43
Miller adjusts for SF elements
Photo
Mill Creek club pro Dennis Miller is in San Francisco preparing for Thursday’s first round of the U.S. Open.
Dennis Miller has been to his fair share of prestigious golf resorts: Pine Valley in New Jersey, Oakmont in Western Pennsylvania and Oakland Hills in Michigan.
None has quite measured up to The Olympic Club in San Francisco where the Mill Creek Metroparks director of golf is practicing for this week’s U.S. Open.
“The Olympic Club, by far, is set up in the most difficult way possible,” Miller said in a Tuesday telephone interview. “It’s the biggest test I’ve ever had to face.”
He noticed in his Monday afternoon walkthrough that the greens and fairways were firm, tight, narrow and fast. The rough? Treacherous.
“About 6-7 inches,” Miller said.
He woke up at 6 a.m. on Tuesday for a 7:37 tee time to play the full 18.
“The first thing we noticed were all the hills,” Miller said. “It was very difficult to walk. The moist air and the cool temperatures were a little difficult in the morning. It was a bit of struggle getting through early on.”
The early morning temperatures barely reached the mid-40s and he noted that he and playing partners Retief Goosen and Michael Campbell were “bundled up pretty good.”
Miller had to fine tune his play to combat the weather and elevation.
“I’m losing about a club with my irons,” he said. “If I hit an 8-iron about 150 yards, it’s 140 out here.”
Playing in the afternoon, like he did Monday, compared to playing in the early morning was another adjustment for Miller.
Admittedly more favorable to golfing in the afternoon, his first-round tee time for Thursday, alongside Casey Martin and amateur Cameron Wilson, is slated for early afternoon.
“The rough was a little bit more moist,” Miller said. “It’s what you expect playing early in the morning but with it being so deep, it just posed an even greater challenge.”
The Olympic Club isn’t your normal golf course, though.
In fact, it’s a near reversal of what Miller is used to.
“I’ve always adapted fairly well to changes on a golf course,” he said. “If there’s an elevation change, it’s downhill where I can hit my irons a little bit further. We’re adapting the other way here.”
He also received the guidance of a pair of pros who are somewhat used to the colossal variations.
“But even they admitted it was just a crazy course,” Miller said.
Goosen and Campbell each have a U.S. Open title to their name.
Campbell, a New Zealand native, won at Pinehurst (N.C.) in 2005. Goosen, who hails from South Africa, won the 2001 Open in a playoff against Mark Brooks and Stewart Cink in 2001 at Tulsa (Okla.) Southern Hills Country Club. In 2004, he won at Sinnecock Hills in New York.
“They both were great,” Miller said.
“Their reception was warm and welcoming and it was awesome to play alongside two guys that have such notoriety on tour.”