Second To (Almost) None

Johnny Miller’s Play In The Booth Was Stellar; At The Masters, Just A Touch Less So

WINNING AT AUGUSTA, getting draped in that green jacket, is a glorious thing, of course. But it can’t compete with the poignancy of coming close. After all, what’s more poignant than unrequited love? Four giants of Twentieth-Century American Golf are (were) experts on the subject: Tom Weiskopf, Greg Norman, Ken Venturi (RIP)—and Johnny Miller, who had three second-place finishes there. Miller used to dis the Masters. He’d call it the Augusta National Annual Spring Putting Championship. He fooled nobody.

Check out the ’71 and ’83 Masters, and most especially the ’75 tournament. No wonder Miller was so good at calling all those Phil Mickelson second-place finishes in U.S. Opens. It takes insight to be a good TV golf analyst, but empathy, too. Miller closed the book on his playing career semi-fixated on the major that got away. He dropped the mic on his NBC broadcasting career in February, thinking about the one he never got to do. “I’m waiting for them to give me a green vest,” he’ll tell you.