John "Spider" Miller, at the 2015 Jones Cup<br /> Tracy Wilcox photo
United States captain John "Spider" Miller sat down with Brian DePasquale of the USGA to discuss the 2015 Walker Cup
As the 45th Walker Cup Match looms between
the
United States and
Great Britain
& Ireland September 12 and 13 at Royal Lytham
and
St. Annes Golf
Club in
England, Manager of Championship
Communications
Brian DePasquale
of the
United States Golf Association sat down with
United
States captain
John "Spider"
Miller — a two‑time USGA Champion and a
member of
the 1999 USA
Walker Cup
Team — to discuss the impending match
between the
two nations top
amateur
players.
Having travelled with the team to Latrobe
Country
Club outside
Pittsburgh, Pa. to
spend some quality time with none other than
Arnold
Palmer, Miller
reflected on
the time they spent with the 7-time major
championship winner.
BRIAN: What was the biggest piece of
advice you took away
from Arnold
Palmer, not necessarily for you but for the kids,
something that really
stuck with
you?
CAPTAIN MILLER: I think what really
hit
home with the kids
was how to
conduct your professional life. I believe that
as — we
all believe, that
all of our
young guys will likely turn professional at some
point.
I think they learned if you treat people right, if
you're
polite and you
always do the
right thing, that your professional life can extend
for
so long. I don't
know that
any will ever extend as long as Arnold's, maybe
so,
but I think they all
learned
that this is how you act as a professional. I
think this
was the biggest
takeaway.
And that's what I wanted them to learn. I
wanted
them to see how to
handle
themselves and that the rewards you can
achieve by
simply treating
people will
and always being respectful.
BRIAN: Could you comment on your
personal experience, if
any, over the
years, at Lytham, and comment on the golf
course if
you have seen it
since your
appointment as the captain and your take on
how the
golf course
might play and
how it might play for the American kids.
CAPTAIN MILLER: Well, my experience
is
limited. I went
over last
summer for a week and I played with Robert
Webb
and a couple of his
friends.
And unfortunately or fortunately, the weather
was
perfect. We had
70‑degree days
and very little wind.
But aside from that, I know playing conditions
are
going to change. I
can't ‑‑ you
know, trying to guess those conditions, you don't
know. But the golf
course, the
surround, the setting, where it is positioned and
everything about it, I
really like.
As you know, the bunkers are the dangerous
part. So
that's part of
my reasoning.
I want the kids to have as many looks at the golf
course as we can
get. That's
why I'm going there immediately on Monday
when it
becomes
available to us, and
these guy the are going to have to decide their
clubbing, some of the
bunkers that
they will lay up short of, and some that they will
hit
downwind. The
only player in
the group that has played the course is Jordan
Niebrugge.
And I asked Jordan, I said, how many when you
played ‑‑ of course,
all wind
condition, how many drivers he hit, and he said
two.
So I expect that
there will be
a lot of position playing, and that was my take
when I
played there,
as well. It's
all about avoiding those bunkers.
BRIAN: I'm curious, you mentioned
obviously wanting to get
the guys as
many looks as they can at the course once you
all get
there. But how
do you try
to handle the week up to, obviously Saturday
when
balls are first
being hit in
earnest. How do you balance playing too much
and
getting acclimated
to not
playing too much and maybe overdoing it
before? And
have you
spoken to any
past captains on what advice they might give
you on
how to balance
that?
CAPTAIN MILLER: Well, I'll answer the
latter
first, and yes,
I've spoken to
most all of the recent captains. But I also had a
great
conversation
recently from
the most gracious guy in the world, Dave
Stockton,
was kind enough
to talk with
me for about an hour, maybe more, about
different
philosophies and
things. He
couldn't have been better. He was a great help.
My challenge for me is to provide a framework
and a
schedule that
allows all these
players to be their best on Saturday morning.
So I'm
going to allow
them time to
do the routines that they normally do, and each
one I
expect will be
different. So
I'll find out what their typical routine is the day
before
they play, two
days before
they play.
It's not going to be military golf. You know, I
want
each one of them
vested in the
process, and so they know they can talk freely
with
me, and I listen to
what they
say. So that's my plan.
BRIAN: Jordan [Niebrugge] is the one
guy
on the team that's
played a lot
of links golf this summer. How much is he going
to be
a factor in
terms of giving
information to the other guys. He qualified at
Hillside,
he's played
Lytham and
he's played St. Andrews and he is the one guy
with a
lot of links
experience, and
he also played on the team two years ago. How
much
are you leaning
on him to
help the other guys?
