Today’s younger golf fans may only know Johnny Miller as a television broadcaster. After 25 victories on the PGA Tour, Miller rarely played the Senior Tour, and his fame as a golfer faded.
Miller was a breath of fresh air on golf telecasts, unafraid to call it as he saw it, he even had the gumption to toss around the word “choke” and apply it to specific players. Many golf fans and professional golfers came to love Miller’s broadcasting; but some (particularly those targeted by his critical analysis) believed Miller was too blunt.
A San Francisco native, Miller first played golf at Lincoln Park and entered his first Junior NCGA event at the age of eight at Lake Merced. But he was a neighbor of an Olympic Club member who had a son the same age and the boys became good friends. John Flanagan had encouraged his son to play in a Junior Golf program at the Club and one day the Flanagans invited little Johnny Miller to come along. Eventually Flanagan and Leon Gregoire would sponsor Miller for Merit Junior Membership. Miller was a great addition to an already strong team coached by Fran Murphy and their friendly competition made all of the boys better. Miller won the 1964 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship (the first Olympian to do so) when he was 17. During the sixties he won the Olympic Club Junior Championship several times, arguably a more difficult competition than the Junior Am.
He continued to represent the OC while enjoying a successful college career at Brigham Young University. In 1966 the US Open was played on his “home course” at the Olympic Club and he placed 8th, an extraordinary achievement for a 19 year-old amateur. He turned pro in 1969.
He had already won twice on the PGA Tour when in 1973 he produced one of the greatest rounds of golf ever played. Miller’s final-round 63 – the lowest round ever shot in a U.S. Open – carried Miller to the first of his two major championships. He also won the 1976 British Open.
In 1974, Miller won eight tournaments, the money title and the Player of the Year award. He won four more times in 1975, and was a member of two U.S. Ryder Cup teams
The World Golf Hall of Fame says: “In golf’s modern era, it’s commonly understood that no player has ever achieved the brief but memorable brilliance of Johnny Miller. … (In 1974-75) Miller hit the ball consistently closer to the flag than any player in history. At his best, Miller’s game was marked by incredibly aggressive and equally accurate iron play.”
Miller’s playing credentials would likely be even stronger had he not been plagued by a series of injuries and, later in his career, the yips. He overcame both for his final victory, the 1994 Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
In addition to his broadcasting, Miller owns a golf course design company, a golf academy, and has made numerous golf instructional videos. A golf legend holds that the silhouette on the PGA Tour logo is Johnny Miller’s. While it certainly looks like Johnny, the PGA will not acknowledge the resemblance saying, “The logo is not based on any one player.” Johnny Miller was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1996.
He has won the U.S. Open and British Open, plus 24 other PGA Tournaments. His record closing “63” captured the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont and he followed with eight tour victories in 1974 for “Golfer of the Year” title. Miller was a member of the Ryder Cup (1975 and 1981) and World Cup (1973, 1975, 1980) Teams. He was voted as the first member of the PGA Hall of Fame. Enshrined in the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.
