Baker returns to Iowa for GCRO victory

MARION - It had been about four years since Chris Baker last returned to Iowa.

The former Iowa State golfer is going to try to stop by a little more often now. He finished 12-under par at the Greater Cedar Rapids Open this weekend, winning the tournament by one stroke.

“I couldn't be happier. It's nice to be home,” Baker said. “I enjoy Iowa, I had four great years here. And it was exciting to be able to put in three good rounds … I've been playing in the southeast and in Europe, and I just haven't been able to make it out. I'm going to try to make it more now.”

Baker was the Iowa State male student athlete of the year as a senior in 2008. That year, he set a Cyclone record for stroke average and took first place at the Big Four tournament.

His professional career in the years since has been up and down. He took home his first professional victory - an NGA Hooters Tour Classic - in 2009. Then he won two more events in 2010, including the Moroccan Golf Classic, a Challenge Tour event.

That's when the mind games started. Baker didn't win a professional event for more than two years from that point, and the Jacksonville, Fla., resident blamed a tricky putting stroke.

“There's been some demons in my head,” he said.

A missed three-footer on the 14th green on Sunday could have sent Baker into a spiral. But he made pressure-packed putts on holes 16 and 17 to hold off a charge from runner-up Justin Hueber.

Linn-Mar golf coach Bill Hoefle, who played with the final group on Sunday and finished tied for fifth, came away impressed by Baker's resiliency.

“He's going to do some good things. You can see the guys who can handle themselves in the heat,” Hoefle said. “You saw what he did on 17. That's winning a golf tournament. That's how to play. Hopefully my [players] can learn that some day.”

Recently, Baker took a putting lesson from an instructor who told him to “put his own spin” on putting and to “quit worrying about all that ‘perfect' stuff.” At the Waterloo Open on July 19-21, he missed the cut but made three 10-foot putts, something Baker said he “couldn't tell you the last time I did in a round of golf.”

That helped settle his mind, and he drilled a six-footer on hole 17. He needed it to secure the tournament's $20,000 first-place check.

“This is a big jump for me,” Baker said.

“I've been struggling for about a year and a half now. This is just hopefully a kick-start to something more, and to keep it going.”

As he accepted the giant check and shook hands with a tournament sponsor, Baker had the smile of someone who was back on track.

“It's nice to be back in action,” he said. “I had fun today, and I haven't had fun on a golf course in a while.”