As another chapter in golf history awaits to be written at this week’s US Open, an Australian major champion has shed light on how achieving the ultimate success can be both a blessing and a curse.
Last week, excerpts from Ian Baker-Finch’s newly-released, authorised biography by Geoff Saunders titled ‘Ian Baker-Finch: To Hell and Back’ dived into his infamous 20-over par round of 92 at the 1997 Open Championship at Royal Troon, but now, the 1991 Open champion has spoken on the downward spiral brought on by the crowning moment of his career at Royal Birkdale.
In an exclusive interview with foxsports.com.au, the 64-year-old revealed the mental toll becoming a major champion took on his game as it endured a drastic decline.
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Baker-Finch became just the then seventh Australian man to win a major when he blew away the field at Birkdale.
He started the weekend two-over par after back-to-back rounds of 71, but caught fire with a 64 on Saturday followed by a 66 on Sunday to win by two shots from fellow Australian Mike Harwood.
Ian Baker-Finch at the 1991 British Open. (STL/AAP) 91/420/CLSource: AAP
Baker-Finch’s game was so on song that he even experienced a sensation of visualising a line from his ball to the hole when putting, like something out of a golf video game.
He could not miss, described it the feeling as “like a gutter on the side of the house that drains the water from the roof, and there was gutter from along the line of my ball to the hole. I was just hitting the ball down that gutter and there was no way it was going to miss”.
The then 30-year-old from Nambour on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast pocketed £90,000 (A$194,859 in 1991) for his efforts that week.
While nothing to sneeze at, that sum pales in comparison to the extraordinary purses today’s professional plays for – for reference, Baker-Finch’s prize money is the equivalent of A$455,876.37, while the winner of this week’s US Open is expected to take home A$6.6 million.
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The extravagant modern day prize purses means Baker-Finch believes the pressure that comes on today’s major champions is greater than it was for him, but he admitted lifting the Claret Jug clouded his mind with unrealistic expectations for the remainder of his career. “I think it changes a lot more recently because the money in the game is so huge and the expectations of a young major winner to go on all of the TV shows, to travel around and do all the promotions, especially for The Masters or The Open Championship, it’s a big thing,” Baker-Finch said.
Winner of The Open in 1989, US golfer Mark Calcavecchia (L), Winner of The Open in 1991, Australia’s Ian Baker-Finch (C) and Winner of The Open in 2017, US golfer Jordan Spieth (R) walk from the 1st tee during The R&A Celebration of Champions, part of the build-up towards The 150th British Open Golf Championship on The Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland, on July 11, 2022. – The Open’s Champion Golfers, women’s Major Champions, male and female amateur Champions, and golfers with disability Champions compete in a four-hole challenge over the 1st, 2nd, 17th, and 18th holes of the Old Course. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USESource: AFP
“The pressure for me was more the expectations I put on myself.
“My life changed that I felt like I had to play like that all the time and I wished I realised that you don’t play like that all the time.
“You play like that occasionally and you have the ability when you do really well to win big tournaments but you don’t always play that way.
“I was a bit hard on myself thinking I needed to.
“In a way, from a commercial point of view, I will always be known as Ian Baker-Finch, The Open champion.
“I am a major winner and whenever I call a golf club and say ‘hey, it’s Ian Baker-Finch here’ quite often the young assistant will answer and say ‘oh yeah sure it is. Are you one of my mates calling to wind me up a little bit?’.
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“I have a place in the world of golf as a major champion. There’s not many of us and it’s a special thing.
“Our lives are reviewed, and we are put on a pedestal as a major champion.
“I think that’s the most important thing, how you conduct yourself and how you handle that extra pressure as a major winner.
“I’ve been very lucky and blessed to come from where I came from and be a major winner and have a special place in the game.
“I respect it and honour it, and treat it the way it should be.”
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‘I DIDN’T REALLY UNDERSTAND’: INSIDE THE DECLINE
The mental pressure Baker-Finch put himself under did not immediately take its toll.
He finished tied sixth at The Masters in 1992 after earlier that year claiming The Vines Classic, and later became the Heineken Classic, at Royal Melbourne.
He won again on home soil in November 1993 at the Australian PGA Championship at Concord in Sydney, and that also acted as a springboard to success at Augusta National with a tied 10th finish in 1994.
It was the last time he made the cut at a major.
Head shot of golfer Ian Baker-Finch with trophy for 1993 Reebok Australia PGA Championship. 21 November 1993. Sport / Golf / Head / Alone / TrophiesSource: News Corp Australia
Baker-Finch’s game began to spiral as he was weighed down by the mental burden of not playing as he wished.
It prompted him to shake things up and undertake practices that are common place in the modern day were unusual for professional golfers at the time.
“’94 I started to miss a lot of cuts. At one point I think I missed five cuts by a shot in a seven week period,” he said.
“So that was just mental. How does that happen? How do you play well enough to make the cut and be in the tournament but you mess up the last hole or somehow make a mess of things and miss the cut by a shot?
“I tried to change things through the Christmas break in ‘94 and in ‘95 I played 15 tournaments and missed the cut in all 15 of them.
“I took six weeks off in the middle of the year to go to the gym twice a day and see a yoga master and do a lot of work on my body and mind to see if that would help.
“Once again I came back missing the cut by a shot. Just not quite getting it.”
Ian Baker-Finch checks scoreboard during 1997 British Open at Royal Troon, Scotland. 17/07/97.
GolfSource: News Corp Australia
There were no signs of concerns on the range, or during practice rounds.
Baker-Finch’s game had not completely deserted him.
