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by Terry Ostmeyer, senior staff writer tostmeyer@gcsaa.org |
Give Johnny a break
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In more than a dozen years of covering the golf course industry for GCM, I’ve come across a number of comments and rumors labeling certain high-profile personalities in golf as not being very golf course maintenance-friendly.
Many times I’ve had occasion to either confirm or dispel such notions. A few times the offending person has admitted to “seeing the light.” But most often, in my mind anyway, the allegations played out to be unfounded, the criticism undeserving and the critics a little too thin-skinned.
An example came up at the GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show several weeks ago in Anaheim. Johnny Miller, the keynote speaker at the Opening Session, has a reputation in golf course management circles for being critical of course conditioning in his job as lead analyst for NBC’s golf telecasts.
I say it’s a bad rap — a misinterpretation of a once-great player’s still-sharp insight for detail.
I watch a lot of golf on TV and thus hear a lot of Johnny Miller. I don’t always agree with what he says or always like what he says. But never have I heard him actually be critical of conditions or a superintendent. I have heard him many times make observations about course or turf nuances — yes, a lot about grain on bermudagrass greens — that he says probably will affect play in specific instances.
Unless the USGA and R&A have changed things behind my back, golf’s most basic rule is still to play the ball as it lies and the course as it is. That’s a simplistic way of noting how Miller “sets up the shot” for the TV audience by bringing in all the elements a player faces. It’s also something that was ingrained, if you will, in him as a successful professional golfer.
“Part of being a champion is noticing every detail of the golf course and how it affects your golf ball,” Miller said during his Opening Session address to a huge crowd of mostly superintendents. “A lot of superintendents have taken shots at me about my comments on grain on the greens, but I can tell you that nobody can read greens like Johnny Miller. I’ve really studied it ... I can’t tell you how much I’ve studied it.”
Miller’s sharp edge as an analyst may knick a few feelings, but it’s more well-intended than most care to realize. “I try to be really true to the game, and it’s really important to me to be accurate,” he says. “But the players, and maybe superintendents, don’t always like what I have to say.”
Miller gave a very entertaining keynote address that obviously was well-received. And, to me, he seemed intent on setting the record straight. He also went out of his way to smooth the waves, three times saying, “I appreciate what you guys do,” and in a passionate discourse on the beauty of golf, he added, “It’s a sacred thing superintendents do. I really believe that.” Afterward he toured the trade show floor and stopped by several booths (check out “Inside Your Game” by our senior associate editor, Seth Jones.).
Sounds awfully superintendent-friendly to me.
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