Historic muni Memorial Park, new host of the Vivint Houston Open, takes all comers

Round 1 of the 3M Open takes place today at TPC Twin Cities. The strong field features players such as Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Tommy Fleetwood and defending champion Matthew Wolff. Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action. Round 1 leaderboard Round 1 tee times HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 2:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday 7:45 a.m.-6:30 p.m. (Featured Groups). Saturday-Sunday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. (Featured Groups), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Holes). Radio: Thursday-Friday, 1 p.m.-6:30 p.m. Saturday-Sunday 1 p.m.-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio). FEATURED GROUPS Dustin Johnson, Tony Finau, Tommy Fleetwood Thursday: 8:30 a.m. ET (No. 10 tee); Friday: 1:40 p.m. ET (No. 1 tee) Matthew Wolff, Max Homa, Branden Grace Thursday: 1:30 p.m. ET (No. 1 tee); Friday: 8:20 a.m. ET (No. 10 tee) Brooks Koepka, Keith Mitchell, Charles Howell III Thursday: 8:20 a.m. ET (No. 10 tee); Friday: 1:30 p.m. ET (No. 1) Bubba Watson, Pat Perez, Paul Casey Thursday: 1:40 p.m. ET (No. 1 tee); Friday: 8:30 a.m. ET (No. 10) MUST READS Power Rankings Expert Picks Insider: Fleetwood returns to work Four burning questions about DJ PGA TOUR University’s inaugural top 15 ranking

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Even before winning 25 times on the PGA TOUR, including his signature victory at the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont, Johnny Miller was training for a TV career.  He just didn’t know it. “He grew up with colorful guys,â€� said Todd Miller, one of Johnny’s six kids and now the Director of Golf at Brigham Young University. “He had two guys he was really good friends with in San Francisco where he grew up, Steve Gregoire and Ron O’Connor, and they were always needling each other. They never stopped talking. For my dad, when he got to the (broadcast) booth, it came pretty natural just to come up with something really quick.â€� Miller’s second act calling golf for NBC, a career marked by insights, candor and sometimes controversy, is coming to an end after 29 years. Miller, 71, and NBC announced this week that when he calls the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Jan. 31-Feb. 3, it will mark the end of a three-decade run as one of the most iconic soundtracks on TOUR. “Soon, it will officially be Miller time,â€� Miller quipped in a press release. He was more emotional in aconference call with reporters Tuesday that also included NBC Golf Lead Producer Tommy Roy and NBC Golf President Mike McCarley. Miller seemed to choke back tears as he spoke of the highlight of his playing career, his final-round 63 at the 1973 U.S. Open—a tournament, he said, his dad groomed him to win. He said the highlight of his TV career was the relationships with his NBC Golf family like Dan Hicks and Roger Maltbie. “A lot of things going on not only in my mind but my heart, stomach,â€� Miller said.  One thing he didn’t have was a filter, and his microphone was always on. Monday-morning water-cooler talk came to include some version of: Did you hear what Johnny said? Miller once said of a fat pro that his back problems were “perhaps a result of his front problems.â€� He talked especially about choking, or gagging, under pressure on the back nine on Sunday, taking a blowtorch to the heretofore chummy, banal pleasantries of televised golf. “We all choke,â€� Miller said. “For me, I would choke at putting and I would admit that I did.â€� Of Phil Mickelson, Miller said: “If he couldn’t chip, he’d be selling cars in San Diego.â€� Of the stocky Australian Craig Parry, Miller said his swing was so unorthodox as to make Ben Hogan “puke.â€� (This, as Parry was winning the 2004 Ford Championship at Doral.)  He said Tiger Woods “gagged just a little bit because he wanted it so badâ€� at the 2012 Masters. Perhaps most famously, Miller said Justin Leonard should’ve stayed home instead of play in the 1999 Ryder Cup at Brookline—before Leonard made the clinching putt for the U.S. “He’s just an honest guy,â€� Todd Miller said of his father. “Even with his kids, my brothers and our families, he’s not going to dance around the truth. He’s going to be honest with you. And he’s insightful. He’ll pick things up that other people just don’t see.â€� And Johnny Miller was not above admitting his mistakes, like his Leonard comment in ’99. “I did say he should be home, but I meant the motel room,â€� Miller said. “Even then I probably shouldn’t have said that. I get so into these matches, these Ryder Cup matches. “I apologized to him literally the next day,â€� Miller added.  That was his policy, he said, when he went over the line. Producer Roy praised 99.5 percent of his work. “And .5 percent of the time it was a little bit of a problem for me and our PR department,â€� Roy said. “But that was fine. The great way outweighed the bad.â€� Miller said it came naturally to call it like he saw it, and laughed when reminded of his boyhood friends Gregoire and O’Connor and their formative give-and-take at The Olympic Club. “I remember one of the first tournaments I played, I was walking up to the practice tee and (Lee) Trevino was there,â€� Miller said. “When I walked in, he started razzing me. He didn’t realize that even though he was pretty quick with words, I sort of gave it back to him. He never bothered me again after that in front of all those people. “… I think the one thing I did have that was sort of God-given,â€� Miller added, “was sort of a quickness of spotting things in the swing and a quickness in response.â€� Nicknamed the Desert Fox as a player, Miller was at times dominant, winning 15 times in a three-year span in the mid-1970s. He captured the 1975 Phoenix Open by 14 shots and the Dean Martin Tucson Open, a week later, by nine. He was 49 under par in those eight rounds. He could be just as devastating as an analyst, starting with his first tournament, the 1990 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. At crunch time, Peter Jacobsen, a friend, was sitting on a thin lead and assessing a tricky shot from a downhill lie over water. Miller came in hot. “I said, ‘He’s got this downhill lie. Easiest shot in golf to choke on,’â€� Miller said Tuesday. “I didn’t say he was going to choke. I was just saying if he did, this is the easiest one. Downhill lie over water and you have a tendency to hit it fat or thin like guys do on 15 at Augusta.â€� Jacobsen did not choke, won the tournament, and didn’t talk to Miller for months. (Ironically, he and Leonard both now work with Miller at Golf Channel on NBC.) In retirement, Miller will antagonize only the trout. He will bounce back and forth between his home at Napa’s Silverado Resort & Spa, where he is part of the ownership group, and Heber City, Utah. His 24 grandkids are ready for fishing and golf lessons, and Miller is anxious to provide. He’ll get on more airplanes, son Todd said, but his destinations will be places like Belize, to go bonefishing. Miller is nostalgic, he said, but also excited. “I just figure 50 years on the road, it’s been a great run,â€� he said. “… I’m feeling good. I’m emotional, but feeling good.â€�

