To Miller, It’s as Hard With a Bag as a Club

Johnny Miller stepped off yardage. He cleaned mud off the clubs and held the flagstick. He read the lines on putts and drove the golf cart.

He looked calm on the outside, but the inside of Miller’s stomach must have felt like he had just swallowed a handful of tees.

“Brutal,” he said. “Just brutal.”

There’s nothing quite like a 50-year-old former U.S. Open champion caddying for his 19-year-old son, who bogeys the last two holes and misses qualifying for the U.S. Open by one shot, to make you contemplate the brutality of golf.

“It’s tough, it’s really rough,” the elder Miller said. “It feels like the Jazz game the other night. I’m a big Jazz fan. I’ve had two big lip-outs in a row.”

In basketball and in golf, there are winners and there is everybody else. Exactly 69 golfers showed up Monday morning at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana for sectional qualifying to play in next week’s U.S. Open.

Exactly five made it. Jason Semelsberger, an 18-year-old UCLA freshman from Newhall, was co-medalist, along with 39-year-old Dennis Trixler, a former PGA Tour player who has been busy lately developing a televised golf cooking show called “The Golfing Gourmet.”

Semelsberger and Trixler shot two-under-par 140s, playing 36 holes in one grueling day. They will be joined at the U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club by 19-year-old Long Beach State player Terry Noe of Fullerton, 20-year-old Joel Kribel of Stanford and former UCLA player Roger Gunn. The trio tied at 141.

For 34 holes, it seemed likely that Miller would be there too. Afterward, he found the perfect word when asked to describe his emotions.

“Disgusted,” the Brigham Young player said. “What else can you say? It didn’t happen.”

His father knows the feeling. Johnny Miller isn’t just a golfer, he’s a father, too. Andy--or Brent--was born in 1978, almost nine years after his dad turned pro and nearly five years after his father won the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, shooting 63 on the last day.

Caddying for a son is just as tough, he said.

“It’s sure not too easy,” Miller said. “I guess I’m pretty good at it though. With four boys, I’m battle-tested. I guess I’d rate it even with playing.”

As the player, Andy knew only disappointment this time with dad on his bag. He recounted some qualifying results that included twice missing the U.S. Junior Championships by one shot and twice missing out on the U.S. Amateur by two shots.

“So I’m used to it by now,” he said.

Andy Miller smiled thinly. He looked just like his father, who believes the time is coming when he’ll also play like him.

“He’s already a good player,” Miller said.

It was spoken like a true father.

*

If the scene was a familiar one for Mac O’Grady, there’s probably a good reason. O’Grady, 46, was trying for the 23rd time to qualify.

For the 22nd time, he missed. A two-time winner on the PGA Tour and now a sought-after golf teacher in the Palm Springs area, O’Grady shot 77-67, missing a playoff by three shots.

As usual, he was philosophical.

“I just love this game,” he said. “I love the sun in my face. I love getting beaten, bludgeoned, healed, living, dying, rising again.”