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Open and Shut: '73 Finish Best Ever
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Still, there was a slight stall at that point when he left birdie putts of 10 and 12 feet short on his next two holes, then had his only bogey on the card when he three-putted the eighth from 18 feet.
At that point, Miller said he started telling himself what he's often said on the air about many other players heading in the wrong direction. He said he got angry and started calling himself a choker.
Properly motivated after posting 4-under 32 on the front, he ran off three straight birdies starting at No. 11 and got to 8 under for the day with his last birdie of the round at the 15th, when he hit a 4-iron to within 10 feet and made the putt.
"It was voted the greatest round for the centennial celebration of golf [in 1996]," Miller said. "So for me, that was enough validation. I know how good the round was. You know, young guys don't think we were that good. They think they're a lot better than we used to be. But if Bobby Jones or Sam Snead were 26, they'd still be in the top 20 players, no question about it."
After Miller's 63, the U.S. Golf Association took great pains to make sure there would be no repeat at the 1974 Open. That's when they played what has come to be known as "The Massacre at Winged Foot," with Hale Irwin prevailing by shooting 7-over par 287, the highest score in relation to par in tournament history.
"No doubt every guy at Winged Foot was mad at me for shooting so low because of the direct response on the length of the rough," Miller said. And when the Open returned to Oakmont in 1983, at the members' insistence, the rough was several inches higher, angering the players and nearly causing the USGA to take the club out of its Open rotation.
Miller has since said that "the way I played that day, it wouldn't have mattered what they did to the course." Most who saw it agree.
"It was an amazing round of golf," Phil Mickelson said recently. "Just a combination of it all. How tough it is to get the ball to the hole with those greens and what a perfect ball-striking round to get around that course in that many under par. I don't think anyone will come close to that this year."
