John’s here.
Johnny Miller is not impressed with Justin Thomas’ round that broke his U.S. Open record
One of the most famous rounds in golf is unseated after 43 years and the former record holder has some thoughts on the matter.
Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images
Just hours after Justin Thomas broke his historic, legendary, infamous U.S. Open scoring record, Johnny Miller decided to assess the feat.
There have now been 31 rounds of 63 posted in a men’s major championship. No one has posted 62, despite almost annual threats to finally break the seal. Only five of those 31 rounds of 63 have come at the U.S. Open. Miller posted the first, an 8-under par round that delivered him the 1973 national championship at Oakmont. The other three were 7-under rounds on a par-70 course.
Miller’s Oakmont round is arguably the greatest round in the history of golf. We’ve heard about it plenty over the years, and Johnny is often lambasted for bringing it up one too many times while holding the mic in the lead analyst chair for NBC.
Thomas’ outrageous eagle on the final hole to post a 9-under and break the 43-year scoring record (relative to par) prompted a flurry celebratory tweets and comments, many jabbing Miller. Erin Hills has been yielding lower scores than most U.S. Opens. The third round was threatening the lowest scoring round mark in the championship’s history.
Miller noticed some of these numbers and decided he would provide a little of his own context and assessment to Thomas’ still-fresh-out-of-the-oven round.
Speaking with Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner, Johnny did not disappoint. The comments were definitely laced with some salt, and the kicker was probably mockingly calling this Wisconsin U.S. Open setup the “Greater Milwaukee Open,” a regular old PGA Tour event for many years renowned for yielding low numbers.
“A 63 for a par 72 is a heck of a score,” Miller said, “even if it was the Milwaukee Open.”
Miller also seemed chuffed about the setup going completely against the “U.S. Open tradition” with wide fairways and soft landing areas, referring to Erin Hills on Saturday as more of a “PGA Tour event course setup.”
Miller also seemed convinced that Thomas’ number would do nothing to alter the historic place of his 63 at Oakmont.
“For one, the greatness of my round is the 63 in the last round of the U.S. Open to win by one,” he said. “Everything else is way secondary. If somebody does it tomorrow to win the U.S. Open by one, that’s the specialness of my round. And secondly, Erin Hills isn’t exactly Oakmont.”
So John didn’t seem thrilled with the USGA and while he praised Thomas’ work on multiple occasions, he did make it clear that there might be levels to this here thing (Lavner’s entire piece, with more quotes from Miller, is here.)
Miller will get some crap for reacting in a way that many people probably expected him to and probably wanted him to. But this is why we love Johnny. We want him to bring the heat and give the toughest assessment out there. That’s why people hate him and love him. And it’s why he’s so good as an analyst.
Never change, Johnny. Never change.
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