CAPTAIN MILLER: I think Jordan will be
a
great influence. I
like his age.
I like his experience and his demeanor. He's
going to
be a great
teammate for all
the guys and they know him well. Jordan I
expect
when I'm not
around and when
they talk among themselves, I expect that he
will be
a great
influence.
I mean, he understands the yardages and he can
talk
to them. And I
talked with
him about it, to share his thoughts on certain
holes
and when you
think you should
lay‑up to this bunker and when you might carry
one
bunker and the
effects of that.
Yeah, all that's good, and he'll have that ‑‑ he
has had
and will have
more
opportunities to share his thoughts. I think
that's
very important and I
couldn't be
happier to have Jordan on the team.
BRIAN: Along those same lines, I know
you've had limited
experience
with them in the same room, but who do you
anticipate will be a few
of the more
vocal leaders of this team?
CAPTAIN MILLER: Well, I think
everyone
enjoys Bryson's
company. I
think he will provide good leadership. I have a
couple
players who
are kind of
quiet. Jordan's quiet himself, and Lee McCoy
has an
outgoing
personality.
You know, I think they will coalesce as teams.
I'm
letting them vest
in the process
of selecting their partner. It's not going to be
me
trying to match
them up. I'm
listening to what they think, and it's all going
good.
I expect the Mid‑Amateurs will emerge as kind of
a
miniature playing
captain, so to
speak, and they have melded and interacted well
with
the younger
guys.
I will tell you, Lee calls Mike McCoy "Uncle
Mike," so
it's been good. I
guess I'll
have to wait and see which one steps up and
provides
that energy. It
could be any
number of them.
BRIAN: Obviously your team is a very
good
team but it
could be so much
better if three players, off the top of my head,
Jordan
Spieth, Patrick
Rodgers and
Justin Thomas had stayed and decided to play.
Are
you concerned
that we're
getting to a point in amateur golf where the
good
players are leaving
too early,
making it more difficult for the captains going
forward
for the US
Walker Cup
Teams?
CAPTAIN MILLER: You know, that's an
interesting question. I
guess I've
talked with ‑‑ all three of those guys are great
guys.
Their decision to
move on to
the professional ranks certainly was well thought
of by
all three.
I think as a captain, the group of players are
better,
younger. That
class with
those three and the guys that I have on this
team and
the same class
has to be an
unbelievable class of players.
I couldn't go back that far back, but my
goodness,
just pick the ones
you named,
and then Ollie Schniederjans, you had Brian
Stewart,
and the group
that I have.
What I tell them is, I tell them, they only have
one
chance at getting
their degree,
and that may or may not be true. But in all
likelihood
if they don't get
their
degree while they are in college this time, that
may
not happen.
And I said, the thing you have to look back on
is:
One day you are
going to have
children and grandchildren, and you're going to
want
your kids to have
their
degree, and it's going to be a lot easier for you
to
dwell on that if you
have your
own. And I said, that's all I'm going to tell you.
That's words from an
old boy who
has been through it, and I'll leave it at that.
That's
my feeling.
BRIAN: Some of the kids can graduate
in
three years.
CAPTAIN MILLER: When they do, I say
that's
great. And if
they are ready
to move on, I think it's great.
BRIAN: You've known you were going
to be
captain for this
Walker Cup
for a while now. But it's finally really coming
here and
you've got
your team and
you've got this itinerary that's about to happen.
What
are your
emotions like right
now, and how do you think things will play out
for
yourself going
forward in the
next week or so?
CAPTAIN MILLER: Well, I know I'm
busy.
I'm very busy and
it's coming
quick and I'm trying to fulfill my obligation the
best I
can. I do my
role just like I
have anything I've agreed to do or I have to do.
I'm
trying to do it the
best I can.
I've put a lot of time and energy into it. I've
been to
13 events this
year alone.
And I know the kids. I think the important thing
really
for me was to
get to know
them and for them to be comfortable with me,
and I
feel that I've
done that going
into the tournament.
Yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready to go. I'm all
packed and
we'll be leaving
tomorrow.
It's time. It's been a two‑year process for me,
and
people ask me
about it and
they say: How do you feel about that?
And I can give you two analogies. One was the
first
time I won the
Mid‑Amateur
and I qualified for the Masters in April. And I
had five
kids and a job
and
payments, and I'm up here in Indiana and it's
freezing
cold in January,
February ‑‑
December, January, February, March and I know
in
April, I have to
play. Let me
tell you, time goes quick when you're out there
watching. Just said,
just give me
one day where I can go hit balls.
