Johnny be very good

At the US Open in 1973, Miller may have played the best ever round of golf.

There have been 40 rounds of 63 shot in a men’s major championship. There have been five 62s, the first as recently as 2017 and two of those since belonging to Xander Schauffele. But this is about the first of those 63s, which was produced 52 years ago in the final round of the US Open at Oakmont, to where the championship returns next week. It was the work of a 26-year-old Californian called Johnny Miller. It may be the best round of golf ever played.

His score was eight under par. He began with four birdies followed by three pars. He took three putts on the par-three 8th but balanced that bogey with a birdie on the par-five 9th. He was out in 32. Coming home he birdied 11, 12, 13 and 15. Like all great rounds, it could have been lower. That three-putt apart, he missed birdie chances from around 10 feet on 14 and 17, but when the scores were all added up he had prevailed by a shot from John Schlee. John Who? Well, yes, OK, but the next four men home were Tom Weiskopf, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Arnold Palmer.

The previous day, Miller had shot 76. Like something out of Wallace and Gromit, he had put his yardage book in the wrong trousers. Without it, he was lost. When he left his motel on Sunday morning, he had suggested that his wife pack their cases because they wouldn’t be hanging around. Then he set off to make golfing history.

There are caveats that can be made as to how great his effort was. The course was wet; the ball stopped pretty much where it landed, which is far from the norm at Oakmont. On the other hand, only three other players broke 70 that day. And this was the US Open; a major championship. Miller hadn’t won one. Nicklaus, Trevino and Palmer had 22 between them.

There is also this: when Miller teed off that Sunday in June 1973, he was six shots off the pace. He had no thoughts of winning; well, not until he had birdied those first four holes at around the same time as the leaders were teeing off – which meant that for the significant majority of his round, he did know he was in with a chance to win. Which came as a huge blow to one of his rivals in particular. Playing the 12th, Palmer thought he held the lead at four under par. He then saw a leaderboard on which a red ‘5’ had been posted near the bottom. Shocked, he turned to Schlee and asked: “Who’s five under?” Schlee replied: “Miller. Didn’t you know?” From out of nowhere, Johnny had jumped the field.

Miller would win just one more major, the 1976 Open at Birkdale, a championship which is better remembered by many people as the one where a 19-year-old Seve Ballesteros announced himself to the world. Amid all those other 63s, however, only one other was fired in the final round by the man who would become champion: Henrik Stenson in the 2016 Open at Troon. Miller’s mark was indeed one for all time.

You can follow Robert Green on Twitter @robrtgreen and enjoy his other blog f-factors.com as well as his golf archive on robertgreen-golf.com

Updated: June 2, 2025