Dad Miller Spruces Up Appearance

There was a time when the same people finding ways to fill up Anaheim’s stadium and convention halls were also in charge of the two city-owned golf courses.

The leadership extended the philosophy of maximum attendance to the city’s Anaheim Hills and Dad Miller golf courses.

This was bad news for Dad Miller, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this month, as the course became over-played, peaking at 128,000 rounds in 1989.

The par-71 layout already had the reputation of being mostly flat and boring; the heavy play didn’t help matters, causing much wear and tear on the greens and tee boxes.

But soon after the 1989 saturation, the city shifted the running of the Dad Miller and Anaheim Hills courses to the recreation department and things started to improve.

“When we were in the stadium department, they were always into attendance,” said Bob Johns, who is the city’s director of golf. “The idea was no trees, no traps, no bunkers and fast fairways meant fast golf. But that has changed.”

In other words, it’s not your grandfather’s Dad Miller anymore.

The course has undergone several changes over the last few years, including building a new club house and restaurant, first tee and ninth green.

The par-3 seventh hole was also cut down by about 30 yards and the length was added to the par-5 eighth.

No more major changes are planned but the telephone pole that sits in middle of the 14th fairway (a dog-leg right par four) will be moved to the left side of the fairway in the fall.

More subtle changes have also been made to toughen the course. About 500 trees have been planted and rough of various lengths have also been added on every hole. Sand traps protect the front of the first green that once was wide open and another trap hugs the left side of the fairway on the 15th hole.

“We’ve done a lot to dress it up and slow it down,” Johns said.

The number of rounds has leveled off at about 115,000 and will be a little short of that this year because the course was closed for all or part of 31 days because of rain and flooding.

The limited play has also helped improve the condition of the course along with a no metal spikes policy that became mandatory on July 1.

The one thing that remains constant is the speed of play. The city has a keep-pace program that has players keep track of the time after nine and 18 holes. It sounds simple, but it has kept rounds under four hours during the week and under five hours on weekends.

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History lesson: Dad Miller opened in August of 1961 as a nine-hole course. Nine more holes were added and the 18-hole layout was dedicated on July 31, 1963.

The course was called Anaheim Municipal when it opened but it later took on the name Dad Miller after George “Dad” Miller, who was one of the driving forces behind convincing the city to build the course. Miller, along with fellow members of the Anaheim Golf Assn. Bill Payne and Joe Scholtz and then-Southern California PGA president Guy Bellet, were in the first group to tee off.

“It was a hot day but we were just thrilled that the project had become a reality,” said Scholtz, who is 94 and still lives in Anaheim. “It was a tough sell to the city council but after we documented the successful results from the Long Beach and Montebello courses, we had our course.”

Miller, 86 at the time the 18-hole layout was completed, gained much more fame seven years later at age 93 when he made a hole in one on the 11th hole, a par three of about 100 yards.

Miller, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, was the oldest person to make a hole in one in the United States, according to Golf Digest. The record has since been broken by a 94-year-old man in Florida.

The city honored Miller, who died in 1979 about two weeks after his 102nd birthday, with a plaque near the 11th tee that has led to few misunderstandings about where he was buried. (Miller’s grave is in an Anaheim cemetery.)

Miller played golf nearly until he died and celebrated his 100th birthday with a round at the course.

“People always ask us if he’s buried there,” said Janet Donovan, who is the city’s golf operations coordinator, “because of the plaque with all the flowers around it.

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Stars of tomorrow? There are bound to be some future PGA and LPGA tour players at the Rolex Tournament of Champions this week at Coto de Caza.

The invitation-only American Junior Golf Assn. tournament has an impressive list of winners. Phil Mickelson won the boys’ title in 1986, ’87 and ’88. David Duval won the next year. Jenny Lidback (1981), Kris Tschetter (1983), and Emilee Klein (1992) have won the girls’ title.

The 1998 field is typically strong with 23 All-Americans in the boys’ field and 16 in the girls’.

There are four Orange County players entered: Coto de Caza’s Jimmy Pittenger and Jimmy Dunn, Fullerton’s Angela Rho and Fountain Valley’s Candie Kung. Kung, the runner-up in the 1997 U.S. Girls’ Junior, finished tied for third in the Tournament of Champions last year.

Practice rounds are scheduled today. The tournament runs Tuesday through Thursday with the first tee times at 7 a.m. daily.

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Add junior golf: Nick Seymour of Tustin won the Polo Golf Junior at Langdon Farms Golf Club last week. Seymour, a recent graduate of Foothill High, shot one-under-par 70 in the third round to finish two-under 211 for the tournament, one stroke ahead of a four-way tie for second.

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Han Lee of Fullerton made a birdie on the second playoff hole to win the 27th annual Long Beach men’s city championship Sunday.

Lee, a student at California, started the round tied for first with Peter Tomasulo, 17, of Long Beach. Each shot 70 to finish at 208.

Kelly Craig of Orange shot 68 in the final round and finished five shots off the lead.

Larry Grant of Westminster closed with a 74 for a total of 218 to win the senior flight by a shot over Spencer Beard of Westminster.

The Orange County Golf Notebook runs regularly during the summer. Suggestions are welcome. Call (714) 966-5904, fax 966-5663 or e-mail Steve.Kresal@latimes.com or Martin.Beck@latimes.com.