And the other analogy is: You take out a big
loan and
that first of the
month
comes around pretty quick (laughs) and that's
kind of
the same way
with this. It's
snowballed, now it's coming very quick and I'm
happy.
BRIAN: You mentioned a moment ago
that
the players were
going to
have input in terms of their partners and
whatnot.
How do you
anticipate that
going next week? Is it the kind of thing where
you
would literally sit
down with
each of them and talk about, how are things
going and
who do you
feel more
comfortable and how will that process of their
input
actually come to
play, do you
think?
CAPTAIN MILLER: Well, I'm going to
ask
them to give me
their playing
partners, one through five. And some will tell
me they
can play with
anyone, and
some will, and I'm going to try and match them
up.
I guess what I'm not going to do is I'm not going
to sit
down and try
and analyze
each person's game, and say, okay, this guy
drives it
straight, this
guy putts it
good, this guy is a good chipper. You'd drive
yourself
crazy.
And part of the takeaway that I got from Dave
Stockton is that you
match by
personalities. I'm a big believer in that, and I'm
going
back to my
experience and
that's what I intend to do.
BRIAN: In your past conversations with
Jim
Holtgrieve, what
do you think
you learned from 2011, because when you look
at that
team on paper,
it was
arguably one of the best the Americans have
ever
assembled, yet
they still lost on
foreign soil. So I'm curious what kind of
takeaways
you took from
your
conversations with him.
CAPTAIN MILLER: Well, I guess part of
it
was I'm conscious
to have the
guys all involved in everything. Jimmy didn't
give me
any specific
thoughts other
than, you know, it's important that they are all
involved and that's
what I've tried
to do.
I don't have any outliers and personalities. All
my
guys have good,
strong team
personalities. Yeah, I don't know that I had
anything
to do or not to
do. Jimmy
has been a great help to me, some things like
what I
can expect, just
little things,
but he's been great, very gracious, and has have
been
all of the
captains.
I spoke with all of them, and each team is
different,
as you know, and
I expect
that what may have worked for them may or
may not
work for me.
But I have my
plan and I'm very confident in my decisions to
involve
us and to make
every effort
for us to coalesce as a team. That's my
emphasis.
BRIAN: What did Jim say you could
expect?
CAPTAIN MILLER: Oh, he gave me
pairing
thoughts, where
to put
players, things of that nature. Now that doesn't
mean
Nigel will do
what he has
always done, but Jimmy ‑‑ now, if he reads this,
I
know he'll do what
he wasn't
planning to do. (Laughter) but I expect that
anyway.
You know, I'm a believer in what you do ‑‑ it's
like the
guy said about
your ball: I
only worry about my ball. I only worry about
my
team. I'm not
worried about
what he does or he doesn't do. People have
asked
me about his
players. I say,
you know, what I concentrate on our team, our
ball.
When I played
golf, if I hit it
in the fairway and somebody hit it to the right, I
was
only looking for
my ball, and
I was worried what I was going to do.
Well, I feel the same way about this team. I am
concerned with what
we are
doing, and what he may or may not do is his
decision.
But I have a
lot of concern
and my focus is solely on what we are doing as
a
team.
BRIAN: What are maybe a few things
that
you have learned
about the
team as a group in the short time you've been
together?
CAPTAIN MILLER: Well, I've learned
they
are ‑‑ I have a
smart bunch.
Quite frankly they are all smarter than I am.
They are
a diverse
group. I have a
physics major, I have informatics majors, sports
majors. They are all
individuals.
They all have their own way and mannerisms
and the
way they set
about it; from
Bryson gets down and triangulates with that
putter.
And I told him when I first saw him do that, I
said:
Bryson, if I saw a
guy play
with me that got down there and did all this
triangulation, I'd say:
"Look at that
guy, he doesn't have a clue in hell what he's
doing
down there.
But I told him, I said, "Now that I know you and
your
case, I believe
sincerely that
you are getting something out of it because
you're
smart enough. If
anybody else
did it, I'd say, that's all a show, he doesn't have
a clue
what he's
looking at." But
Bryson, he's getting some information from that.
No, it's a great group. And we have fun. I joke
with
them and they
joke back with
me.
About the The Walker Cup
The Walker Cup Match is a biennial 10-man amateur team competition between the USA and a team composed of players from Great Britain and Ireland and selected by The R&A. It is played over two days with 18 singles matches and eight foursomes (alternat...
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