GREENSBORO, N.C. – After 30 years of broadcasting the PGA Tour, Ian Baker-Finch signing off from CBS Sports on Sunday with the network’s final broadcast of the season at the Wyndham Championship.
“Since I made the decision, it’s the best I’ve felt in a long time,” he said.
Baker-Finch said he began wrestling with the decision last year at the Masters and RBC Heritage when he realized it represented his 40th year either playing or announcing at those events.
“That’s what sort of got me thinking, what’s next?” he explained.
During his playing career, his powerful swing and competitive spirit was his appeal. Later, his charming personality and soothing voice added to his legacy. The Australian won the 1991 British Open at Royal Birkdale as a player and after he lost his game just a few years later, he made a successful transition to announcing, spending the last 19 years with CBS.
Coincidentally, his remarkable story is detailed in a fascinating authorized biography, Ian Baker-Finch: To Hell and Back, which is to be released officially on Monday. Baker-Finch was introduced to golf by his father, who along with his fellow farmers helped build Beerwah Golf Club, a nine-hole course built on 100 acres of pine forest in the Sunshine hinterland of Queensland a mere six miles from the family farm.
Baker-Finch received his first clubs – a 2-wood, 3-, 5- and 7-iron and a putter – on his 12th birthday, and was the only student in his school to play the game. He worked at local farms to earn enough money to build a full set at $15 a club. He got his first matched set at age 14 and a year later, in 1975, he received Jack Nicklaus’s instructional book Golf My Way, which became his golf bible, as a birthday present from his parents. From those humble beginnings, he left school at age 15 to pursue a career in the game.
“I had this dream of being a club pro, giving lessons and being part of the fabric of a club,” Baker-Finch recalled. “I never thought I’d be an Open champion.”
For many golf fans, the 1984 Open at St. Andrews represented Baker-Finch’s first real splash on the world stage. He held a share of the 54-hole lead and played with Tom Watson in the final pairing before skying to 79. Jim Nantz, who would become his longtime friend and broadcast partner at CBS, remembers being dazzled by Baker-Finch’s play. “He was just 23 and you could tell he was going to be a star,” Nantz said.
Baker-Finch would surpass his wildest dreams by winning the 1991 Open at Royal Birkdale. In the final round, Baker-Finch sank a 15-foot birdie at the par-3 seventh to go 5 under for the day. He looked up at the leaderboard as he walked to the eighth tee and realized he held a five-shot lead. “I thought, ‘Bloody hell, do not stuff it up from here. I will not be allowed back home,’ ” he wrote in his biography.
Pete Bender compared caddying for Baker-Finch that week to riding Secretariat, the champion thoroughbred racehorse, and all he had to do was hold on. During his victory speech, Baker-Finch said, “The pain of the other couple of times when I had a chance to do it gave me the strength to do it today. I will cherish this trophy forever.”
Within three years of his Open conquest, his game was in tatters. The 1993 Australian PGA Championship was the last of his 17 wins as a professional golfer. In 1995, he played in 15 tournaments on the PGA Tour and missed every single cut. He hit rock bottom at the 1997 Open at Troon, shooting 92 in the opening round and withdrew. At age 36, six years after being hailed as the Champion Golfer of the Year, his playing career was over. To this day, he regrets playing that round at Troon because the scar tissue became too deep. “Had I not played that day,” he mused, “I may have come back to playing but then that was the sliding door moment to the TV career.”
Baker-Finch had dabbled in TV the year before while nursing injuries back home in Australia and served as the lead analyst for all four networks in his native land during the summer portion of the schedule as well contributing to the Open Championship for ABC. Its producer at the time, Jack Graham, called him and said, “I know you would love to get back to playing but if you don’t, you’ve got a job with us.”
As a broadcaster, he was a gifted storyteller and determined to follow the principles of ‘less is more.’ He made a point to glean fresh information from players.
“There was always a warmth quotient,” said CBS’s play-by-play commentator Jim Nantz. “Everyone loves Ian. His genuine kindness always shone through.”
“Everything Finchy said had meaning and purpose,” said CBS executive producer of golf Sellers Shy. “As our mate steps away, he leaves 19 memorable years at CBS Sports defined by integrity, excellence and kindness. Retirement is a fitting reward for someone who gave so much to the game – and to all of us.”
Calling the fifth Green Jacket for Tiger Woods in 2019 and Rory McIlroy completing the career Grand Slam are among the highlights of his broadcasting career. When Adam Scott became the first Australian golfer to don the Green Jacket, Nantz threw the called to Baker-Finch, Scott’s fellow Queenslander, who famously said, “From Down Under to on top of the world, Jim.”
Baker-Finch turns 65 in October, and his latest contract was set to expire. His desire to do the preparation required to broadcast at the highest level 23 weeks a year had waned. “I don’t ever want to get to the point where the producer and the team have to sort of legacy protect, if you will. I’m not there yet, but at nearly 65 you start feeling that way,” he said.
Baker-Finch looks forward to traveling and enjoying various wine regions and playing more golf, “and working on my game a little bit because that’s what I love to do,” he said. He’ll spend more time with wife Jenny and his daughters and grandchildren. The month of March he’ll go to New Zealand as he and Jenny enjoyed this year plus three months in Australia, playing a bunch of golf in the Melbourne Sandbelt region while doing it all at his own pace. He’ll keep his hands busy doing some golf course design work and still travel to several of golf’s biggest events for meetings in his role as chairman of the board of the PGA of Australia. He expects his final broadcast to be an emotional one as the CBS broadcast team has become a second family and for three decades he’s been one of the integral voices that make up the soundtrack of the game.
“I hope people saw me as someone who loved the game and respected the players and brought a calm and honest perspective to the coverage,” he said. “It’s never been about me. I’m sort of uncomfortable when something’s about me. The love and support I’ve received since I went public with my retirement has been overwhelming. I do think there may be some on social media that’ll say good riddance, we didn’t like the accent, or we didn’t like him or he was never tough enough on the players but that doesn’t worry me. I think the majority will say, ‘Hey, he did a good job. He loved the game. We’ll miss him.’ “
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