INTRODUCTION From The Sports Time Traveler™
In 1974, Johnny Miller got off to the hottest start in PGA TOUR history.
He won the prestigious Bing Crosby National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach on the first weekend in January.
Then he captured the 2nd tournament of the year, the Phoenix Open, by shooting 4 consecutive rounds in the 60s.
One week later he started off the Dean Martin Tucson Open with a bang by shooting a 62 in the 1st round to break the course record and open a 4 shot lead. Miller told the Arizona Daily Star after the round, “I don’t know what I’ve been doing but it must be right.”
3 days later Miller completed the hat trick with a 3 shot victory. And he did it in magnificent style sinking putts of 40, 20 and 20 feet on the 10th, 12th and 13th holes in the final round.
He was hitting putts down the stretch like they were going into an open net in the last minute of a hockey match. He could do no wrong. Every round of the young season had been under par.
And just like that, Johnny Miller became the PGA TOUR’s first ever to win the opening 3 tournaments.
It’s a feat that has never been duplicated.
Miller had also become the first player on the PGA TOUR to win in 3 consecutive weeks since Arnold Palmer at the height of his career in 1962. Not even the Golden Bear, Jack Nicklaus, had ever done that.
And maybe it could have been 4 in a row to start the season, we’ll never know. Because Miller caught a bad cold in Tucson and had to skip the Andy Williams San Diego Open on the 4th week of the season.
In fact, it already was 4 in a row for Miller who had won his last event of the 1973 season, at the World Cup of Golf, where he was paired with Jack Nicklaus in a team event. In doing so, Miller became the first golfer since Jack Burke in 1952 to win 4 straight professional tournaments.
Those opening 3 weeks in 1974 however were electrifying enough. Johnny Miller, who had come from behind to beat Arnold Palmer with a shocker, a 63 final round at the U.S. Open in 1973, for his 1st major, at age 26, had now become one of the top golfers in the world.
NOTE: You can read about Miller’s final round 63 to beat Palmer in an article I published last year at this link: 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont
In real life, in January 1974, at my home in New Jersey, in the dead of winter, and at just 10 years old, I was hooked. I became a big Johnny Miller fan.
I walked like Johnny Miller. And I tried to putt like him. I couldn’t play golf outside in January, so I created a makeshift putting green on the carpet in my home, close enough to the TV in the den so I could watch Miller’s sweet swing and then practice my putting in between Miller’s shots. I loved watching Johnny Miller crush the fields in each of those first 3 weekends in January, 1974.
After he came back from the cold he was good but not dominating. He finished 11th, 4th, 5th and 29th in each of the next 4 events he played.
Then he came to the Heritage at Hilton Head in late March and fired a pair of 67s in the opening rounds to take a 6 shot lead into the weekend. He went on to in wire-to-wire fashion by 3 shots.
With his 4th victory of the year, comparisons were being made to Jack Nicklaus. The confident but respectful Miller was quick to quiet those comments. He told Harold Martin of The State, the Columbia, SC newspaper, “I have a long way to go to be as good as Nicklaus.. But I know if I’m playing good and he’s playing good, I can’t even get within sniffing distance of him.”
A few weeks later in the Masters, Miller got a slow start in the first 2 rounds and finished in just 15th place, 4 shots behind Nicklaus and 7 shots back of the winner of the Green Jacket, Gary Player.
Miller, whose putting had been one of the keys to his early season streak, told the Macon Telegraph after the 2nd round, “You can’t get a hot putter on these greens. They’re in great shape, but they’re hard to read.”
But 2 weeks later, Miller had a great opportunity to prove who was the best on the PGA TOUR.
Miller had qualified to play in the exclusive Tournament of Champions, an event that only included the 25 winners of PGA TOUR events over the prior year.
Nicklaus was the favorite at 7 - 2. Miller despite being the leading money winner so far in 1974 had odds of 8 - 1 to win.
Following Johnny Miller in 1974 was magical to me. So naturally, 50 years later, as The Sports Time Traveler I just had to go back in time to re-live the Johnny Miller ride and see how he performed at the Tournament of Champions.
The 1974 Tournament of Champions
April 29, 1974
I’m back here in 1974, virtually, where yesterday, the Tournament of Champions concluded at the La Costa Country Club a little north of San Diego.
Johnny Miller had started this tournament by shooting a 75 to put him in 2nd to last and 9 shots off the lead after the 1st round. It was a very disappointing opening round for Miller, the leading money winner on the PGA TOUR this year.
In today’s Times Advocate in Escondido, CA, Miller told sports editor, Dave Hoff, “After that 75 in the 1st round I thought, ‘Okay. That’s it for this week.’”
But by the start of the final round he had pulled himself to within 2 shots of the lead held by Bob Charles.
