Baker-Finch: “In golf, you’re not supposed to get mulligans, but I got one."

Robert Lusetich talks to a candid Ian Baker-Finch about why the former champion no longer plays The Open, and reminds us that the CBS commentator and 1991 champion was once one of the world's best players before he over-analyzed the swing.

“I can play in front of galleries, at times," Baker-Finch said. "I won a tournament (in Australia) last year, but it’s where I feel comfortable, a small event back home. I feel I can compete, and I’m in a different frame of mind.

“With me, it’s obviously a mental thing, an anxiety thing because even when I was missing cuts I’d go home and shoot 66 with my mates or I’d win the pro-am and then go out and shoot 81.

“There’s lots of scar tissue, and the bigger the event, the worse the score I’d shoot.

Doesn’t he miss the buzz?

“Once you’ve stepped aside for as long as I have, I’m just as fired up about playing Oakmont, Chicago Golf Club,” he says.”

Comments

[rb]

"“With me, it’s obviously a mental thing,"

It's called the Yips..once you catch it you have it for life...there is no known cure..it has gotten the best of some very great players..it may go away for a while but sooner or later it will rear it's ugly head.

[Adam Clayman]

Result oriented thinking will freeze up the best of golfers.

[gov. lepetomane]

Is the mulligan that he got a second career as a course reporter for televised golf?

Golf Gods: "Ian Baker-Finch you've been granted one of our golf mulligans. First prize mulligan - you get to cover golf tournaments with David Feherty. Second prize mulligan - cover with David Feherty and Gary McCord."

[B.O.]

Adam, you must be a golfer!

[Foreright!]

Hearing the best of this sport admit the same mental failings as us mortals is both hearting and dishearting.

[Sclaff & Foozle]

I believe he was associated with Atlanta National Golf Club a few years ago. That surely didn't help, either.

[A3]

Try Zoloft. Or Paxil.

[tlavin]

An honest golf commentator? Who woulda thunk it?

[Pepperdine]

@A3 -

Maybe IBF is pregnant - doesn't want to take Paxil and join the massive class-action lawsuit building up, lol.

[Tiger's Bald Spot]

Ian Baker Flinch.

[AK47]

It wasn't the yips as in his putting. He had the driver yips. Like Hank Haney.

[Jonathan]

I spent a day with him and he couldn't have been a nicer guy. Tipped a beer with him after the clinic we ran in which he participated. JC

[DTF]

World class guy.

Horrendously bad golf announcer.

[rb]

The Yips...are not just specific to putting...they can include every club in the bag...and some not in the bag...symptoms include the driver shakes...the five iron yanks...the lob wedge skulls...an overall frying of golf brain cells...and a strong desire to quit the game forever.

[Colin MacGillivray]

Henry Longhurst on the yips-
"But the bitter, inescapable truth remains. Once you've had 'em, you've got 'em."