Johnny Miller deserves scorn not praise for his U.S. Open TV kissup to Oakmont
Johnny Miller is usually one of the better announcers in TV sports. Usually. Not during the U.S. Open at Oakmont though.
The Johnny Miller who said Craig Parry’s swing “would make Ben Hogan puke” is great. The Johnny Miller who blasted the U.S. Ryder Cup team even as his comments were being piped into the American locker room is hilarious.
That’s not the Johnny Miller we got at Oakmont though. Instead Miller turned into a self genuflecting tool. How many times did he reference his 63 at Oakmont? If the college kids played a drinking game on that one, they would have been passed out by 2 every afternoon (and Miller only went on the air at one). Miller seemed touched that as he talked about (frequently), he was “finally” being embraced by the Oakmont members. Too touched.
Miller tiptoed around any talk about the course being ridiculously difficult. He often seemed like he was trying to validate his own place in history (by admitting how much tougher Oakmont was now, he would be knocking his own incredible 63 in some ways) rather than call a golf tournament. Miller was more off his game than Phil Mickelson last weekend.
Yet he’s getting crazy praise for it. HBO’s Real Sports featured him in a segment this week - which admittedly was taped along before Miller spit the bit at The Open. But even our usually reasonable (OK, sometimes reasonable) Tim McDonald waxes poetic about Johnny Miller’s analysis at the U.S. Open in his column this week. The column’s well written. It’s just completely off.
What were you watching Tim? Johnny Miller was horrible by his usual high standards. Bad even by ordinary ones.
You cannot get Johnny Miller out of Oakmont and away from his 63 fast enough. It almost ruined him as a broadcoaster.
He’s never been a Charles Barkley. Last week, he wasn’t even Johnny Miller.
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13 comments
But, dude --- this is a 63 we're talking about!
A 63! At a U.S. Open course.
Besides, how would you know? I have uncomfirmed reports you spent the whole time in the media dining room.
Yes, I am calling all of you out.
I will stand by previous comments. Yes, as 63 is great at any tournament, particularly at a US Open final round. But he has been living off that for YEARS. (And, I might add, the conditions WERE much more benign than he accounts for. Just watch the footage on the speed of his putts and the receptivity of the greens - certainly not reminiscent of the Open this year). Aside from that revision of history, how many tears can he cry for this one win which occured DECADES ago? Give me a freakin' break. I will give him a pseudo-pass, b/c of the return to the site of his win, but I don't want to see the tears well-up next year. Enough is enough.
As far as his criticism goes, I will agree that his analysis is usually spot-on. But does he have to be such an ass in the process? Seriously. Show a little tact. I don't mean he has to sugar-coat his commentary, but his comments are intended to shock to some extent, beyond the analysis.
I think that his British Open win will ultimately define him when we are all dead and gone.
The US Open was set up differently back then, when I was 8. Don't think it needed to be quite as hellish, given the caveman tools they used as clubs and balls (not to mention those leather bags and stone-aged shoes.)
In 2009, when they return to Bethpage, do you think Miller will talk about his son Andy in 2002, when the younger disciple made the 36 hole cut? Do you think that in 2010, at Pebble Beach, he will reference his last tour win? As much of a moron, err, mormon as they want to make of him, Johnny is fairly self-indulgent. What superstar isn't (and I use that term disparagingly.)
You are dead on - while 63 is fantastic, he should have waited until someone else pointed it out - then take the congratulations - don't spout of how great you are yourself - he embarrassed himself again
It's the same show every year...Miller reminisces, then sheds a tear, on his "special" 63 and Open win. It got old by about '99. Now it's just downright pathetic.
I agree - PC isn't the way to go. But neither is being a a-hole.
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