Hall Of Famer – Johnny Miller

At the age of 22 Johnny wins his first tournament at the British Open in 1971 just two years after he turned pro. No stranger to winning golf tournaments Miller won the San Francisco city junior title when he was just 16. They were two great years for the young Johnny Miller as he wins the U.S. Junior Amateur Tournament in 1964. Miller seems to be destined for the World Golf Hall of Fame even at an early age.

Johnny Miller was known for getting the ball closer to the flag than any other golfer before him. Miller dominated the mid-70’s, knocking Jack Nicklaus out of the top money earner in the PGA Tour in 1974, his earnings were a whopping 353,201.00 in U.S. currency.

Johnny Miller’s golf career stands at 32 victories with 25 of them being on the PGA Tour. In January of 1974 to September 1974, Johnny won eight of his 25 PGA Tour wins. Four more wins in 1975 and three wins in 1976 Millers domination of the 1970’s is all but over. Impressive standings for the San Francisco native including being rated the second best golfer in the world in 1974 and 1975 just behind Jack Nicklaus.

The seventies were on fire for Miller with two Major Championships to add to his victories in the U.S. Open in 1973 and the Open Championship in 1976. At the Royal Birkdale Golf Club in 1976, a 27-year-old Miller wins with tying the course record with a 66 in the last round, denying the victory from Jack Nicklaus, by six strokes.

The truly great golfers never really retire, after a few bad years Miller was back in the winning circle with a win at the Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic in 1980. Johnny wins his last big Tournament in 1981 at The Million Dollar Challenge, taking the win away from Seve Ballesteros in a sudden death playoff.

Johnny Miller takes up a spot as an announcer with NBC and has a no hold bars style of announcing, somewhat blunt and maybe a little to straight forward for some. Still having his voiced heard Miller gives his predictions for the 2012 year and thinks Phil Mickelson will be one of the year’s hottest on the Tour.

Miller also thinks Tiger Woods will be able to tie Jack Nicklaus’s record in the coming years. That will be a tough ticket to get for Tiger as there are some hot players on the tour right now, and they are some years younger than Woods.

Still sitting at his desk for NBC Jack Miller is still taking the lime light and winning awards, like the Best Analyst by Golf Digest for three years. Miller had a short but amazing golfing career, enough so to give Johnny Miller a spot on the wall of the World Golf Hall of Fame since 1998 to have his story told among the other greats of the game.