Stunning play

A childhood prodigy, Ian Baker Finch went onto achieve great heights before he hit a sudden slump in his game

Ian Baker-Finch turned pro in 1979, and won the first of his 16 championships in 1983 at the New Zealand Open in Auckland. His first major victory in Australia came at the 1987 Australian Matchplay Championship at Kingston Heath. This was followed in 1988 by a stunning playoff win in the Australian Masters where he knocked a five iron within a metre of the cup on the first playoff hole to beat Craig Parry and Roger Mackay. He has a host of Australasian PGA Tour victories most notably the 1990 Coolum Classic, 1992 Vines Classic and the Open titles of Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia.

Among his credits he has won tournaments on all four major tours, including the 1989 Colonial Invitational (USA), the 1988 ASO Open (Japan), the 1985 Scandanavian Open, and the 1993 Australian PGA. But Baker-Finch’s moment of glory came in 1991 when he won the British Open at Royal Birkdale Golf Club. His final round 66 was one of the greatest ever in major championship golf and included an outward nine of 29 where he birdied five of his first seven holes. His final 36 hole total (64-66) is the best ever by an Open Champion.

Downhill drive
Baker-Finch then famously suffered a complete collapse of his game. The problems were often psychological, he would hit shots flawlessly on the practice range, and then go to the first tee and hit a weak drive into the wrong fairway. In the 1995 Open Championship at St Andrews, he notoriously hooked his first round tee-shot at the first out-of-bounds on the left side of the fairway shared with the 18th, with attention focused on him as his playing partner was Arnold Palmer, competing in his final Open. In 1995 and 1996 he missed the cut, withdrew after one round, or was disqualified in all twenty nine PGA Tour events that he entered. After shooting a 92 in the first round of the 1997 British Open, an extraordinarily bad score by tournament professional standards, he withdrew from the championship and retired from tournament golf.

After his game deserted him, Baker-Finch turned his interests to careers in broadcasting; and in golf course design and management. He was hired by ABC Sports to commentate on golf tournaments in 1998, and did so until 2006, when he was hired by CBS Sports. On broadcasts he is often known by the nickname “Finchy”. Reporting for CBS at the 2007 The Barclays tournament, Baker-Finch was one of the thousands gathered around the 18th green as Rich Beem hit his approach shot. The errant shot hit straight on Baker-Finch’s cheek and knocked him out behind the green. Baker-Finch recovered before Beem got to his ball.

His course design work includes the impressive Golf Club at Kennedy Bay regarded by some as Australia’s most authentic links golf experience. He recently bought a share in The Greg Norman designed Glades golf course on the Gold Coast and will be managing the course with the help of Troon Golf. In January 2008, he joined Gary Player Design as an international brand ambassador and golf course designer.

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