Johnny Miller: "Tiger is a very good putter, but not a great putter."

[golfbarefoot]

Johnny Miller? The Johnny Miller who had the yips so bad he couldnt make anything outside 3 ft? Just shows how good his ballstriking was to be one of the yippiest worst putters ever.

And sorry, but Tiger is the most clutch putter of all time...Johnny says stupid crap like this for this very reason...to get people talking any way he can.

Who is a better putter than Tiger? Id love to hear this one...

[CG031]

Johnny Miller? The Johnny Miller who had the yips so bad he couldnt make anything outside 3 ft? Just shows how good his ballstriking was to be one of the yippiest worst putters ever.

Well, from what I've heard/read, he was one of the best putters of all time pre-yips and in his prime...

[GoingfortheGreen]

Sometimes I feel sorry for Jim Nantz who has to sit by him...

you mean the other dude right (dan hicks?) - johnny is on nbc and nantz is on cbs. i've only been living here since 1990, so i'm not sure if they were paired together before that.

put miller in manny ramirez's camp -- johnny being johnny -- he's quite the ass. lest we forget his asking of his caddie for yardages up to 1/2 a yard. don't get me wrong, he was a very very good golfer - just not great. tiger's great, as was jack.

[ioaz81]

My bad, when I compared Billy Packer to Johnny Miller, I was thinking about Jim Nantz sitting next to him. LOL OH well, both gentlemen have to put up with a lot. :)

[SubPar]

Miller is also the great sage who opined in 1996 that Woods would soon find how hard it is to win at the PGA level and "might have 60 wins" in his entire career. Oops!

SubPar

[CG031]

My bad, when I compared Billy Packer to Johnny Miller, I was thinking about Jim Nantz sitting next to him. LOL OH well, both gentlemen have to put up with a lot. :)

Why'd you bring Billy Packer, one of the all-time great basketball announcers might I add, into this?

As for Miller being an ass, he does he say he either makes a "birdie" or "double bogey" with his style of announcing, he's either very hit or miss on what he says. Makes for television.

[ioaz81]

I cannot stand Billy Packer. He is an awful announcer, talk about putting your own opinions into things. I am from Kentucky, not even a Kentucky basketball fan, but whenever Kentucky played on CBS, you just had to mute the TV and listen to the radio. Billy Packer is the most biased man that was on TV. He was awful. Unless you were from the East Coast (ACC) he did not ever say anything good about you or your area.

[saltman]

I disagree with the notion that the PGA tour is nothing more than a putting contest. If that were the case, Brad Faxon would be dominating the tour. Ben Crenshaw didn't lose his game because he was no longer putting well, he got old. He couldn't keep up with the big hitters anymore, the courses were too long for him.

I understand what Miller is saying and I think most classic experts agree. The putting stroke is undergoing a what the swing has been undergoing for last 10 years. Its becoming more mechanical, because the guy that is winning has a mechanical stroke. How many of you have tried to practice putting by repitition for 2-3 hours a day. Your back starts to hurt like hell and I don't believe Tiger will be able to sustain that type of regimen into his 40s.

All that being said, he doesn't make clutch putts because of how good a putter he and Phil doesn't miss because he isn't as good. Making clutch putts is about something else and lets not forget how many times Tiger puts himself in contention to make a clutch putt. You cannot do that without being the best in all other aspects of the game.

[golfbarefoot]

You have 12 footer on the 72nd hole of a major championship, or any huge tournament, who would you have putt it?

Tiger Woods. No one is better.

[saltman]

You have 12 footer on the 72nd hole of a major championship, or any huge tournament, who would you have putt it?

Tiger Woods is CURRENTLY the best CLUTCH player. That doesn't mean his is the best putter.

