19th Hole
Was this swing thought the secret to Johnny Miller’s Oakmont 63?
As golf fans well know, Johnny Miller’s final-round 63 at Oakmont during the 1973 U.S. Open stands as one of the all-time great performances in major championship history.
Trailing the leaders by six strokes and grouped outside the top 10 to begin the day, Miller proceeded to boldly birdie the first four holes in an incredible opening salvo. He hit all 18 greens in regulation, and significantly, 13 of his iron shots landed within 15 feet of the hole. Miller ultimately needed just 29 putts on what many regarded as the nation’s toughest.
Of course, damp conditions and a softer course that week allowed for slightly friendlier roll off the tee, yet Oakmont remained brutally challenging (only nine players broke par). The 63 secured Miller’s first major title, which he would buttress with the 1976 Open Championship.
In a recent article for the USGA’s Golf Journal, excerpted for Golf.com, Miller recounted a pre-final round swing thought that buoyed him to victory.
Miller writes:
“I was only three shots off the lead through 36 holes, but on Saturday I forgot my yardage book in my hotel room. I started 5 over through six holes and shot a 76. I figured I had played my way out of contention. Not only was I now six strokes back in a tie for 13th, but the players in front of me included Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lee Trevino.
“On Sunday, as I was warming up, a voice came into my head and said, “Open your stance way up.” I tried it and hit my last half-dozen balls dead straight. I wasn’t sure I wanted to bring that to the course, but I figured I had nothing to lose.”
Nothing to lose, but a place in the annals of golf history to gain! Whether it was a voice from the heavens or the recesses of his psyche, Miller’s final-round brilliance gives hope to all golfers searching for the magical swing tip that will make everything click (for the day, at least).
Miller spoke in 2023 about the lead-up to his immortal round, saying (as relayed by Gary D’Amato of Wisconsin Golf):
“Going into the final round, I was six strokes back and I birdied the first four holes and I knew that I was in the running. The hair on the back of my neck sort of stood up when I said that to myself: You’ve got a chance to win. That made the adrenaline just start pumping. In my career I didn’t let pressure affect me tee to green. Tee to green I was sort of bulletproof. But it affected my putting and I left a couple of short putts short of the hole. Then on No. 8, I three-putted from straight uphill. Only had one iron shot where I had a downhill putt. I hit every green in regulation. I had put the ball in a perfect spot the whole round. It was like a magical ball-striking round.”
Miller’s record stood for 50 years, until both Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele fired opening rounds of 62 at the 2023 U.S. Open.
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19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish
An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.
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