It was just absent when he needed it most.
“I could win the pro-am. I’d shoot 66 on Wednesday and then I’d snap hook it out of bounds on the first tee on Thursday,” he said.
“I started to notice that in the major championships, when it meant a lot more to me, it was either a bad last round through ‘93 and ‘94 or in ‘95 when I played my worst.
“Then again in ‘96, in the first 11 tournaments of the year, finishing at the British Open, I missed the cut in all 11 events there. So, it became a mental issue.
“I knew I could still play. The rest of my game, especially from 150 yards in, was as good as it had ever been but there was some mental block for whatever reason that wouldn’t allow me to hit a drive when there was a tight hole or an out of bounds down the left, whatever it might have been at the time.
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“It was a struggle with my swing. I was trying to fix my swing. Probably nothing really needed to be fixed, but I was trying to do stuff I didn’t really understand.
“It became a mental issue and then I wore my body out.
“I had to go rehab a few issues in ‘96, that’s why I stopped playing. It became a whole host of things.
“But basically, it was a mental block of not being able to perform under pressure
which was demeaning in so many ways because I just couldn’t figure it out.
“No matter how much I meditated, how many people I went to see about it.”
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‘I HAD TO FIND A PLAN B’: TRANSITION TO BROADCASTING
Unlike others who have had similar issues, Baker-Finch was not lost to the game.
His transition into broadcasting was an immediate, seamless and necessary one.
“I had to find a Plan B when I started to struggle,” Baker-Finch said.
“I didn’t have millions of dollars saved up like a lot of the youngsters do today with the tournaments worth so much money or the big contracts a lot of them have.
“So, I had to go make a living. I had two young kids at home. I needed to find something.”
Across just shy of the last three decades, Baker-Finch has become one of the most recognisable, and respected, voices in golf.
Being among the current crop of stars week-in, week-out on the PGA Tour, as well as at the majors has put him front and centre of many of the sport’s great moments.
“The Masters this year, it was the most exhilarating experience for me as an announcer, calling Rory’s win,” he said.
“The sixth man in the world of golf to win the grand slam. Eleven years since he’s won his last major. Just an amazing feat and the way he did it, as always, Rory didn’t make it easy for us.”
World Cup golf dinner. Adam Scott and Ian Baker-Finch. Picture Bu Julie KiriacoudisSource: News Limited
Baker-Finch was in tears in the broadcast tower when Adam Scott sunk his birdie putt at the second playoff hole to become the first Australia to win The Masters in 2013.
Being there for other Australian feats Jason Day’s 2015 PGA Championship victory, Cameron Smith’s 2022 Open Championship win in the 150th Open at St Andrews and several of seven-time major champion Karrie Webb’s triumphs were also emotional experiences.
“It means a lot to me as an elder statesman in the game to see the young guys come through,” Baker-Finch said.
“And for Scotty, who’d I known for so long, and both (Scott and Day) I’d given trophies to as juniors.
“To see him win The Masters and have that final call where Jim Nantz said ‘Ian, you’ve got have something to say down there’ and I was on the tower at Amen Corner, and I was pretty much an emotional mess watching him win.
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“I said, ‘from down under to the top of the world, Jim’ and that was pretty much all I could get out.
He added: “I picked Geoff Ogilvy when he won the US Open at Winged Foot back in 2006. The week before I said Geoff Ogilvy is my man, I think he’s going to win it next week.
“I keep in touch with them as an announcer and I know them. It’s been nice to stay in touch with the game even though I’m not playing at that high level.
“It’s funny some of the guys on the Champions Tour now were rookies when I started doing the TV. That’s long how I’ve been doing it.”
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‘I BLOODY WELL WANT TO KNOW’: HELPING OTHERS AND MAKING SENSE OF IT ALL
Away from the microphone, he has undertaken mentoring roles as Olympic team captain for the Rio and Tokyo Games, as well as multiple stints as a captain’s assistant at the Presidents Cup.
The close connection he has maintained with the current players has allowed Baker-Finch to use his own experiences to help them when they need it.
He sometimes wishes he had have taken his own advice towards the end of his career.
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – AUGUST 09: Australia team leader Ian Baker Finch waits on a green during a practice round on Day 4 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at Olympic Golf Course on August 9, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)Source: News Regional Media
“I’ve gone to them and said ‘hey listen, don’t change anything. Don’t change your clubs. Don’t change the ball. Just keep doing what you do. Don’t feel like you have to excel like you did last week in winning a big tournament every time you go play. Just be comfortable.’ A lot of things that I stumbled through a little bit in my time,” Baker-Finch said.
“There’s been a handful of guys who’ve been struggling and come to me for my help whether it be the yips or driver issues, mental issues, like I had with my driver. I’ve learned a lot over the years.”
Ian Baker-Finch walks down the 18th fairway followed by the scoreboard which reads his score of +20 during the first round of The Open Championship at the Royal Troon Golf Club Jul 17, 1997. He finished the day at 21-over-par and withdrew from the tournament due to an injury. (AP Photo/Str) sport o/seas actionSource: AP
One thing he still has not learned however, and probably never will, is exactly where his playing days all went wrong.
The tendency to hit a snap hook left off the tee, the mental blocks and a sore back were all to blame, but Baker-Finch still cannot quite put his finger on it.
“At the start of the book when Geoff (Saunders) said, ‘the world wants to know what happened’. I bloody well want to know what happened as well,” Baker-Finch said with a chuckle.
“It was cathartic going through all the stories and remembering. I can laugh about it now.
“It’s so far gone, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have another career and a life in golf.”
