CBS Sports Golf Analyst Ian Baker-Finch to Retire from Broadcasting

The 1991 British Open champion has been with CBS Sports for the last 19 years after starting with ESPN and ABC Sports in 1998.

Ian Baker-Finch will retire after a 19-year run at CBS Sports. / CBS Sports

It’s the end of an era. 

Longtime CBS Sports golf analyst Ian Baker-Finch is putting away the headset and microphone for good. 

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“After 19 incredible years as a golf analyst with CBS Sports and a remarkable 30-year journey in the industry, I am announcing my retirement from broadcasting,” Baker-Finch wrote in a statement. “I carry with me immense gratitude and pride for the moments we’ve shared on and off the course. Here’s to new adventures and the enduring love of golf.”

The 64-year-old Australian began playing professionally in 1979 and won twice on the PGA Tour, including the 1991 British Open. The form that brought him to glory, though, began to elude him. On the first day of the 1997 British Open, he shot 92 and admitted to shedding tears in the locker room afterward. He withdrew after that round and retired from the sport. 

A year later, he began commentating for ESPN and ABC Sports and was the lead analyst until 2006, when he left the network and joined CBS the following season. 

Ian Baker-Finch today announced his retirement from broadcasting golf after an incredible 30-year run, the past 19 with CBS Sports.

Baker-Finch will work CBS Sports’ final two tournaments of the Network’s 2025 season, with his last broadcast coming at the Wyndham Championship… pic.twitter.com/vzWQAxXauW

— CBS Sports PR (@CBSSportsGang) July 22, 2025

His first year began with a bang, literally. During the 2007 Barclays, Baker-Finch was hit by an errant approach shot from Rich Beem, which knocked him to the ground. He turned out to be O.K. and returned on-air shortly afterward. It’s one of the more viral moments of Baker-Finch’s tenure. 

There have been many indelible calls during the last three decades of Baker-Finch’s broadcasting career. Perhaps the most memorable is his exclamation when fellow Aussie Adam Scott won the 2013 Masters in a playoff, saying, “From down under to on top of the world.” 

“I can barely get it out,” Baker-Finch recently recalled to Golf.com. “It was dark, it was raining, I was sitting out there since they’d gone through 12. The cleaners had come through, that’s how late it was … it was really all I could say.” 

Baker-Finch’s final call will come next week at the Wyndham Championship, the PGA Tour’s regular season finale.

“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 President and CEO David Berson said in a statement. “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.”