#Ian baker finch how toThe main thing was that British Open in 1990, seeing how Nick Faldo went on to win, it really gave me a lot of confidence, that intangible knowledge of how to go on and win the next time I had the chance.” Finishing top ten gave me the confidence when I did get to the British Open that I belonged there. “I had a chance a couple of times at Augusta but just couldn’t get it done. He went to Augusta, finished T7, had a chance to win but didn’t putt well. In 1990 he was in the last group at St Andrews again, this time with Nick Faldo who led by five, won by five. He returned home to Australia, went to Royal Melbourne and Kingston Heath, the jewels of Melbourne’s sandbelt, and learned to putt on fast greens. I hit it thirty feet past, down the bottom of the hill.” I had a two-footer with a bit of break that I thought I’d just ram in. I nearly holed out on the sixth in the first round. I’d have a three-foot putt and hit it ten feet by. “I’d never putted on greens that fast in my life. #Ian baker finch proBaker-Finch was Top-25 in 1986 through to ’88, didn’t get a guernsey.įirst round in ’85 Baker-Finch remembers his luggage not arriving (though his clubs did) so he bought all the clothes he wore that week at Augusta’s pro shop. Augusta didn’t give a reason – didn’t have to – they just invited whom they liked. It wasn’t because he was Top-50 in the world or anything. There came an invitation from Augusta National. But he took with him the belief: he belonged. He didn’t win because Seve Ballesteros did. In 1984 though, he was 23-years-old and in the last group at St Andrews in the Open Championship (above). And he couldn’t hit a fairway wider than the Straits of Hormuz. And he tried to fashion a long game to go with his short one. Men liked him so much they could cop his pink shirt.Īnd then, roughly the time John Daly won the PGA Championship, Baker-Finch figured (because so many people told him so) that he needed to ‘compete’ with the New Wave of Long Bombers. He looked good a tall and handsome man, open smile and sparkling eyes. He was one of ‘them’, a top man, a contender. They also called him ‘Finchy’, ‘Sparrow’, ‘IBF’, ‘The Boy from Beerwah’, ‘a champion bloke’ and, rarely just ‘Ian’. Ian Baker-Finch won the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in 1991 and was so good they called him ‘The Dark Shark’ in homage to the Great White Shark, Greg Norman.
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