Here were the leading scores after 3 rounds:
-7 Bob Charles
-6 Bud Allin
-5 John Mahaffey
-5 Hubert Green
-5 Johnny Miller
-4 Jack Nicklaus
-4 Bruce Crampton
-4 Billy Casper
On the final day, Miller was paired with Allin in the 2nd to last group. Nicklaus and Mahaffey were in the group ahead of Miller. And Charles, the leader, was paired with Green in the final group behind Miller.
Bob Charles succumbed to the pressure on Sunday and shot a 38 on the front 9. He finished with a 77 in 8th place.
Jack Nicklaus had an uncharacteristic final round of 75, and never contended. Jack finished in 9th.
Bud Allin wrested the lead from Charles on the 4th hole when he made a 20 foot birdie putt.
Johnny Miller bogeyed 4 and 5 and appeared to be out of contention when he made the turn 4 shots behind Allin.
Then on the 10th hole Miller drilled a 6 footer for a birdie while Allin bogeyed. It was a 2 shot swing and pulled Miller within 2 strokes of the lead. Miller told the Times Advocate, “I was back in the ball game.”
Miller then pulled to within a single shot with a 14 foot birdie putt on the 14th hole.
And when he canned a 30 footer on 16, Johnny Miller had clawed his way into a tie for the lead with 2 holes remaining.
Up ahead playing with Nicklaus, John Mahaffey birdied the 17th hole and suddenly there was a 3 way tie for the lead.
On the par 4 18th hole Mahaffey hit his tee shot in the rough. While he was assessing his 2nd shot, Miller and Allin reached the 18th tee.
At this point the 3 players were now tied and all playing the final hole.
The 18th hole was the toughest on the course. Only 1 player across all 4 days had birdied the hole. Lee Elder had done it in the 1st round.
Mahaffey hit his 2nd shot on 18 into the foot tall grass to the left of the green. Mahaffey tried to use a sand wedge to pop the ball out of the high grass. But his shot went 20 feet past the pin. He missed the putt coming back for a bogey.
Mahaffey’s chances of winning the tournament had been crushed.
Allen and Miller both drove their tee shots at 18 into the right rough.
After the tournament, Johnny Miller told New York Times reporter Leonard Koppett that as he was walking down the 18th fairway with Bud Allin, “I was sort of rooting for him.”
Koppett noted in his article, “Miller is well known for his unorthodox thoughts at unlikely moments.”
Allen, a short hitter, decided to play his favorite club, his 5 wood. He described his shot to Dave Hoff, “It started out as a career shot, but then the wind caught it.” Allin’s shot landed in a greenside bunker.
Miller hit his 2nd shot, a 4 iron from 185 yards, short of the green. But he was able to chip to within 4 feet.
Allin then played his bunker shot. He told Dave Hoff, “It was a good lie. I just took too much sand.”
Allin had barely gotten his ball out of the trap. It was short of the green.
Allin, who had not looked at a scoreboard all day, was informed by his caddie that he needed to chip the ball in. He nearly did. His shot missed the cup by inches.
That left the tournament up to Johnny Miller. He needed to sink the 4 footer to win.
And he did.
Miller, whose 27th birthday is today, told Dave Hoff, “2 or 3 years ago you’d have seen a different finish by Johnny Miller. I’m better now under pressure than I used to be. Of course when you’ve already won $150,000 (for the season) it makes it a little easier.”
Miller finished the round with a 69 for a final score of 8 under par. His 69 was the only sub-70 round of the day.
It marked the 5th victory of the 1974 season for Johnny Miller. And it was his biggest win over a collection of the world’s top golfers since his historic victory last year in the 1973 U.S. Open.
The $40,000 first place prize money increased his PGA TOUR leading money earnings to nearly $200,000 for the season.
Miller has now played in 11 tournaments this season, winning 5, finishing in the top 5 a total of 7 times, and in the top 30 every time.
In addition his scoring average for the year stands at 69.9, just a little behind the all-time lowest season scoring average of 69.8 by Billy Casper in 1968.
Johnny Miller is having a sensational season.
POST TOURNAMENT WRAP UP
As I was reading the final scores in the New York Times this morning something shocking caught my eye.
I want you to see it:
Take a look at Johnny Miller’s score in the 2nd round that I’ve highlighted with the green circle in this image of the April 29, 1974 New York Times that appeared on page 45 of the paper.
It indicates that Johnny Miller shot a 59 on the 2nd day of the tournament.
59!
That’s the 1st time any golfer has ever shot a 59 in a PGA TOUR event.
The prior record of 60 had been shot 7 times, all in the 1950s. The last 60 had been carded by Sam Snead in 1957 in the 2nd round of the Dallas Open.
But that course was only 6,328 yards. La Costa was 6,855 yards.
WAIT A MINUTE!
After about 1 second of pondering all this I realized this must be a mistake in the New York Times - the most trusted source in news.
