-68-68-68=277)	1 stroke	Ky Laffoon
2	24 Jun 1947	PGA Championship	2 & 1		Chick Harbert
3	3 Aug 1947	St. Paul Open	−16 (69-67-70-66=272)	Playoff	Fred Haas
4	9 Mar 1948	Miami International Four-Ball (with Cary Middlecoff)	1 up		Ed Furgol and Ellsworth Vines
5	13 Mar 1949	Miami International Four-Ball (2) (with Cary Middlecoff)	9 & 8		Skip Alexander and Harry Cooper
6	21 Aug 1949	Grand Rapids Open	−25 (66-67-65-65=263)	4 strokes	Dutch Harrison
7	11 Sep 1949	Kansas City Open	−11 (69-69-69-70=277)	4 strokes	Dick Metz
8	16 Jul 1950	Inverness Invitational Four-Ball (with Sam Snead)	+18 points	13 points	Fred Haas and Fred Hawkins
9	23 Jul 1950	St. Paul Open (2)	−12 (65-71-69-71=276)	Playoff	Sam Snead
10	27 Aug 1950	Canadian Open	−17 (68-67-66-70=271)	3 strokes	Ted Kroll
11	4 Mar 1951	St. Petersburg Open	−16 (64-69-66-69=268)	6 strokes	Al Brosch
12	11 Mar 1951	Miami Beach Open	−15 (69-65-70-69=273)	1 stroke	Chuck Klein, Sam Snead
13	19 Mar 1951	Jacksonville Open	−16 (68-68-68-68=272)	11 strokes	Lloyd Mangrum, Jack Shields
14	7 Jul 1951	Canadian Open (2)	−7 (65-72-69-67=273)	2 strokes	Fred Hawkins, Ed Oliver
15	26 Aug 1951	Fort Wayne Open	−19 (66-66-66-71=269)	1 stroke	Cary Middlecoff
16	29 Jun 1952	Inverness Invitational Four-Ball (2) (with Sam Snead)	+13 points	12 points	Doug Ford and Ed Oliver
17	7 Sep 1952	Empire State Open	−18 (63-67-62-70=262)	6 strokes	Sam Snead
18	5 Nov 1961	Almaden Open Invitational	−1 (69-72-66-72=279)	1 stroke	Bob Rosburg

PGA Tour playoff record (2–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	1947	St. Paul Open	Fred Haas	Won 18-hole playoff; Ferrier: −4 (68), Haas: −1 (71)
2	1950	St. Paul Open	Sam Snead	Won with par on third extra hole after 18-hole playoff; Ferrier: −3 (69), Snead: −3 (69)
3	1953	Houston Open	Shelley Mayfield, Cary Middlecoff, Bill Nary, Earl Stewart	Middlecoff won 18-hole playoff; Middlecoff: −3 (69), Ferrier: −1 (71), Mayfield: −1 (71), Stewart: E (72), Nary: +3 (75)

Australasian Wins (13)

Note: wins before 1941 as an amateur

• 1933 New South Wales Close
• 1934 Queensland Open
• 1935 New South Wales Close
• 1936 New South Wales Close, Lakes Open
• 1937 New South Wales Close, Lakes Open
• 1938 Australian Open, New South Wales Close, Queensland Open
• 1939 Australian Open, Queensland Open
• 1948 Lakes Open

Other Wins (5)

• 1944 Northern California Open
• 1945 Northern California Open, 9th Service Command Golf Championship
• 1955 Southern California PGA Championship
• 1963 Southern California Open

Major Championships

Wins (1)

Year	Championship	Winning score	Runner-up
1947	PGA Championship	2 & 1	Chick Harbert

Note: The PGA Championship was match play until 1958

Results Timeline

     Win      Top 10      Did not play

NT = no tournament
WD = withdrew
CUT = missed the half-way cut
R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in PGA Championship match play
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Summary of Major Championships

• Most consecutive cuts made – 7 (twice)
• Longest streak of top-10s – 5 (1946 PGA – 1948 Masters)

Team Appearances

Amateur

• Australian Men's Interstate Teams Matches (representing New South Wales): 1931, 1933, 1934 (winners), 1935, 1936, 1937 (winners), 1939