Day One at the U.S. Open: Shinnecock Wins
Michael Miller walks the 14th alongside his caddie.
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (June 14, 2018) -- On Day One of the 118th U.S. Open Championship, Shinnecock Hills was the clear winner. That’s how it goes when the field averages 76.47 for the opening round, with only four of the 156 players under par.
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“It’s the U.S. Open,” said Bob Miller, head professional at Knollwood Country Club, as he walked up the ninth fairway. “This is what it is.”
Miller had spent the previous five-and-a-half hours walking the course just outside the ropes as his son, Mike, played the first round of his second Open. The younger Miller posted a 77 for the day that could easily have been lower; a few missed short putts kept him two strokes above the projected cut line. (The low 60 scorers plus ties will continue on through the weekend.)
“I hope he realizes that he played really well today,” the elder Miller said. “This is a really hard golf course. On his first hole [Mike started on 10], he hit a good approach that landed a third of the way into the green and just kept rolling and wound up off the green in the back. He made double [-bogey], but he hit a good shot.”
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“I struck the ball way better than my score,” Mike said after the round. “The wind was extremely difficult today, and I know a lot of guys struggled; I just tried to keep it around [where] I have a chance tomorrow.”
In his first U.S. Open two years ago, he shot a 72 at Oakmont in the first round but followed with an 81 to miss the cut. “I felt like I played so much better today than I did in the first round at Oakmont,” Miller said. “I struck ball so much better, I was much more mature on the golf course -- when I had a bad break when I hit a really good shot and didn’t get the result [I wanted], you just have to basically stay in the moment, and I shot 77 doing that. So I’m very proud that it didn’t get away from me.”
His fellow Met Area qualifiers faced the same conditions with widely varying results. Cameron Wilson made no birdies but still managed a 75; Stewart Hagestad struggled to an 81; and Theo Humphrey opened with a birdie but things went downhill from there en route to an 84. (Humphrey called it “as hard a round of golf as I’ve played – it was a brutal set up, but it was fair. Just really hard.”)
Previous Coverage: Checking in with: Theo Humphrey
Miller’s efforts were buoyed by a Knollwood-based cheering squad of friends and family that numbered about ten to fifteen. They followed every shot, roared for his three birdies (on the par-five 16th and 5th holes and the par-four 13th), aww-ed when his putts failed to drop, and called out encouragement at every hole.
It was a fun but nerve-wracking round for Bob Miller, who tries to balance his dual responsibilities by making notes on the round as Mike’s coach and giving him clenched-fist signs of “atta boy” as the encouraging father. What advice would he have for Mike in preparation for the big push on Friday?
“Nothing,” he said. “I won’t say anything unless he asks.”
-- Jeff Neuman