How Sweet and Sour it Is: I’m Talking about Johnny Miller

This photo was not photo shopped. It appeared on Google.

     I have always liked people that tell it like it is. For most people, they either love you or hate you and most will never forget you. Does this sound like anyone you know? When it comes to Johnny Miller, he gives you a double dose of sweet and sour from both his playing days and his broadcasting career. Miller is very matter of fact when it comes to both and to his PGA Tour brethren and that is where most people love him one minute and hate him or at least shake their heads at him.

     In an interview from Golf Magazine (March 2012) Miller addresses topics ranging from Tiger to Phil and why chokers choke. The first two issues are fodder for most golf writers but the choking part is one reason why he gets on so many PGA Touring pro’s nerves. Personally, when it comes to competition stomping on their necks with a kill shot for a runaway win is always better than grinding out a one shot win.

Miller feels the same way but for a reason you might not expect.

“I’m gonna win by a whole bunch so if my putting falls apart I’ll have a big enough lead,” said Miller. “I don’t trust my putting. It was a fail-safe move, spurring me on to get a 4-,5-,6-, 7- shot lead.”

What in the blazes of the ghost of Orville Moody is going on here? How many golfers would freely admit that? Miller went on to say that “I was thinking 61 or 62. My thinking was, “I better take it low today, because tomorrow that hole might look like an ant hill.”

   Miller admits that is why he didn’t win a green jacket and he applies the dreaded “c” word to describe his problems. Miller in 1975 told Newsweek Magazine that Augusta was set up for his game but it all came down to putting. “I choked a little bit on the greens. Augusta honors the great putters- guys that can read the greens, dial in the right break and hit (the) perfect speed,” said Miller.

Miller said while he did have great putting weeks he never had one at golf’s first major yearly.

He described his own putting as choking and the psychology of what drove him during his career is refreshing. Part two about Miller and why he uses so much analysis of players’ nerves and the pressure they face in tournaments is in the next installment.