Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Ian Baker-Finch (born 24 October 1960 in Nambour,
Australia) is an Australian professional
golf|golfer who is best known for winning The Open
Championship in 1991.

Baker-Finch turned professional in 1979.
Baker-Finch credits Jack Nicklaus as his greatest
influence, saying that he based his game on
NIcklaus's book, Golf My Way. He began his
professional career on the PGA Tour of
Australasia, winning his first professional
tournament, the New Zealand Open, in 1983. From
1984 to 1987 he was a member of the more
prestigious PGA European Tour, and enjoyed
moderate success on that tour, winning the 1985
Scandinavian Enterprise Open and finishing in the
top twenty on the order of merit in both 1985 and
1986. At the same time he continued to play in
Australasia in the Northern Hemisphere winter,
picking up several further tournament titles
there, and occasionally played on the Japan Golf
Tour.

Baker-Finch first played on the PGA Tour as an
invitee in 1985, and began to do so regularly in
1989, having qualified for tour membership by
finishing third in the 1988 World Series of Golf.
He won his first PGA Tour title at the 1989
Southwestern Bell Colonial, giving him a two-year
exemption on Tour. In 1990, he finished 16th on
the PGA Tour money list, on the strength of 3
runner-up finishes and 2 third-places. 

Despite his steady career, with wins on four
continents, including Asia, Baker-Finch was not
generally counted as a member of the elite group
of international golfers, and when he won his
major championship at the 1991 The Open
Championship|British Open, closing with a 64-66 to
beat Mike Harwood by two strokes, he was
considered a surprise champion. He had three other
runner-up finishes that year as well, and again
qualified for the Tour Championship with a 13th
place finish on the money list.

Baker-Finch's British Open victory might have
proved the catalyst for him to move to a higher
level and start to regularly challenge for
prestigious titles, but this was not to be the
case. He had a 10-year exemption from the PGA Tour
from the British Open win, leaving him exempt
until 2001. He did achieve a runner-up finish in
the Players Championship in 1992, but never came
close to contending on the PGA Tour again. He
picked up one relatively minor win outside the U.S
in each of 1992 and 1993, but his form then went
into a steep and accelerating decline. He started
to lose confidence in his game, and tinkered with
his swing often. His last top-10 finish on the PGA
Tour was a tie for 10th in the 1994 Masters
Tournament. 

Baker-Finch then suffered a famously
difficult-to-watch complete collapse of his game.
The problems were often psychological: He would
hit shots flawlessly on the practice range, and
then go to the first tee and hit a weak drive into
the wrong fairway. 
In 1995 and 1996 he missed the cut, withdrew after
one round, or was disqualified in all twenty nine
PGA Tour events that he entered.  After shooting a
92 in the first round of the 1997 British Open, an
extraordinarily bad score by tournament
professional standards, he withdrew from the
championship and retired from tournament golf.

Baker-Finch was hired by ABC Sports to commentate
on golf tournaments in 1998, and still does that
to this day. On broadcasts he is often known by
the nickname "Finchy".  The only PGA Tour event he
has played since the 1997 Open Championship was
the 2001 MasterCard Colonial, where he missed the
cut with rounds of 74 and 77. 

In 2003 Baker-Finch served as Gary Player|Gary
Player's captain's assistant for the International
team in the Presidents Cup. He plans to compete on
the Champions Tour after he turns 50 in 2010.

==External links==
*http://www.pgatour.com/players/bio/238064 Profile
on the PGA Tour's official site<
*http://www.europeantour.com/players/bio.sps?iPlay
erNo=5&sOption=wins Profile on the PGA European
Tour's official site
*http://www.golfstarsonline.com/B/Ian_Baker_Finch/
Golf Stars online - profiles and features