There Was No Choke In Johnny Miller’s Broadcasting–Just Brutal Honesty

As mentioned yesterday, I’m a big fan of Johnny Miller. Yes, he’s a lightning rod of controversy in our all-too-polite-sport, but that’s what makes him and disrupter Brandel Chamblee (I wonder how close he was to getting Johnny’s soon to be empty chair before Paul Azinger?) compelling and a good watch. Of course others think he stinks and is too self aggrandizing by consistently pointing out his accomplishments (which are many) as a Tour player.

John Feinstein recalls back in 1995 when Miller began ruffling the fluffy feathers of the thin-skinned Tour players.

“It’s a disgrace they’re going to let that guy do the Open,” said one player—a solid veteran who had never won on the the PGA Tour, but had steadily kept his card for years. “I mean, the U.S. Open and he’ll be sitting there in the booth calling people chokers.”

Another player, someone who had won on tour several times, chimed in. “He sits there and acts like he knows everything. I mean, what did Johnny Miller ever do in golf that allows him to criticize us?”

At that point, I couldn’t resist. “Um, he did win two majors and 25 times on tour—including last year at Pebble Beach when he was spending a lot more time in the booth than on the golf course,” I said. “I mean, whatever you think of his broadcasting, he’s a Hall of Fame player.”

They all looked at me for a moment as if I had said purses on the tour should be cut by 50 percent. Then the guy who had asked what Miller had ever done in golf said: “Twenty-five times? Really?”

“Yup,” I said. “And two majors, including the 1973 U.S. Open when he shot 63 at Oakmont on Sunday to win.”

“I remember that,” said a third player. “The golf course was soaking wet.”

I agreed and then added, “But no one else shot 63 that day did they?”

Miller was unique when he first joined NBC in 1990. He would criticize club decisions. He wondered why players were aggressive when caution might be called for and cautious when aggression might be the right play. And, he used the “C” word—as in choke.

For the record, Miller never actually said “he choked” on the air. He simply pointed out that certain shots were the kind where a player could choke. Occasionally, the player proceeded to do just that.

What really set Miller apart, though, was how different he was from virtually every ex-player who has ever set foot in a booth or put on a headset. The late Dave Marr, who was ABC’s lead analyst for many years, once pointed out that golf analysts were there to “gild the rose, make everyone look good.”

Miller was there to point out the good, the bad and the ugly—from the point of view of someone who had been great, bad and occasionally ugly, as he often noted on the air.

And, in spite of what my lunch companions in Atlanta may have thought, he was a pretty good player, too. When he came out of the booth to win at Pebble Beach in 1994, he beat Tom Watson down the stretch. Watson waited for Miller to come off the 18th green to congratulate him.

“Great playing,” Watson said, shaking his hand. “Now get your butt back in the booth where you belong.”