Johnny Miller honored by golf writers

Johnny Miller was honored by the Golf Writers Association of America at its annual banquet Wednesday night at Savannah Rapids Pavilion in Martinez. He won the William D. Richardson Award, which goes to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to golf.

It’s the first GWAA award for Miller. But there was another time – at the 1981 Masters Tournament – when Miller received the rarest of honors from the media covering the Masters.

After he finished in a tie for second, Miller received a standing ovation from media members when he walked into the interview room. That doesn’t even happen to the Masters champion.

“I certainly do remember that,” Miller said while visiting Augusta National Golf Club on Monday. “I don’t know why they did that for me. It was probably the third second-place finish I had. I used a putter that week, believe it or not, that was about a 1918 putter. I remember that Masters because of that little blade putter.”

The media felt Miller deserved the standing ovation because of the insightful and unvarnished answers he gave in his interviews after his previous three rounds.

“I always honored the media because I thought they deserved to know what I was really thinking, not some watered-down version,” Miller said Monday.

“That actually, all those years of giving good honest interviews segued right into being the announcer I was,” said Miller, who went from a Hall of Fame golf career that included 25 PGA Tour wins and two major championships to 29 years as an analyst at NBC.

“Little did I know, I was sort of training to be an announcer,” said Miller, who retired after the third round of the Phoenix Open in February.

Gary Koch played on the PGA Tour with Miller, then joined him at NBC in 1997.

“There was an honesty and truthfulness about him,” Koch said of Miller’s announcing style. “I didn’t know Johnny well when I played on the tour, but the little bit I did know about him, what I listened to when he became a broadcaster was the Johnny Miller I knew before he got into broadcasting.

“I think sometimes that’s not the case,” Koch said. “Sometimes when people get on air they create a persona for themselves that is maybe a little different than what their real persona is. I never had that sense with Johnny. Johnny was always Johnny. Shoot from the hip, not afraid to tell people what he thought. There was an honesty there that some people appreciated and some people didn’t.”

Miller said that was his style.

“I always believed the truth would always prevail,” he said. “It might upset some people that don’t want the truth, or can’t handle the truth, but I still believe it’s the best policy. That worked for me as an announcer. A guy duck-hooks it into the water, I’m not going to say he got a bad break or something. I going to say what it is, that’s all.”

Now that he’s retired, Miller said “people seem to sort of miss my style, and I appreciate that.”

Miller was involved in one of the most famous Masters. In 1975, Jack Nicklaus beat him and Tom Weiskopf by a shot in a titanic battle. Miller shot a final-round 66 while Nicklaus had 68 and Weiskopf 70.

“That’s the best I’d played at the Masters by far,” said Miller, who shot 75-71-65-66. “The first round, I was so far behind after the 75. I tried to catch up. I shot 13-under par on the weekend, which is a record still, but I couldn’t quite catch Nicklaus and Weiskopf. We were the three best players in the world. It’s very rare to have the three best players in the world go head-to-head. ... There were no bogeys. There was just birdies and near birdies. It was great.”

For many years, Miller stayed away from the Masters after his full-time playing days ended in 1989 (he returned in 1994 after winning earlier that year at Pebble Beach, the rare tournament he would enter each year). But this is the sixth consecutive year he’s been back to the home of Masters.

“I didn’t used to come in the earlier years when my family was still living at home,” he said. “I was kind of burned out. By this time of year, we had done that whole Florida swing and all those tournaments. I enjoyed watching the Masters on TV and still would. But there is something about being here. It’s sort of the meeting place of golf. Just saying hi. I’m getting more nostalgic now. This award is a good time in my life. Being retired, I have time now for this sort of thing. It’s been a good run for me.”

Miller takes a self-deprecating tone when talking about the Richardson Award, whose previous winners include Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Ben Hogan.

“They’ve run out of good players to give the award to, so I’m next in line,” Miller said jokingly. “It’s a pretty cool award. My life has been around golf, and I tried to do a job as a player and had a good career and 29 years of announcing. Tried to do a good job there. I think I made some impacts in the game.”

On Thursday, Miller will be in Boston to receive the Francis Ouimet Award.

“So this is a big week for me,” he said. “It’s a big honor to be recognized, I guess. I never was one who was looking for that kind of thing in my career. Now, at my age, 71, I appreciate it more.”