tim;rosaforte
making;the;most;of;miller;time
dennis miller’s 15 minutes
of fame was actually only 21
seconds, but the moment
has gone viral and lives on
in cyberspace. in what’s being described as “the putt”
in miller’s hometown of
youngstown, ohio, the club
pro qualified for the u.s.
open in dramatic fashion
and has attracted quite an
online following. “my wife
said, ‘you’re not going to
believe this, but you’ve got
over 300,000 hits on you-tube.’” he said.
actually, about 350,000 as
of yesterday. dennis miller
the club pro still is less
popular than dennis miller
the comedian, but he’s
becoming well known in
golf circles after emerging
as a survivor in u.s. sec-
tional qualifying, aka “golf’s
longest day.”
day’s qualifier on the scar-
let course at ohio state in
columbus, ohio. at 42, the
director of golf at mill creek
metroparks got into the
sectional as the third alter-
nate. he opened with a 71
at scioto cc and followed
with a 70 at osu, surviving
36 holes against what was
predominantly a pga tour
field, many of whom had
just competed in the me-
morial a day earlier. miller
missed makable birdie
putts on the last two holes
of regulation that would
have locked up a ticket to
olympic club. turns out, it
was better that way.
piercy and Justin hicks.
miller had a 22-foot putt
from the fringe that was
similar to his line in regu-
lation. “when [the ball]
stopped on the lip, i took
a couple steps and could
see it was at least a quarter
inch [from the edge of the
cup],” miller said. “that’s
when i looked away think-
ing i had no chance. my
reaction was funny because
i wasn’t looking at the hole.
when the ball dropped, the
crowd startled me. i raised
my hands, went over to my
caddie and said, ‘you’ve got
to be kidding me!’ it was
8:40 at night.”
qualifying, miller worked 14
hours overseeing a cham-
ber of commerce outing
of 300 guests over mill
creek’s two donald ross
courses. but yesterday he
boarded a flight for san
francisco with wife denise,
checked into a downtown
hotel and prepared for the
week on an open venue
he’s only seen on the olym-
pic club’s website.
“my wife and i are soaking
it in,” miller said. “i told her,
‘let’s enjoy it.’ when we
come back home, she’s go-
ing to be a registered nurse
again and i’m going to be
the club pro at mill creek.”
“to do it the way i did it,
with the camera rolling,”
miller said. “it just blew
up. espn made it the no. 1
highlight on monday.”
what made miller’s mo-
ment so special was not
only his back story, but also
the way his big putt eventu-
ally dropped in last mon-
originally, miller’s even-par
141 got him into a four-play-
ers-for-three-spots playoff.
two holes of sudden death
later, it came down to miller
and two tour pros, scott
miller has worked at mill
creek since 1998, the first
four years as a teaching pro,
the last eight as director
of golf. including the facil-
ity’s lighted par- 3 course,
130,000 rounds are played
there a year. seniors can
walk nine holes for $7.50
and more than 400 boys
and girls are in the junior
program. two days after
