The spirituality of a golfing legend

Johnny Miller was a golfer who stood tall in the golden age of golf.

He was often paired with Seve Ballesteros.

Seve gained attention in the golfing world in 1976, when at the age of 19, he finished second at The Open. Johnny won the Open that year.

Johnny Miller was one of the top players in the world during the mid-1970s. He was the first to shoot 63 in a major championship to win the 1973 U.S. Open, and he ranked second in the world on Mark McCormack's world golf rankings in both 1974 and 1975 behind Jack Nicklaus. Miller won 25 PGA Tour events, including two majors. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1998.

He was the person who said "It's not what you accomplish in life that matters; it's what you overcome"

The full quote is actually "It's not so much what you accomplish in life that really matters, but what you overcome that proves who you are, what you are, and whether you are a champion."

Face it, we make mistakes in business, in life and we have bad golf holes. How we overcome adversity is what makes us better men and women.

The following is an excerpt from Guy Yocum. Guy interviewed golfs elite during his 30-year run as a Golf Digest senior writer.

"As everyone who listened to Johnny on TV came to know, he is deeply spiritual with a somewhat mystical bent. We heard many times his stories about how he won the 1987 AT&T after a voice from nowhere told him to putt while looking at the hole, as well as the tale of his final-round 63 at the 1973 U.S Open, which happened when he heard the same voice tell him before the round to open his stance. A believer in destiny who trusted and acted upon existential prompts, a couple of things were out there. For example, he believes that trees “almost” have spirits and in his course design work, feels slight pangs of regret when trees need to be cut down. He is a great admirer of Native American people with a great respect for their spiritual traditions, one reason he quietly has conducted the Native American Johnny Miller Golf Tournament for more than 20 years at Snow Canyon in St. George, Utah.

Miller liked to tell the story of going up against Seve Ballesteros in a sudden-death playoff at the inaugural Million Dollar Challenge in South Africa in 1981. First prize was $500,000, a huge sum in those days. Miller, knowing that Seve was at the peak of his powers, understood heading to the first tee it would take something special to win. He said he recalled meeting early in the week a mystic and non-golfer named Rene Kurinsky. She had taken Miller aside and said, “You will win this week. I can see it. But you will win only if you do not under any circumstance wish badly for your opponent. When he has a putt to make, do not wish for his ball to stay out of the hole.” The mystic told Miller that the vibration he gives off will only empower the opponent. “All he feels is the raw energy of the vibration. Good or bad, he will feed off it. So don’t think anything.”

Miller said that on at least five holes during the sudden-death playoff, Ballesteros had several short makeable putts to win. Miller, recalling the advice from Kurinsky, kept his mind blank when Ballesteros putted, refusing to do what we all do—think, Miss it, Noonan. The great Seve missed them all, and Miller won on the ninth extra hole of sudden death."

Some time later, I related Miller’s story to my regular partner in our club’s member-member. We both adopted the mind-blank attitude, and the number of times our opponent’s missing clutch putts down the stretch seemed to increase dramatically. Word of Miller’s tip spread, and within a year or two, half the players in the member-member were turning their backs when their opponents putted. Miller’s quirky tales had power and never seemed to end with his telling."

As we embark on "The Open" later this week, could it possible that some of our elite golfers will take a leaf out of Johnny Miller's book?

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