In my memory I called up the image of the man who became known as “Mr. 59,” Al Geiberger.
Geiberger had shot a 59 on June 10, 1977 at the Memphis Classic. And this I knew to be the 1st time that a sub-60 round had been recorded on the PGA TOUR.
Was it possible that Miller’s score had simply gone unnoticed?
I didn’t think that possible. This had to be a mistake in the New York Times.
I added up the scores of the 4 rounds for Miller. As the New York Times reported them they added to 270, not 280 which was the final score.
Then I double checked against the scores that were reported in other major newspapers. The Los Angeles Times and the Palm Beach Post both showed Miller with a 69 in the 2nd round.
I further went back to look at the New York Times from 2 days earlier. Surely if Miller had shot a 59 there would have been an article about that. There wasn’t. Because even the New York Times correctly reported on April 27, 1974, that Johnny Miller had shot a 69 (not 59) in the 2nd round.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ERROR
I had found a mistake in the New York Times.
But this was more than just a simple typo.
This was a mistake of historical consequence.
Johnny Miller was on such a streak in early 1974 that no one would have been too surprised if his putter got super hot and he shot a 59.
In fact Tommy King, sports editor of the Macon News had written an article in the Macon News less than 2 weeks earlier on April 16, 1974 about how golf really needed someone to shoot 59 to generate excitement for the sport. He wrote that day, “What golf needs is someone to shoot a competitive round in the 50s. It has never been done.”
King posed the question to Johnny Miller himself, while he was at The Masters, about the prospects of someone shooting a round in the 50s. Miller told him, “If we played the short courses of 20 to 30 years ago you’d see some 50s.”
King then spoke with Sam Snead who agreed with Johnny. Snead said, “If the guys playing today had played 20 years ago, yes, we would have had some 50s.”
King concluded his article with this, “Someone is going to sink all those putts and score below 60. It is inevitable.”
And most sports writers would have likely agreed the man to do it would be Johnny Miller.
It then occurred to me that in the distant future, in a world in which no one needs to 2nd guess AI anymore because it has a perfect ability to get the facts right, by leveraging the most impeccable historical sources, such as the New York Times, this “59” by Johnny Miller could be found and accepted.
It is entirely conceivable that in 100 years Johnny Miller could become recognized as the first man to shoot a 59.
SUBMITTING FOR A CORRECTION
And so I resolved to share this with the New York Times and seek a correction.
I sent the following email:
From: Len Ferman <Len@fermaninnovation.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 29, 2024 at 9:23 AM
Subject: Correction for 4-29-1974 New York Times
To: nytnews@nytimes.com <nytnews@nytimes.com>
I write a sports history newsletter called, “The Sports Time Traveler™.”
The premise is that I travel back in time virtually, via newspaper archives, to cover great sporting events as though they were happening now.
I primarily focus on “going back in time” precisely 50 years.
Today, I was reading the April 29, 1974 New York Times. In the coverage of the Tournament of Champions golf tournament on page 45, the final scores indicated that Johnny Miller had shot a 59 in the 2nd round. This is incorrect. Johnny Miller shot a 69.
This is of significance because had Miller shot a 59 in the 2nd round, as the Times incorrectly printed, it would have marked the first time a sub-60 round had ever been shot in a PGA TOUR event.
Accordingly, I feel this deserves a correction 50 years after the fact so that future sports historians, or AI models, don’t find this error and not realize it is a mistake.
Best,
Len Ferman
The Sports Time Traveler™
THE REPLY FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES
Less than 3 hours later I received the following reply from the New York Times.
From: Senioreditor NYTimes <senioreditor@nytimes.com>
Sent: Monday, April 29, 2024 12:04 PM
To: Len Ferman <Len@fermaninnovation.com>
Subject: Re: Correction for 4-29-1974 New York Times
Dear Len:
Thank you for your note. We make every effort to correct errors when they are brought to our attention in a reasonable period of time. After that, I’m afraid, our general policy is not to alter them.
With an archive of published material dating back to 1851, The Times would be hard pressed to put out the best possible news report today and best possible paper tomorrow if we devoted our time and finite resources to re-reporting old articles. So, as both a practical consideration and a matter of policy, we unfortunately have to resign ourselves to the continued existence of some errors in our digital archives.
At any rate, we appreciate your taking the time to bring this to our attention. Thanks for your close and attentive reading, and for contacting The Times.
Sincerely,
Isabella Paoletto
Assistant, Standards Department
The New York Times
So the New York Times declined to make the correction.
As much of a fan as I’ve been since I followed Johnny Miller’s rise to the top of the golf world in 1974, I hope, for the sake of Mr. 59, Al Geiberger, that the future version of our world, one well beyond our lifetimes, will be able to maintain the proper records so that his 59 continues to be recognized as the first one ever on the PGA TOUR.
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