The post CBS Golf broadcaster Ian Baker-Finch announces retirement appeared first on Golf.

The post CBS Golf broadcaster Ian Baker-Finch announces retirement appeared first on Golf.

The CBS Golf booth is about to grow one legend lighter.

Ian Baker-Finch, the former major-winner and longtime voice of golf on CBS, announced his retirement from the booth after 19 years with CBS.

“Golf has been an enormous part of my life. I was fortunate to compete against the best players in the game and more recently work with the very best in television,” Baker-Finch said in a release announcing his retirement. “To my CBS Sports family — my teammates, producers, directors, and crew — thank you for your extraordinary talent, dedication, and camaraderie. You’ve made every moment in the booth a joy, transforming broadcasts into cherished memories. To my colleagues across the industry and golf fans around the world, your support and shared love for this game over these decades have meant everything.”

Baker-Finch, 64, will work out the remainder of CBS Sports’ 2025 golf season before riding off into the sunset. He will conclude his career in the booth at both this week’s 3M Open and next week’s Wyndham Championship. It is not yet known how CBS will manage its on-air roster in Baker-Finch’s absence, though the network has traditionally waited until retiring legends were off the air to announce their replacements.

“As I step away, I carry with me immense gratitude and pride for the moments we’ve shared on and off the course,” Baker-Finch said. “Here’s to new adventures and the enduring love of golf.”

As a golfer and as a broadcaster, Baker-Finch leaves behind a legacy as one of the sport’s most fascinating figures. The Aussie joined the booth for ESPN and ABC in 1998 after suddenly retiring from golf after one round of the 1997 Open Championship. His Thursday 92 at the ’97 Open was the culmination of several years of psychological challenges following his lone major victory at the ’91 Open — a stretch that led Baker-Finch to entertain the idea of working in television.

He entered the booth for ESPN in ’98 and quickly ingratiated himself to golf fans with a mix of acerbic wit and steady analysis. In 2006, Baker-Finch carried the same skillset to CBS, joining as a so-called “hole announcer” alongside Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo, a role he has maintained to this day.

“As a major champion during his successful playing career and over three decades in broadcasting, Ian Baker-Finch distinguished himself as one of the most respected and trusted voices in golf,” CBS Sports CEO David Berson said in the same statement. “As he announces his retirement, we’ll miss his passion, insight, warmth and steady presence on the air but know he will continue to make his mark across the world of golf. Finchy will always be part of the CBS Sports family, and we thank him for being an incredible teammate and friend.”

The post CBS Golf broadcaster Ian Baker-Finch announces retirement appeared first on Golf.

The post The inventive way Australian golfers are staying cool at the Olympics appeared first on Golf.

The post The inventive way Australian golfers are staying cool at the Olympics appeared first on Golf.

Hannah Green smiled and held a cup. You know that meme where the cartoon dog is sitting next to a cup and says, “This is fine,” amid a room full of flames? It had come to life. 

Fire, figuratively, has surrounded Green and the 59 other women playing in the Olympic women’s golf tournament this week in Japan. Temps have floated around 100. Players went off both tees during Friday’s third round to try to finish before noon. But there Green was on Thursday in a photo snapped by Ian Baker-Finch, her captain on the Australian Olympic golf team.

This was fine. 

What gives? While it remains to be seen if Green and fellow Aussie Minjee Lee have ice in their veins during the remainder of the event, they do have slushy in them. And ice vests on them. 

“I pretty much used it every opportunity that I got,” Green said of the vests. “It wasn’t so bad the first nine holes, the last nine was definitely starting to get warm, but today I have to make sure I’m doing the right thing, but I also have to think about the next couple days. It won’t be so hot, but I want to make sure that I don’t have to work too hard to get myself back to normal. So very grateful for the team running around everywhere and looking after me and my caddie.”

According to another Instagram post by Baker-Finch, Dr. Corey Cunningham of the Australian Olympic Committee provided Finch and the team the vests and slushies before Thursday’s second round. From there, the team walked around the Kasumigaseki Country Club course with a blue cooler labeled “Do Not Touch,” and Green shot a 65, Lee a 68.

“I used it like two or three times, probably,” Lee of the vest. “Walking around. So I had it on and off just for a short period of time, but I think it was great. It feels good when you have it on.”

Last week, GOLF’s Sean Zak described other inventive measures taken by the Japanese to play golf when temperatures may suggest doing otherwise. But just how hot is it for the professionals? Lee was also asked how the conditions compare to events she’s played around the world. 

“It’s just much more humid here,” said Lee, who won the Evian Championship two weeks ago for her first major championship. “But in the Middle East not as, it’s not that hot. I mean, it’s dry heat. And you don’t really feel it as much as like here, where it’s humid like Thailand, Singapore. It’s the humidity. Like the temperature is probably not so bad — it’s just the sun and the humidity.”

The post The inventive way Australian golfers are staying cool at the Olympics appeared first on Golf.