Closing Shot: Calling one final round

Johnny Miller poses with Bryant Gumbel in April 1990, Miller’s first year in the booth.getty images

A fixture on NBC’s golf telecasts since 1990, Johnny Miller will call his final tournament this weekend before heading off to spend his retirement with his 24 grandchildren.

Miller, 71, became a fan favorite for his blunt analysis of the sport — a style that sometimes put him at odds with the golfers he covered. As he prepped for the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Miller focused on one aspect of his storied career.

“I guess the ‘choke factor’ is what I’m known for the most. I’ve always been fascinated by the ‘choke factor’ in golf,” Miller said. “Whether you’re playing for two bucks or a milkshake, the game comes down to how well you can make a putt or play a hole to win that bet.

“In all those years of televised golf, announcers just ignored the ‘choke factor.’ I started talking about it in my very first telecast at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in January 1990. Peter Jacobsen had a shot on the last hole that was the perfect shot to choke on — a downhill lie where he had to try and hit it high over water. Peter ended up hitting a great shot and won the tournament. But all his friends told him that I said he was going to choke. He didn’t talk to me for six months until the Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic in July. He said, ‘I’ve been mad at you for six months. I finally saw the telecast. You didn’t say I was going to choke. You just said that’s the kind of shot you choke on.’ A lot of times I got in trouble because I deserved it. But a lot of times I got in trouble because people would tell wrong stories about what I had said.

“Golfers did not like it when I brought up the ‘choke factor.’ I choked and had the yips in my own career. To me, that is golf. That is why people love Tiger Woods, because he hit it a mile and he was the best pressure putter maybe that ever lived. Conversely, guys like Greg Norman and other great players had a lot of meltdowns. You know that a guy is choking if he hasn’t hit one hook all week and he starts hooking the last three tee shots. He’s choking when it’s the last hole or second-to-last hole and he misses a two-foot putt or starts arguing with his caddie. You know that he’s starting to feel the pressure. I know it’s not comfortable to talk about, but that’s why golf is great.”