GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA | It was more than two hours before Ian Baker-Finch would take his seat for the last time in the CBS Sports booth to call the final round of the Wyndham Championship and there he was on the edge of the Sedgefield Country Club practice green doing what he has done so well for so many years – talking to the people.
Baker-Finch had done a couple of quick video interviews, talking again about his decision to step away after 19 years alongside Jim Nantz and his CBS Sports colleagues, and rather than hurry away, he chatted with fans who spied him, leaning in for selfies when they asked.
Across his final on-air weekend, Baker-Finch got the long goodbye treatment, complete with teardrops that accentuated his impact on the people he’s worked with in a second career than has spanned roughly three decades since his playing days and has ultimately defined him as much as the Claret Jug he won in 1991.
Like everything else he does, there was a grace in how Baker-Finch called it a career.
“It just felt right. I’ve been doing this a long time and the numbers kind of added up … 30 years,” Baker-Finch said last week.
“There are a lot of contributing factors. I’ve been thinking about it for a year. I could have signed a long-term contract. The team would like me to stay. CBS considers me a lifer, I’ve been there so long.”
So why now?
Baker-Finch will turn 65 in October though he is one of the lucky ones who looks younger than his age. He and his wife, Jennie, live in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, when they aren’t in his native Australia. They have two granddaughters who live nearby and a third grandchild is on the way this fall.
There are times when having to catch a plane for another weekend of television work is harder to do than it once was.
Sometimes the cosmos sends messages.
“A number of my friends have passed away over the last two or three years and it made me realize our time here is ephemeral,” Baker-Finch said.
A few hours earlier, Baker-Finch had learned another good friend was in hospice care. They are the same age and Baker-Finch was planning to reach out via text.
“I only found out last night,” Baker-Finch said before pausing.
When Adam Scott became the first Australian to win the Masters in 2013, an enormous moment for the sports-centric nation, Baker-Finch was overcome with emotion but provided one of his most famous lines, saying, “From down under to on top of the world.”
For all that Baker-Finch accomplished as a player – he won 17 worldwide titles, including the ’91 Open Championship and one additional victory apiece on the PGA and European tours – he is remembered by many for how cruel the game treated him.
Once ranked in the top 10 in the world, Baker-Finch completely lost his confidence and in 1995-96, he missed the cut, withdrew or was disqualified from all 29 PGA Tour events he played. Baker-Finch ultimately retired as a player after shooting 92 in the first round of the 1997 Open Championship at Royal Troon, his spirit broken.
Despite that, Baker-Finch never lost his love of the game and what began as a part-time gig turned into a big part of his post-competitive life.
“It became a platform to continue my passion and stay involved. I needed the work at the time. I hadn’t signed $20 million contracts and I wasn’t earning $10 million a year as a top player,” Baker-Finch said.
Analyst work in Australia led to a gig with ABC/ESPN and finally to his spot in the CBS lineup.
When Adam Scott became the first Australian to win the Masters in 2013, an enormous moment for the sports-centric nation, Baker-Finch was overcome with emotion but provided one of his most famous lines, saying, “From down under to on top of the world.”
From his spot in the broadcast booth and, going forward, his role as chairman of the PGA of Australia that he will occupy for the next three years, Baker-Finch’s voice has been and will remain relevant.
“[The PGA Tour] should be careful that they don’t become too greedy and too top heavy. The depth in the game is far greater than it’s ever been. We have to be careful not to make it so the top 30, 50, 70 are, I think overpaid, that’s my term,” Baker-Finch said.
“To me it’s more about creating the pathways and next rung of players to play against the best. My charter is to look after all 300 members of our Australian PGA and to create pathways to the DP World Tour, the Korn Ferry Tour and, eventually, the PGA Tour which is the guiding light for everybody.”
Baker-Finch believes in the concept of a global tour and sees the DP World Tour playing that role with the PGA Tour remaining more U.S.-centric. The Australian PGA Championship and the Australian Open along with other events such as the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth deserve to prosper and have many of the best players in their fields, he said.
He smiled and his eyes welled up as the tributes poured in last week, coming from Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and, most personally, his CBS colleagues.
As for LIV Golf, Baker-Finch still isn’t sure what it means.
“It can be the traveling circus, the F1 circuit traveling the world 14 weeks a year and playing for incredible sums of money. Just go do it and don’t complain about not playing the PGA Tour,” Baker-Finch said.
“I’m not sure those who win on LIV are creating any legacy. I look at Joaquin Niemann. I’d love for him to be playing the PGA Tour. But when he’s 40 and retired and says he won 17 LIV events, I’m not sure what his legacy will be.”
As for Baker-Finch, his life path is changing. He smiled and his eyes welled up as the tributes poured in last week, coming from Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and, most personally, his CBS colleagues.
When he left the CBS trailer in the television compound for a final time, his co-workers – both on camera and behind the scenes – were there for a proper farewell.
“It’s been the honor of a lifetime to share this game with so many people around the world,” Baker-Finch said last week.
He’s done it with an amazing grace.