British Open champion reveals what ended his high-flying career

Ian Baker-Finch still loves golf so much he plays 200 times a year and has set himself the goal of breaking his age before he turns 65. He tells The Saturday Telegraph there are no regrets about the collapse of his career that peaked with a British Open triumph.

Ian Baker-Finch reflects on the title of his just released biography – To Hell and Back – and wonders whether it should have been flipped.

This is not a man weighed down by a sporting fall from grace 30 years ago when his high-flying career unravelled under the full glare of the public and media spotlight.

From winning a British Open in 1991 to having to walk away from the world’s biggest tournaments six years later because he couldn’t step on to the first tee and hit the ball straight, Baker-Finch, now 64, could have been broken by the experience.

Ian Baker-Finch won the British Open in 1991, but afterwards his game fell away dramatically.

Far from it. A popular commentator on the PGA Tour for the CBS network in the United States, he remains married to Jennie, his sweetheart of 40-plus years, has two daughters, two granddaughters, and plays up to 200 rounds of golf a year with family and mates.

“I still love the game, I absolutely love it,” he said.

An affable, self-effacing character, and one of only 27 Australians to have ever won one of the sport’s four major championships, his view on life and its unexpected speed bumps has a refreshing humility.

Which brings him back to the book title.

“It really could have been ‘To Heaven and Back’,” he tells The Saturday Telegraph in a wide-ranging interview. “Think about it. It was my golfing heaven just to play in the Open championship, but then to go on and win it…

“I know it’s not as catchy a title as the one they’ve used, but to me it’s been a pretty good life. Jennie has been a great strength and partner. Our deal has always been a 50-50 partnership.

Ian Baker-Finch with wife Jennie and daughters Hayley and Laura, who he says are pillars of strength.

“So it’s hard to look back and grade a life on a couple of bad years of performance in sport when everything else has been gift-wrapped. One marriage, wonderful family, I’m still the person I was, I love golf. I’m proud of all that.”

The golfing decline of Baker-Finch was as inexplicable as it was excruciating. He won 17 tournaments on four continents over a decade. A tall, impeccably-dressed competitor, he was a marketer’s dream and had a game to match.

He lifted the British Open’s fabled Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale at 30 years of age. It was a moment to cherish, his final round 66 still considered one of the greatest in major championship history. Five birdies in the first seven holes set up a two shot win.

Then the following year, having entered the rarefied air of the Top 10 in the world rankings with his win at the Open, he switched golf club companies and ball manufacturers.

It was a decision based on mega sponsorship dollars. He also embarked on a quest to overhaul his swing in pursuit of greater distance.

These days the Queensland-born golfer is based in Florida and commentates with CBS.

The technology available today, with swing analysis machines churning out data and insights, would have been invaluable he says. But in the 1990s Baker-Finch visited countless coaches, made his own tweaks and introduced changes without ever finding answers.

All it triggered was a downward form spiral over the next few seasons. There were occasional blue sky moments but the tournament misfires had opened the gates to self-doubt. His professional career never recovered.

“I would go and meditate, I’d go and listen to self-help tapes, or I’d watch recordings of myself in the good times,” he said. “All I could possibly do to figure it out, and I just couldn’t get to the point of saying ‘that’s the reason why’.”

While he never set himself a goal of becoming the best player in the world, Baker-Finch acknowledges his elevation to the Top 10 brought its own internal pressures.

“It was a strange lack of self-belief when I look back on it,” he said. “I was from a little town, a little school. I never really believed early on I would be a great golfer.

“But I was striving to get there and, when I did, I wasn’t comfortable. It was like ‘wow, do I really belong’. I felt like I had to win every week to justify I was there.”

In 1993, Baker-Finch got himself into contention after three rounds at the US Masters, only to card an eight-over-par 80 on the last day. He shot 80 in the last round of the British Open the same year.

Ian Baker-Finch with the Claret Jug after the 1991 British Open.

The boy from Beerwah on the Queensland Sunshine Coast insists he never struggled with his mental health.

“We’re a lot more conscious about mental health issues these days and a lot of the charities on the PGA Tour revolve around mental health, as they should,” he added. “But that was not my issue.

“If I missed a cut I’d be home on Friday night and playing golf with my buddies on Saturday. I always slept well. I didn’t have dark periods. My problem was just getting to the first tee (in a tournament) in a comfortable frame of mind.

“The tricky part, particularly towards the end, in that 1995 to 1997 period, was that I could win the pro-am on Wednesday, shooting 66. Then I’d come out and shoot 76 in the opening round on Thursday after hitting it out of bounds off the first tee.”

WHERE IT STARTED

Baker-Finch learned to play on the course his father Tony helped build with local farmers for the rural community of Beerwah, in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

He turned pro at age 15, finished runner-up at the Australian Open seven years later and won the New Zealand Open the same season.

Baker-Finch went on to claim titles on the US PGA Tour, in Japan and Scandinavia, and won a string of Australian tournaments including the Australian PGA.

TIGER WOODS v JACK NICKLAUS

Asked to separate the two greatest players of all time, Baker-Finch replies: “Tiger”.

“The best players of every era would be the best players in any era,” he said. “But Tiger was the best at every aspect of the game. He was the strongest mentally, the longest hitter, the best putter, the best chipper, the best iron player, just the best.”

Ian Baker-Finch with 18-time major winner Jack Nicholas.

GREG NORMAN

Baker-Finch says: “He saw himself as the best, wanted to be the best, and was the best for a number of years on the world rankings. Perhaps he has a bit of an issue with the fact he won two majors when he had the opportunity to win maybe 10 others.”

Asked what drives Norman, Baker-Finch says: “It’s not just the money, it’s the position, the stature.”

AUSTRALIA’S NEXT MAJOR WINNER

Baker-Finch says Min Woo Lee is the next most likely. “Boy, I hope so, because he’s got everything it takes. I talk to his coach and he thinks he’s on the cusp. He’s figuring it out and working hard.”

Baker-Finch says Min Woo Lee can be Australia’s next major winner. Picture: Getty Images

Cameron Smith, the 2022 British Open winner who is now on the LIV Tour, is also capable Baker-Finch says. “I just think there’s this chip on the shoulder when they (the LIV players) come to a major. It’s like they’re thinking ‘hey, I’ve got to prove I’m still a good player’.”

Baker-Finch also rates Adam Scott, now 44, a chance of winning another major to go with his 2013 US Masters green jacket. “He still plays well enough.”

LEGACY

Asked how he would like to be remembered, Baker-Finch smiles: “A lover of golf and someone willing to give back while enjoying the game as much as I have. Fortunately, I’ll always be remembered as a British Open champion, but there’s more (to life) than that.”

REMAINING AMBITION

While his professional days ended prematurely, there is one last golfing mountain Baker-Finch is determined to conquer. “I want to shoot my age before I turn 65,” he said. “I shot 66 in New Zealand in March and three putted the last two greens. So that’s my goal … and it will come.”