Jim Ferry, who won two Champions Tours and the 1958 Vancouver Open on the PGA Tour, died Tuesday. He was 91 years old.
Born June 10, 1931 in Pinebluff, North Carolina, Ferry learned the game from his father, Purvis, a longtime professional golfer who also played the PGA Tour occasionally from the 1930s to the 1960s.
Ferry graduated from North Carolina and was widely regarded as one of the best players of his generation. Laying was often a struggle. He also wore signature panties and a flat hat.
He joined the PGA Tour Champions in 1981 (then known as the Senior PGA Tour). Then-PGA Tour commissioner Dean Beman chose Ferry as the model for the panty player in that tour’s logo, and thus created the living logo. Ferry is often cited as one of the players who was instrumental in the creation of the PGA Tour Champions. The Champions Tour named Ferry Player of the Year in 1993 after he recovered from prostate cancer. He has won twice at the circuit, the 1986 Greater Grand Rapids Open and the 1991 Bell Atlantic Classic. He took part in 407 official tournaments and was runner-up 12 times in a career that ended in 2002. However, he still remained active, playing every year in the Demaret division of Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, winning that division with partner Miller Barber in 2003.
While still active on the PGA Tour Champions, he became the head pro at the Westmoreland Country Club in Pennsylvania, and in 1991 became the first golfer to be inducted into the University of North Carolina Hall of Fame.
The story originally appeared on GolfWeek.
Source: sports.yahoo.com
