Miller to Expand Tournament Plans : Golf: After winning at Pebble Beach, he says he hopes to play in the Memorial and U.S. Open.

Johnny Miller, television commentator, commercial pitchman, father, grandfather and semi-retired golfer, still has no explanation for the wild ride he took six days ago.

His best shot: “Why did this happen to me?”

Miller, 46, winless since 1987 and playing a tournament schedule best described as a stirring combination of infrequency and unproductivity, stepped out of the TV booth last weekend and won the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

That’s one tournament entered in 1994, one tournament won.

“I’m fairly humbled by it,” said Miller, who arrived at the Riviera Country Club on Friday to participate in NBC’s weekend telecast. “I don’t walk around with my head up. I’m sort of, ‘Gee, sorry, I don’t know what happened.’

“That’s the way I feel. I don’t feel like, ‘Yeah, I’m a gun .’ I got lucky, what can I say?

“(During the tournament,) I was quite aware of what I needed to do, don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t in a fog out there. But I was also amazed that it was happening to me.

“It was like, ‘I don’t really deserve this.’ I haven’t worked on my game, I haven’t really been in contention for many years. Why did this happen? I was sort of amazed.”

Miller’s NBC colleague and longtime PGA Tour player Roger Maltbie said: “That kind of stuff is saved for thoroughbreds.”

Before he beat Tom Watson down the backstretch last weekend, Miller hadn’t planned on playing in any other tournaments this year.

He would do his TV, make his commercials, spend time with his kids, play at Pebble, where he scored his last victory, in 1987 . . . basically stay retired from golf. Live the life he has lived since 1988. Now?

“I am playing some more tournaments,” Miller said. “Nobody knows this, but I think I’m going to play Memorial (in May at Muirfield Village in Ohio), and maybe if I get in the U.S. Open and then the World Series of Golf. I think I’m going to play those events. And the Tournament of Champions, of course, first of next year.

“I’ve been only playing one tournament a year, pretty much. But I’ve got to play those. I’ve got the opportunity, so I’ve got to give it a shot.”

Miller has already said he will play in the Masters April 7-10, and although he never considered shirking his commitment to NBC this weekend, his play at Pebble Beach had him thinking the same, wild thoughts about the L.A. Open.

“Part of me really wanted to play, because I just love Riviera,” Miller said. “I mean, in order of preference to play, it would go Pebble first, and then on tour it would probably be Riviera and Hilton Head (in South Carolina) tied for second.

“I know there are better players than I am. But you get a Jack Nicklaus at Augusta and you get Johnny Miller at Pebble Beach, you’ve got your hands full. I can play Pebble. I can play Pebble with anybody. I know that deep down.

“I’m not stupid, I know it wasn’t something I deserved, and it probably wasn’t something that’s going to happen again. I don’t plan on going to Memorial now and say I’m going to win again.

“But I do have some confidence. So who knows, I might play a few good tournaments.”

Will Miller be able to keep his game at a consistently high level in four or five tournaments per year? Maltbie, for one, isn’t sure.

“I think it would be unreasonable to expect him to do great things,” Maltbie said. “Obviously, from his accomplishment at Pebble Beach, he’s capable. But it might have been a little bit of catching lightning in a jar.”

Fred Couples said that Miller, like some of the other 40-something stars still on tour, could threaten many of the top players by playing a more regular schedule.

“He’s got a great game, but it’s unbelievable he could just step up and play like that,” Couples said. “I’m sure he’d be a threat. I think he’d be a player like Tom Kite.”

Miller says he won’t give up his NBC job for at least a year--and figures the time off from competitive golf has left him refreshed.

“I needed some time,” Miller said. “Johnny Miller needed that five years or four years it’s been. That’s why my nerves are better now, and I think why in my mind and perspective I can play better golf, because I am rested.”