Rare footage of Jim Ferrier at 1939 NSW Amateur Golf Championship: video

Check out this great video of a golf match between legendary Australian golfer Jim Ferrier and the somewhat lesser known Alan Waterson.

Alan Waterson’s victory over Jim Ferrier – as reported by the Newcastle Morning Herald (22 May 1939). Click for bigger image.

Jim Ferrier was the first Australian golfer to win a major, winning the 1947 US PGA Championship 2 & 1 over Chick Harbert. Ferrier is about 24-years-old in this video and had already won the New South Wales Open five times, the Queensland Open twice and an Australian Open’s in 1938.

Ferrier also won the 1939 Australian Open before heading off to the US as a golf journalist. He eventually turned professional in 1940 and went on to win 18 PGA Tour events and became somewhat of a celebrity. He appeared on Groucho Marx’s TV show “You Bet Your Life” – you can see the old episode featuring Ferrier below (Big Jim appears at the 8:00min mark).

Waterson ends up winning the final of what I believe is actually the New South Wales Amateur Golf Championship – an event he had also won when is was just 17-years-old in 1933.

The voice over commentary is fantastic, little quips here and there clearly show that golf was primarily a fun past-time, rather than the lucrative, professional sport it has now become.

The match-play final looks like it is played at The Australian Golf Club. Only three years after this clip was shot, the clubhouse was taken over by US troops during the war. The course was later redesigned after the club was handed back to its members.

Big thanks to Geoff Shackleford for alerting us to the release of loads of great old clips at the British Pathé YouTube archive.

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