You have to chip-in to win on the 72nd hole, who would you have chip it? You have to make hole-in-one on the 72nd hole, who would you rather have hit the shot? Point is you can make that statement about Tiger as it relates to virtually any aspect of the game. But if you take all the pressure away and focus on the beauty of a stroke the understanding of greens and purity of roll when the putt is struck, there are several guys that are better today and hundreds over the course of history. That reality is nobody was better at making the big putt than Tiger at least through age 33. Nobody was better at ANY aspect of the game when it matters than Tiger because the most important quality in golf is mental toughness.

[Parker0065]

I think Jack Nicklaus summed it up best this year when asked to compare his game to Woods. Jack said he was the better driver of the ball, Tiger is better at chipping and wedge play, and they were both equal at iron play and putting!

If anyone can putt as good as Jack Nicklaus in the clutch then I would say they are a "Great Putter"!

Johnny Miller just doesn't know what he's talking about!!!!!


[Personally I think Jack was a much stronger iron player than Woods will ever be, but thats just my opinion!] That 1-iron Jack hit into the wind on 17 at Pebble in 1972 was something to behold, like a Greek God!!!!!

[PEZGolf]

One thing we can all agree on---Johnny Miller has a knack for getting everyone's attention. As the color commentator and analyst, it is that not one of his jobs?

[imtomtomim]

well, I can't say tiger isn't a great putter. He makes them when it counts. Yeah, he may not be super pretty or seem all like instinct but his biggest asset, in my observations, is his ability to plan. He'll plan his misses, for a better shot. His driving may miss the fairway, but it's the part of the fairway where he gets another oppertunity to put a good shot on it. When he hits greens, he cuts it up like a pie and chooses the zones for the easier putts. He knows which ways he's gonna miss and plans around it. And he always takes his time to read and setup. Discipline is the foundation of tiger and it makes him a powerhouse.

[AmenCorner]

JM says some silly things, but in all fairness, I'm sure we'd be pegged with saying a few stupid things if we were sitting in the booth and had to talk about golf for 5 hours a day. Don't forget, your media cohorts specialize in taking things out of context to make you look even more stupid.

[deronsizemore]

One thing we can all agree on---Johnny Miller has a knack for getting everyone's attention. As the color commentator and analyst, it is that not one of his jobs?

I agree. People seem to forget that Johnny doesn't golf competitively anymore and he's just doing his job by being an analyst and analyzing the golf game of the pros. He gets paid to stir the pot and still has a job because he says what's on his mind (right or wrong) and then someone comes to a golf forum and rants about how much thy dislike him. I'm sure Johnny loves it as it keeps his job. As the saying goes, there's no bad publicity.

It would be like criticizing a school teacher for teaching. That said, he's not my favorite person to listen as he does make some remarks that seem to come from way out in left field but I'm sure Tiger isn't bothered by the fact that Johnny doesn't think he's a great putter.

[Trav]

One thing we can all agree on---Johnny Miller has a knack for getting everyone's attention. As the color commentator and analyst, it is that not one of his jobs?

Yes, but only as long as this translates to more viewers. If they ever find viewership being turned off, then he's a liability and out the door. (Now how they would determine that, as opposed to the effect of any other announcer, I don't know, but they did it with Joe Theismann on MNF, for example.)

[Leftygolfer]

what a joke. He is the greatest putter of this generation. How many majors has he won (more than all the others combined in that quote).

WTF is he thinking?

[saltman]

what a joke. He is the greatest putter of this generation. How many majors has he won (more than all the others combined in that quote).

Another person that buys into the fallacy that if a person is the best player than they must be the best at everything. The reality is the sum of all aspects of Tiger's game make him the best.

In my opinion the only aspect of the game that he is "the best" at is pure desire and toughness. I don't know why we pick this one aspect and claim he must be the best putter because he has won more majors than anyone else. That is faulty logic. His putting is just one factor that went into all those majors. If Tiger was No. 1 in putting for the week in all 14 wins I may agree with you. I am 100% sure that is not the case. The best putter doesn't always win ergo Tiger can win without being the best putter.