Jim Ferrier (1915-1986), golfer, won the New South Wales Open in 1933, aged eighteen; in consecutive years until 1939 he won that title four more times, the Queensland Open three times, and the Australian Open twice. He was Australian Amateur champion in 1935, 1936, 1938 and 1939 and runner-up at the British Open in 1936. In 1940, he went to the USA to join the PGA tour, taking US citizenship in 1944 and winning the Northern California Open two years running while serving in the US Army. In winning the PGA Championship in 1947, he became the first of only ten Australian men to date to win an American major. Runner-up in the 1960 PGA Championship at the age of 45, he scored the last of his eighteen PGA tour wins in 1961. For eight years late in his career he was the professional at the private Lakeside Club in Burbank, Los Angeles, members of which included Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Johnny Weissmuller, Ronald Reagan and WC Fields. Ferrier returned to Australia to play the odd game in the 1970s, but died and was cremated in Burbank.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Frith family 2013
© Estate of John Frith
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