‘One of the great people:’ CBS’ Ian Baker-Finch signs off for last time amid tears and praise

“To win these days, you’ve got to have a bit of bastard in you,” David Leadbetter said many years ago, referring to one of his best-known students.

That was the problem, the instructor continued. Ian Baker-Finch didn’t have the slightest traces of that.

On Sunday afternoon, roughly three decades removed from Leadbetter’s remarks, Baker-Finch’s character was once more a topic of golf-world conversation. This time around, though, his kindness was celebrated as a strength.

“Whatever you think of Ian Baker-Finch being in your home the last thirty years, and I know it’s a great feeling having him as a friend from far away,” CBS’ Jim Nantz said. “Whatever you thought he was like, it’s ten times better. He’s one of the the great people all of us at CBS will ever know.”

Nantz was speaking from the tower behind 18 at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C. Out on the course, frontrunner Cameron Young had stripped the Wyndham Championship of its subplots. Though players were still jockeying for FedEx Cup position, the more compelling story was unfolding in the booth, where Baker-Finch sat alongside Nantz (and fellow commentators Trevor Immelman and Frank Nobilo), choking back tears. 

If you keep up with golf headlines, you know that this was bound to be a weepy broadcast. It was all but guaranteed after Baker-Finch announced on July 22 that this week’s tournament would be his last in headsets, marking the end of a 30-year career in television, including the last 19 years with CBS Sports.

“I carry with me immense gratitude and pride for the moments we’ve shared on and off the course. Here’s to new adventure and the enduring love of golf,” Baker-Finch wrote on social media.

On Sunday, leading figures in the game returned that love. Throughout the broadcast, as Young’s lead swelled to as many as nine shots, CBS beamed in a stream of well-wishes. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was among those chiming in, hailing Baker-Finch as “a cherished voice in golf” who brought “insight, connection and a deep love of the game to millions of fans.” On social media, Tiger Woods congratulated “Finchy” for shedding light on matters “that the viewing audience could understand and relate to. From all of us – thanks for the memories.”

Any full-fledged recollection of Baker-Finch must also cover moments from his playing career, which peaked in 1991 with his Open Championship win at Royal Birkdale, only to dip into a devastating spiral. In a quest to get longer off the tee, the easy-swinging Australian lost his game. The low points were legion, but none drew more attention than the shocking shot he struck at the 1995 Open Championship. Playing alongside Arnold Palmer, Baker-Finch snapped-hooked his opening drive across the 18th fairway and out of bounds on a trajectory that would have made a 30-index blush. That same year, Baker-Finch endured what ranks among the cruelest seasons ever in professional golf. In 24 tournaments, he missed every cut and broke par only twice. He shot in the 80s once in every four rounds. The former major champ had become an agonizing cautionary tale. 

But even as he struggled, Baker-Finch retained a graciousness about him, granting interviews and signing autographs. The son of a farmer, raised modestly in rural Australia (during Sunday’s broadcast, Nantz mentioned that Baker-Finch didn’t get his first set of clubs until he was 12), he cut a warm and humble profile — characteristics that became a hallmark of his second career.

Throughout his broadcast run, which began with part-time stints in 1995, Baker-Finch proved himself to be no Johnny Miller. “Choking” wasn’t big in his vocabulary. In Baker-Finch’s telling, poor shots were more apt to be blamed on a bad lie or a bad break than they were on suffocating pressure. Being withering was not his thing.

Nor was he merely nice to players, according to Golf Channel anchor Damon Hack. In a text to Golf.com, Hack said that he had vivid memories of his first encounter with Baker-Finch more than a decade ago at the RCB Heritage on Sea Island.

“I was doing early coverage and was relatively new in the tournament interview role,” Hack said. “Everyone was nice but Ian stood out. Came over to chat and just had this decency about him. Big man with a big network role, but you wouldn’t have known it. He was just a good guy chopping it up with a college. I’ve never forgotten it.”   

During the Wyndham Championship, Baker-Finch’s brethren in the booth echoed that theme.

“The outpouring of love and respect that you’ve received over the last two weeks is just a testament to the great man that you are,” Immelman said.

Added Nobilo: “We come from New Zealand and Australia, we’re meant to be enemies.” But since first crossing paths when they were both 19, the two men, Nobilo noted, “have become great friends.”

In announcing his retirement, Baker-Finch made it clear that he isn’t done with golf. He plans to keep turning up at tournaments now and then, occasionally in a cameo broadcast role. But Sunday still felt like a swan song. In a closing gesture, as Cameron Young surveyed a birdie putt on 18, Nantz handed the call to Baker-Finch.

Though Young missed the putt, then tapped in for par, leaving Baker-Finch little in the way of drama to describe, he still managed a fitting sign off.

“Jim, it’s been a fantastic pleasure all of these years,” he said, with a lump in his throat. “Thanks to everybody in the trucks, the crew, everybody in the tower. It has been my honor to be part of this team.”

A nice guy to the end.