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Before Woods, dominance meant Miller

From 1973-76, Johnny Miller won 16 tournaments with aggressive and accurate play.

[AP file photo - 1973] Johnny Miller won the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club with 9-under-par 63 in the final round, a tournament record.

By BOB HARIG

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 12, 2001

An entire generation of fans knows him as golf's most candid color commentator, an announcer who has no fear when it comes to pointing out the shortcomings of players. To put it in golf terms, Johnny Miller fires at the flag.

Just as he did as a player.

Twenty-five years have passed since Miller, 54, captured the British Open at Royal Birkdale in England, bringing an end to a remarkable stretch of golf, one that wasn't seen again until Tiger Woods piled up victories.

Woods has forced us to view success in a different manner. It used to be that multiple victories were hailed as extraordinary, at least going back to the days of Tom Watson, who won six tournaments in 1980. No PGA Tour player matched that feat until Woods came along, winning seven times in 1999 and nine times last year.

Miller's excellence from 1973 to 1976 was every bit as impressive as the recent run by Woods, who defends his British Open title next week at Royal Lytham.

Miller won 16 tournaments in that stretch, including the U.S. Open and British Open. He was viewed as a threat to Jack Nicklaus' dominance, and at times was better than the Golden Bear. And he won tournaments in stunning fashion, knocking down flags and posting double-digit victory margins.

"My average iron shot in that period was probably about 5 feet off line on the average -- which might be one of the best iron-play runs in history," Miller said. "There was a period where I really hit my irons close to the hole. I was hitting them stiff.

"In my prime, you could blindfold me and I could get within a yard of where I was aiming. If I hit it solid, I could say, 'That one is on.' I hit the irons and I'd put my hand up before it even got there. I knew I had a gimme."

Until Woods, Miller's 1974 campaign was the best single season since Arnold Palmer in the late 1950s. Miller won eight times and had four other top-10 finishes -- and he played in just 22 events. He was the tour's leading money-winner with $353,122.

Miller won 12 tournaments in 1974-75, and nothing about his run was routine. He hit the ball consistently closer to the flag than any other player, and his style was marked by aggressive and accurate iron play.

"It was sort of golfing nirvana," Miller said. "I had the means for controlling distance. I could feel the shot so well."

His brilliance was framed by the most important victories. At the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, Miller was six shots behind after a third-round 76, then caught fire in the final round. He birdied the first four holes and shot 9-under-par 63, setting an Open scoring record and winning the tournament by one. Only two players -- Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf -- have shot 63 in a U.S. Open since.

At the 1976 British Open at Royal Birkdale, Miller trailed 19-year-old Seve Ballesteros by two going into the final round, shot 66 and won by six.

"I had a run that was Tigeresque in a way," Miller said. "I had a heck of a run, and I was going against some guys who were a lot more guns than he's playing against.

"I had Nicklaus in his prime and (Lee) Trevino and Weiskopf and (Hale) Irwin and (Raymond) Floyd and a whole ton of other guys. ... (Gary) Player, name them. There were 12 guys who you didn't want to meet in a dark alley with golf clubs.

"Today, the players are better but Tiger doesn't seem to have the real guns that were in the game. I thought that was the golden era of golf in the mid '70s. It was just full of super players. ... I was bucking up against legends."

Miller said his 1973 U.S. Open victory is the one that "kick-started me." But it was several months later, when Miller teamed with Nicklaus to play at the World Cup in Spain, when he got a boost. The Open helped Miller get in the World Cup, but the World Cup is where Miller gained the confidence necessary to be a force for the next two seasons.

"I realized I could be a great player, not just a young lion, I could beat Nicklaus; I could beat anybody. ... I decided there was no reason why I should be afraid of this guy anymore," Miller said. "My time had arrived. I thought I was ready to do it.

"The next year, I was pumped. I won the first three events and it was a big year. And 1975 was also a big year. In the first half, I probably played the best golf of my life."

When he won at Phoenix in '75 by 14 shots and followed with a nine-shot win at Tucson, Miller was the talk of golf.

And that's not much different from Woods, who won the 2000 U.S. Open by 15 shots and the 2000 British Open by eight. In fact, if there is a difference, it's that Woods included four major tournament victories among his 16 wins in 1999-2000. Miller had none in 1974-75. (Woods, from 1999 to 2001, had 20 PGA Tour victories, including five majors.)

Heading into 1975, many believed Miller could overtake Nicklaus as the best.

"I know John's a Mormon and that he doesn't smoke or drink or take pills of any kind," former U.S. Open champion Cary Middlecoff said after watching Miller shoot a final-round 61 at Tucson. "But he's got to be on something."

Jerry Heard, a friend and colleague who came up with Miller, said: "Right now, he's the best player in the world. He's the absolute best, better than Nicklaus or Player. Better than anybody. And I think he's going to top what he did last year."

Miller, however, was unable to beat Nicklaus in a major in 1975. And after his British Open triumph a year later, Miller's reign atop the game was effectively over.

Although he went on to win a total of 24 PGA Tour events -- the number Woods had through 2000 -- including the 1994 Pebble Beach Pro-Am at age 47, he was never again dominating.

"I don't know if I was prepared to keep that position," Miller said. "I had a lot of demands on my time and I made some mistakes. I got burned out, that's the bottom line. ... I felt like, hey, I had already had a great career. I did more than I ever thought I was going to do. My heart was not out there and I had a tough time. And I finally came to grips with it."

Woods could face similar obstacles if he were to marry and have a family, factors Miller cited. But at 25, his focus is singular, his goals focused. And the idea of matching Nicklaus' 18 professional majors or 60 PGA Tour titles no longer seems so absurd.

"When I got to the mountaintop, I kind of looked at the scenery and wondered, 'Now what?' When Jack got there, he said, Where's the next mountain?" Miller said.

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