Miller Is Winner of ‘Crosby’

Johnny Miller, the kid from San Francisco who used to be Bing Crosby’s caddy, who was the world’s best player more than a decade ago, who has thought often of quitting the PGA Tour, who thought of quitting this tournament only 24 hours before, wept.

Half an hour after his 15-foot putt at the 18th fell for a birdie, giving him a splendid six-under par 66 for his round Sunday, Miller crouched by the green and calmly watched Payne Stewart miss a 20-footer on the final hole that would have sent the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am into a playoff.

Instead, Miller was alone in first place at the end of a tournament for the first time in almost four years with a 72-hole total of 278, 10 under par. Not bad for a guy who will turn 40 in less than three months.

Stewart, who turned 30 Friday, finished at nine under par, which is where he was when the final round began at the Pebble Beach Golf Links.

That was good enough at that point for a two-stroke lead. Even though he was on his way to an uninspired 72 Sunday, he still shared the lead when he reached the 209-yard, par-three 17th.

But he hit a four-iron off the tee into the bunker and missed an eight-foot par-saving putt. That was the Payne killer.

Lanny Wadkins and Bernhard Langer, who each shot 71 Sunday, tied for third at 280.

After shedding a tear or two at the victory ceremony with his family and friends, who had to be as surprised as he was to be there, Miller came to the interview room and said he knew all along he was going to win.

Well, at least he had a feeling after birdies on 14 and 15 moved him to within a shot of Stewart.

“I don’t root against people, but something inside, a little voice, told me told me I was going to win the tournament,” Miller said.

“I said, ‘No, I’m not going to win.’ But the little voice was right. Every once in a while, you get these hunches.”

The victory was special to Miller not only because it had been been so long since he had one but also because this is his favorite tournament.

Born and raised in San Francisco, he played for the first time here as an amateur when he was 19. He was invited by Bing Crosby himself.

Even though it’s been two years since Kathryn Crosby withdrew her late husband’s name from the tournament, Miller still referred to it as the Crosby.

Sunday was the kind of day that gives so-called Crosby weather a good name--calm, warm and bright. That made the course play almost two strokes easier than it had earlier in the week.

Rick Fehr had the best round of the tournament Sunday at Pebble Beach with a 65, closely followed by Miller’s 66. After shooting even par 72s in the first two rounds, one at Cypress Point, the other at Spyglass Hill, Miller scored better than anyone else Saturday at Pebble Beach with a 68.

Ironically, he almost quit after the eighth hole Saturday because of a pulled groin muscle, which had forced him to withdraw after two rounds--a 69 and a 68--the week before at the Phoenix Open.

“I had hit my second shot to within a few feet of the green when I told my caddy I didn’t think I could make it any more,” Miller said.

“I was going to call it a day after that hole, but I took the wedge out of my bag and chipped in from about 60 feet for a birdie. I thought, ‘Hmmm, maybe I’d better not go in.’ ”

Every time he hit the ball Sunday, Miller said, “it was like somebody sticking a knife in my leg.

“Maybe that’s what life is all about, gutting it out,” he said. “You get rewarded for that.”

Miller was rewarded with a check for $108,000. But he said that more important to him than the money was the respect he earned from the younger pros, who might not remember the final-round 63 he shot to win the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont.

“When I was first on the tour, I’d be on the first tee with somebody they’d announce as a 14-year tour veteran,” Miller said. “I’d think, what’s he doing out here?

“Now that I’ve been out here 17 years, I know some young guys are looking at me like that. I’m sure they’re thinking, ‘Why doesn’t he go home and take care of his six kids?’ They look at me as a guy who used to be good.”

For four years, Miller was the best. From 1973 through 1976, he won 16 tournaments, including the 1973 U.S. Open and the 1976 British Open. He won eight tournaments in 1974 alone.

But after his British Open victory, he didn’t win again until 1980. In the last 10 years, he’s won six tournaments. His payday Sunday was more than he won in four of those years, including 1986, when he finished 118th among tour players with $71,444.

Miller, who was a serious junior golfer when he was 8, said he burned out.

“There’s not many Ray Floyds around,” he said, referring to the winner of the 1986 U.S. Open who, at 44, seems to become more tenacious every year.

“My desire’s not what it was earlier in my career. Those days for me are gone. I was mellowing, taking time to smell the flowers.”

Miller said a few years ago he didn’t feel he’d win again until he joined the Senior tour.

But he said Sunday his hope was renewed when contemporaries such as Floyd, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Hubert Green won major tournaments within the last two years, particularly when Green won the 1985 PGA Championship at 38.

“I said, ‘I can play better than Hubert,’ ” Miller said. “That’s being real honest. But I was sitting at home watching and thinking, ‘That could be me.’ ”

First, he had to overcome what he called his putting “heebie jeebies.”

He designed a putter with a 44-inch shaft, 8 to 10 inches longer than most of the pros use. The end of it lodges into his armpit when he putts.

“It’s for terminal putters,” he said.

But Miller was still having his problems on the greens Sunday until he began looking only at the hole and not at his ball.

“My game has a lot of bandages, things that work for only one day,” he said.

Actually, he said, it was a close miss of a 15-footer for birdie on the 17th that gave him confidence to make his 15-footer on 18.

“I don’t know how I made it,” Miller said. “Somebody else made it for me.”

After he heard the roar of the crowd for Miller’s putt on 18, Stewart’s next shot, his drive on 17, went into the bunker.

“That wasn’t a gift, but it was reasonably charitable,” Miller said.

Stewart fumed.

“I thought it was on the green,” he said. “People on the tee with me thought it was on the green. When I got there, I found it in the bunker.”

Stewart must have sensed then he was on the way to still another second-place finish, his second straight in this tournament and his fourth on the tour in the last two years. He’s a tour millionaire, adding $64,800 to his bank account Sunday, but hasn’t won a tournament since 1983.

“You guys go away,” Stewart told reporters who followed him to his car after the round. “I’m serious. The tournament’s over. I’m tired of talking.”

Miller sympathized.

“When I won the Crosby in 1974, it was my third victory in a row,” he said. “I thought it was easy back then. I thought golf owed me something, that I was supposed to win.

“But I know now that not everyone is in their prime for a lot of years. For some guys, it’s two years. For others, it’s one.

“When you’re in your prime, like Payne Stewart, you’ve got to go for every victory you can get. You can’t let these slip away.”

But this won’t be remembered as a tournament that Stewart lost but one that Miller won. So he’s no longer in his prime. For at least one day, this tournament was still the Crosby and it was Miller time again.