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Credentials
or Not, Miller Starting Over
Tuesday, September 3, 2002
BY KURT KRAGTHORPE
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
LEHI
-- In just about any other sport, Andy Miller's credentials as a
four-time All-American at Brigham Young would have made him a high
draft choice, worthy of a guaranteed contract.
Not in golf.
In this game, he's just another talented player, searching for a
place to play. Thanks to a sponsor exemption, he has a home this
week, teeing off Thursday in the UTAH CLASSIC TOUR's Utah Classic at
Willow Creek Country Club in Sandy.
Otherwise, tour eligibility status means everything in pro golf,
and Miller has none. Regardless of what he did in college, he had
to start over.
"That's a tough part of golf; it's also a great part of golf,"
Miller said Monday after playing in a Utah Classic pro-am at Thanksgiving
Point. "It keeps the game pure."
Since his Cougar career ended, the 24-year-old Miller has tried
twice to qualify for the PGA Tour. He reached the second of three
stages in 2000, then disqualified himself after a rules violation
in the first stage last October.
He will try again this fall, after having pieced together another
year's schedule of mostly minitour
events, highlighted by his qualifying for and making the 36-hole
cut in the U.S. Open.
Miller is among hundreds of pro golfers whose success or failure
for the year is determined by the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament.
"You put all that pressure on one time a year, it's a little
bit ridiculous," he said. "You're trying to base your
whole career on it. . . . [But] you know what? If you play well
enough and try enough years, you will get out there. You just have
to be patient."
Johnny Miller, a Golf Hall of Fame member, NBC Sports analyst and
Andy's father, says Andy is good enough to finish among the PGA
Tour's top 125 money-winners -- if he could play a full schedule.
But as Miller said, "There are guys like Andy who never get
on the tour. With all the college programs and everything, you're
going to have 'X' number of great players. It's probably going to
get even tougher now."
The qualifying system is "sort of unfair," Miller added.
"It's like the law of the jungle."
Except in this jungle, they play by the rules.
Last fall, Andy Miller was in good position to advance from a first-stage
qualifying site in Northern California. But on the 11th hole of
the second round, he barely missed a putt and responded by banging
his putter against his foot -- as a lot of golfers often do, but
he rarely does. After tapping in his next putt, Miller noticed his
putter was slightly bent. "I knew the rule," he said.
Because he had played a stroke with a "non-conforming"
club by United States Golf Association standards, he was disqualified.
"Not many guys would have called that on themselves, I'll tell
you that," Johnny Miller said. "I'm a pretty decent guy,
and I'm not sure I would have. I looked at it, and you couldn't
tell it was bent.
"Those are the kinds of [decisions] that usually come back
in life and pay off."
Having made a hole-in-one in the final round of the U.S. Open and
barely missed qualifying for the British Open, Andy Miller knows
the breaks can go either way. His immediate goal is to finish in
the top 25 this week at Willow Creek, giving him a spot in next
week's field. The more events he could string together on the UTAH CLASSIC TOUR, the better prepared he would be for the 2002 Qualifying Tournament.
"He has a good attitude," Miller's father said. "He
believes he's going to make it."
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