CBS golf analyst Ian Baker-Finch will retire after the network ends its 2025 PGA Tour golf coverage at this week’s Wyndham Championship. Baker-Finch, a 64-year-old Australian best known for winning the 1991 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, joined CBS in 2007. He had worked the previous decade as a commentator with ESPN and TNT.
“Golf has been an enormous part of my life,” Baker-Finch said in a statement. “I was fortunate to compete against the best players in the game and more recently work with the very best in television.”
“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,” said David Berson, president and CEO of CBS Sports. “As he announces his retirement, 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.” READ MORE
The PGA Tour will present Paul Azinger with its 2025 Payne Stewart Award, given annually to a professional golfer who best exemplifies the late two-time U.S. Open champion’s steadfast values of character, charity and sportsmanship, it announced last Monday.
“To be named the recipient of this award, representing my dearest friend, is one of the proudest moments in my life,” said Azinger, a 12-time PGA Tour winner and longtime broadcaster. “Payne displayed the ultimate character, sportsmanship and service to others throughout his career. He set the standard for how to represent the game of golf, so to be recognized for this award is truly humbling.”
Azinger, 65, will receive the award on Aug. 19 during the Tour Championship in Atlanta. READ MORE
Several golf notables, including world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau, Tony Finau, Fred Couples and John Daly, attended a premiere for the film “Happy Gilmore 2” last Monday at Lincoln Center in New York City. The golf comedy, which stars Adam Sandler and is a sequel to the 1996 original, was released on Netflix last Friday. READ MORE
Tap-Ins
The World Golf Hall of Fame’s next induction ceremony will be held in St Andrews, Scotland, during the week of the Open Championship there in July 2027, it was announced last Wednesday. The 2029 ceremony will take place at the hall’s Pinehurst, North Carolina, home in conjunction with the back-to-back men’s and women’s U.S. Opens there. READ MORE
Scottie Scheffler will fund a renovation of the golf practice facility at his alma mater, the University of Texas, Longhorns coach John Fields announced. The new complex and practice range will be called “Scheff’s Kitchen.” READ MORE
Titleist will open a retail store at Pinehurst Resort this fall, the resort announced Thursday. The game’s No. 1 ball manufacturer will open its first retail location at the Padgett Learning Center in September. READ MORE
The 2025 PGA Buying Summit, the golf industry’s mid-season business and networking event for PGA professionals and retail buyers, will return to PGA Frisco in Texas today through Wednesday with a lineup of more than 180 exhibiting golf and lifestyle brands. READ MORE
The 2026 Arnold Palmer Cup, a Ryder Cup-style event featuring teams of male and female collegiate golfers from the United States and overseas, will take place July 3-5 at Ireland’s Tralee Golf Club. READ MORE
Compiled by Mike Cullity