Typically, Johnny Miller didn’t hold back when he learned NBC lost the U.S. Open to Fox Sports, beginning in 2015.
Miller told Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press:
”It was a big bummer,” Miller told The Associated Press from his home in Utah. ”For some reason, I told Dan Hicks at the U.S. Open this year, ‘I don’t think we’re going to keep the U.S. Open.’ I just had a hunch it would be ESPN or Fox that stepped in and made a high bid. I know we tried.
”I feel bad for the USGA in a way that money was more important than basically a good golf crew.”
Later Miller added:
”I don’t know what they’re going to do,” Miller said about Fox. ”You can’t just fall out of a tree and do the U.S. Open. I guess the money was more important than the performance. No way they can step in and do the job we were doing. It’s impossible. There’s just no way. I wish Fox the very best.”
Miller could go a long way in helping the telecasts by jumping to Fox. His contract with NBC runs through 2015.
If Miller is interested, NBC would have to let him out of his contract a year early so he could do the 2015 U.S. Open for Fox. It is possible given all that Miller has meant to NBC’s golf coverage.
Miller told Ferguson that it is unlikely he would go to Fox if given the chance. However, he could change his mind. Miller’s famous 63 at Oakmont has him forever linked with the U.S. Open. The chance to do more Opens would be enticing.
Miller, though, is 66 and has talked of cutting back in recent years. He also is fiercely loyal to the NBC golf crew, headed by producer Tommy Roy. He likely wouldn’t be thrilled about learning to work with a new team at Fox at the age of 68.
Don’t be surprised if Miller works NBC’s final U.S. Open at Pinehurst in 2014 and then walks off into the sunset.
Johnny Miller reason why Fox getting US Open. Everyone tired of his commentating. Time to call it quits.
Johnny Miller is a class act. He called golf fairly as he saw it. No sucking up to marquee players. Anyone knowledgeable in the game knows the talent of Mr. Miller’s broadcasting abilities. Good luck Fox. You are going to need it. Looks like the popularity of gold continues to ‘ride off into the sunset ….’
Golf is a sport I started to follow largely because of Johnny Miller. My response to the sport isn’t nearly as keen when the others are broadcasting it. I hope he doesn’t ride off into the sunset.
The best thing that could happen to golf is for Johnny Miller to retire. If it’s not Tiger Woods he berates everyone else. I am really sick of listening to him.
Much respect for one of the greatest iron players ever! We’ll all beg him to continue after a few of Greg Norman’s backhanded compliments!!
Well as it turns out he was correct. Joe Buck was horrible… the calls were incorrect all day… and while Holly Sonders is gorgeous, she was miserably uncomfortable in the interviews… when introducing Speith as the Champion, Buck sounding like a raving moron at a championship fight.