Miller's 63 at Oakmont lives as a magical moment

Just moments before leaving the practice range to begin his final round of the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont, Johnny Miller heard a tiny voice whisper in his head. Luckily for him, he listened to it.

By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.com Correspondent

Streaky young player with a world of talent And a red face from a silly mistake.

Weekend rains and a faulty sprinkler system.

A mystical inner voice that offered a suggestion between warm-up shots on the practice range.

An old set of Tommy Armour 1940-something blades.

Brutal forest of a golf course.

It was the perfect storm. Everything came together that Sunday morning in 1973 to produce a lightning bolt of a closing 63 that few saw but everyone remembers. Eighteen holes of inspiration, pure magic and near perfection that set a record and took down the King.

An ionic round of golf known simply as the 63 at Oakmont.

It earned Johnny Miller his first major and robbed Arnie's Army of a chance to see their hero win in his home state. It was simply a mystical moment in U.S. Open history when Miller, playing an hour ahead of the leaders, took dead aim and zipped right by Palmer, Julius Boros, Tom Weiskopf, John Schlee and Jerry Heard -- to name a few -- with nine birdies for a round that was named the best at the 100-year celebration of golf.

Miller started the day six shots back, hit it stiff on every hole and even missed four birdie putts inside 12 feet. So just think what he would have shot with Tom Watson putting for him. He has.

"I look back on it and I think, man, that could have been a ridiculous round," Miller said. "It could have been 59 or 60.

"It's not like I made any long putts. It was a Ben Hogan kind of round tee-to-green that I would put up against any of Ben's rounds. It was just a magical tee-to-green round. Under the hole every hole. I think one time in 18 holes, I was above the hole, always putting uphill. You just can't do that. I really don't know where that round came from to be honest with you."

But he knows it's one that may never be beaten.

"I was a streaky player and I did shoot a lot of really low rounds -- a lot of 61s and twos and threes and fours -- but never with that kind of pressure," he said.
"That's why that round was voted ahead of other rounds that were 59s and 60s and ones and twos. It's the gold standard of final rounds in major championships.

"There has never been a final round that passed so many Hall of Famers to win by one on the final day at Oakmont, which was regarded as this brutal test. So it's the gold standard. It hits every little nail on the head of what a great round is considered. So I've got that going for me, as Bill Murray said, anyway."

Miller has talked about it so many times in the last 34 years its ridiculous. But the acerbic 60-year-old NBC analyst never tires of describing how everything fell into place that day.

To understand that Sunday is to remember what happened on Saturday when -- yes, you've heard this story too -- Miller had left his yardage book in another pair of pants at the hotel. He was a mess. He played by the numbers, unlike others who played by feel, and without his numbers -- he personally walked off yardage every week -- he was lost. And 5 over after six holes.

Not the way he'd envisioned the day, especially when he walked off the course Friday night feeling like he could catch 36-hole leader Gary Player, who was three shots ahead of him. But when Linda Miller brought her husband his book at the seventh hole, he snapped back, closing out the front nine with a birdie and an eagle to finish the day six back.

Then came Sunday morning. And the voice.

Miller had five balls left in front of him on the range when a voice told him to open his stance -- way up. He heard it twice, hit the five balls and took the stance to the course.

"I always believe that little inner voice we all have is pretty true and pretty right-on if we'll listen to it," Miller said. "And I was always open to those suggestions.

"It's like when I won the AT&T (in 1987). Something told me on the 15th hole to look at the hole when I putted. I'd never done it in my life. And I'm like, 'What, are you kidding? I'm on national TV.' I see the red light on. I might hit it fat or whiff it. I went ahead and looked at the hole, made the putt. Made the putt on the next hole, made the putt at 18 to beat Payne Stewart."

The voice was there again when he beat Seve Ballesteros at Sun City in 1981.

"Something told me on the playoff hole to close my eyes when I was putting," Miller said. "I'd never done that before and I did that and made the putt. Basically, I'm open to suggestion."

The rest? Well, Miller birdied his first four holes on Sunday and immediately started gagging -- his word. He left it short at the fifth -- 8 feet underneath the hole. Then he three-putted the eighth for bogey.

He's still mad about that one, but he was so ticked off -- he was three back at that point -- that he just kept hitting at the flags. Straight at them. And hitting it stiff.

Miller missed only one fairway that day -- the then-603-yard, par-5 12th -- but gouged it out with a 7-iron, then hit a 4-iron to 15 feet. Three holes later, he hit that 4-iron to 10 feet to take the lead.

Looking back, there isn't any one shot or one putt that stands out in his one-stroke win over Schlee.

"I just think it was just that round," he said. "It was the flawlessness of the round -- hitting 18 greens in regulation and basically and leaving it short on four putts inside 12 feet and three putting (No. 8) from straight uphill and lipping it out the last two holes."

Yes, Miller had some help. Some purists poo-poo the Tuesday and Saturday rains and the sprinklers, saying they weren't factors. But they were. They softened the greens and, since Miller was keeping it in the fairways, he could fly it at the flag. Still he had to hit the greens and make the putts.

Tiger Woods calls the 63 "an incredible round of golf... To go out there and shoot that number on that golf course, you've got to I mean, yeah, you have to putt good but you have to hit it unbelievably well.

"We all know once Johnny gets going, he really gets going. He can fire at any flag and you know it's going to be pin high. That's the difference between a lot of players. They get going and they don't hit all the shots pin high, and he does."

At the same time, Tiger said, you can't discount the conditions.

"Well, people don't realize the real story behind it, the lightning storm the night before and the sprinkler system," he said. "You know, that kind of luck to go on and then have a magical day. You need to have all of the above. You can't just have a magical day because you'll never get that low."

Like we said, it was a perfect storm. A collection of things that came together on June 17, 1973 to create the perfect round.

It also led to the over-the-top harsh conditions at the 1974 U.S. Open, better know as The Massacre at Winged Foot.

"No doubt about it," Miller said. "Sandy Tatum and the USGA denied it, but they were fibbing. Every guy at Winged Foot that I ran into that week was mad at me. 'Thanks a lot, John.'

"Yeah, it was a direct response. It only happened one time. After that, they went back to what they call 140-yard rough. If you have 100 balls, the average one comes out about 140 yards. That's the farthest you can hit it. At Winged Foot that year, it was about an 80-90 yard average. You just slashed at it with a wedge. Sometimes you could only hit it 20 yards. It was nine inches of rough."

Miller hasn't seen the redone Oakmont yet, but said the true test there are the greens where some putts can break 15 or 20 feet. The only other greens that come close are Augusta National and Oakland Hills.

"Tee to green it's a super-tough test," he said. "The greens are the toughest greens in the world. So if you're not hitting the ball underneath the hole, you're going to pull your hair out three-putting. . . You're going to get putts at Oakmont that are going to make you look like dumbbells. So it's really about putting yourself in the right position on the greens."

And, he said, the players can't let "par" mess with their minds. Although par is 70, he said, with holes like the third, eighth, ninth and 15th, its closer to 72.

"You have to understand, the USGA never has par right," he said. ". . It's a hypothetical number. (There are) A lot of 4 ½ pars. The 15th hole with that crazy church pew and with the side-hill lie and the crazy green, that's 500 yards. C'mon. that's a 4 ½ par at least.

"... So as a player, you have to ignore that it says par 70 because you just get irritated when you get 3 over, you're not used to being 3 over. So in your mind, you have to say you're 1 over. They play games with you in your head with this par."

But if you hear a voice -- an inner voice whispering advice? Go for it. Miller did.

It was the last piece of the perfect storm that produced that now iconic 63.