“To win these days, you need to have little bastard in you,” David Leadbetter He said many years ago, referring to one of his most famous students.
That was the problem, the instructor continued. Ian Baker-Finç There were no smaller traces of this.
On Sunday afternoon, nearly three decades left by Leadbetter’s remarks, Baker-Finch’s character was once again a topic of golf conversation in the world. This time, however, his kindness was celebrated as a force.
“At the time you think Ian Baker-Finch is in your home last thirty years, and I know it’s a great feeling to have it as a friend from afar,” CBS ‘ Jim Nantz He said “At that time you thought it was like, it’s ten times better. He’s one of the great people that all of us at CBS will ever know.”
Nantz was talking from the tower after 18 at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, NC Out on the course, Frontrunner Cameron Young had stripped the wyndham championship of its subplots. Although the players were still joking Fedex The position, the most convincing story was unfolding in the stand, where Baker-finch sat down by Nantz (and other commentators Trevor Immelman and Frank Nobloo), drowning tears.
If you continue with golf titles, you know this would be a crying broadcast. It was everything, but guaranteed after Baker-finch announced on July 22 that this week’s tour would be the latest in the headphones, marking the end of a 30-year-old television career, including the last 19 years with CBS Sports.
“I carry with me a tremendous gratitude and pride for the moments we have shared and outside the course. Here it is for new adventures and stable golf love,” Baker-finch wrote on social media.
On Sunday, the main figures in the game turned that love. Throughout the broadcast, while the Young Lead was withdrawn to nine shots, CBS was overthrown in a stream of good wishes. PGA Tour Jay Monahan was among those who were in love with Baker-Finch as “a beloved Golf voice” who brought “Insight, Connection and a deep love of game for millions of fans”. On social media, Tiger Woods wished “Finchy” on the shedding of light on the issues that the audience he watched could understand and connect. Of all of us – thanks for the memories “.
Congratulations Finchy for 30 years of extraordinary after microphone. You brought knowledge of the things that the viewing audience could understand and connect. Of all of us – thanks for the memories.
– Tiger Woods (@tigerwoods) August 3 2025
Anydo’s full memory of Baker-finch should also cover moments from his game career, which peaked in 1991 with his open championship victory in Royal Birkdale, just to plunge into a devastating spiral. In an attempt to take more time from Tee, Australian lost his game at a light speed. The lower points were legion, but none attracted more attention than the shocking blow he hit in the 1995 open championship. Playing along with Arnold Palmer, Baker-Tinch grabbed his opening machine along the 18th and off-border route that would have made a 30-index rash. That same year, Baker-finch endured what ranks among the wildest seasons ever in Golf Professional. On 24 tournaments, he lost every cut and broke only twice. He shot in the 1980s every four rounds. The former champion had become a dawn warning tale.
But even when he fought, Baker-finch held a mercy on him, giving interviews and signing autographs. The son of a farmer, modestly raised in rural Australia (during Sunday broadcast, Nantz mentioned that Baker-finch did not receive his first group of clubs until he was 12 years old), he cut a warm and humble profile-characteristics that became a distinctive sign of his second career.
Throughout its stream of broadcasting, which began with part-time stints in 1995, Baker-finch proved that it was not Johnny Miller. “Drowning” was not great in his vocabulary. In the story of Baker-Finch, the weak shots were best suited to blame for a bad lie or a bad rest than they were in suffocating pressure. Being bad was not his thing.
Nor was he just good for the players, according to the Damon Hack channel golf. In a text for Golf.com, Hack said he had lived memories of his first meeting with Baker-finch more than a decade ago at RCB Heritage in Sea Island.
“I was making early coverage and I was relatively young in the role of interviewing in the tournament,” Hack said. “Everyone was good, but Ian stood out. He came to talk and he just had this determination for him. A great man with a big role in the net, but you wouldn’t know him. He was just a good guy by shredding him with a college. I’ve never forgotten him.”
During the Wynham championship, Baker-finch brothers in the cabin echoed that topic.
“The emergence of love and respect you have received over the past two weeks is just a testimony to the great man you are,” Immelman said.
Added Nobilo: “We come from New Zealand and Australia, we are meant to be enemies.” But from the first roads of the crucifixion when the two were 19, both men, Nobilo pointed, “have become great friends.”
“Above all, I will lose every Saturday and Sunday knowing that I can rely on seeing you and your smiling face”
A heartfelt message from Amanda Balionis to Ian Baker-Finch before retirement Pic.twitter.com/3Ucpfddunp
– Golf in CBS ⛳ (@golfoncbs) August 3 2025
In the announcement of his pension, Baker-finch made it clear that he was not made with golf. He plans to continue to return to the tour now and then, occasionally in a role of the coming broadcast. But Sunday still felt like a swan song. In a concluding gesture, while Cameron Young surveyed a bird blow at 18, Nantz gave it to Baker-Finch.
Although Young lost Puttin, then entered par, leaving Baker-finch Little on the drama path to describe, he still reached a suitable sign.
“Jim, it has been a fantastic pleasure all these years,” he said, with a lump in his throat. “Thank you all in the truck, the crew, everyone in the tower. It was my honor to be part of this team.”
A good guy to the end.
Cameron Young interview after WynDham’s victory
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Semester
Golfit.com editor
A golf, food and travel writer, Josh Sens has been a contributor to the Golf magazine since 2004 and now contributes to all golf platforms. His work is anthologized in the best American sports writings. He is also a co -author, with Sammy Hagar, we are still having fun: cooking and party manual.