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Mulbe Dillard IV had a lot on his mind on the six-hour car ride from his home in Jacksonville, Florida, to Raleigh, North Carolina and the Korn Ferry Tour’s REX Hospital Open earlier this month. A newly minted graduate of HBCU Florida A&M, Dillard, 22, was about to make his first start as a professional, having earned a place in the field by virtue of his spot atop the first APGA Collegiate Ranking. Wilson had shipped bags, umbrellas, and caps to the course ahead of time, and he planned to reach town with plenty of daylight to practice. Alas, when he arrived that Sunday afternoon, the back nine of the Hale Irwin-designed par-71 course had been closed. He walked the front and marveled at the long, tumbling fairways and fast undulating greens. He played nine holes Monday, and finally saw the back nine Tuesday. The Wednesday pro-am devolved from a scouting mission to a rubbernecking exercise as Dillard was paired with football legends Torry and Terrence Holt. “I was pretty nervous,” Dillard recalls. “I’ve never really been in this position.” The APGA Collegiate Ranking – which takes the five best seniors from Division I, II or II programs and exempts them into APGA summer events and from Korn Ferry Tour pre-qualifying – is part of the PGA TOUR’s 10-year, $100 million commitment to racial justice. The idea is to extend a shorter, smoother onramp for top Black collegiate golfers yearning to follow in the footsteps of Harold Varner III, Cameron Champ, Joseph Bramlett and others. “My best players are looking at their ranking regularly,” says Howard men’s golf coach Sam Puryear. “I cannot tell you how many conversations I’ve had with them about it. They want to be on that list because they want those shots.” Dillard is one of four FAMU players in the APGA Tour College Ranking, a short list that comes with major bragging rights for HBCU golf coaches like the Rattlers’ Mike Rice. His all-senior team became the first in the history of the program to earn an NCAA tournament berth after carding a 19-stroke triumph in the Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference championship. This, despite golf not exactly ranking high on the list of student concerns at FAMU – not even in the golf class that Rice teaches in addition to coaching the team. “My introduction to them is, ‘I’m also the head coach of the golf team,’” he says. “And most of them are like, ‘We didn’t even know we had a golf team.’” Rice’s annual budget would barely cover recruiting expenses at a traditional Division 1 golf powerhouse. Florida State, for example, recruits with scholarships, gets sponsored equipment and apparel, and trains on its own course that can be groomed to replicate tournament conditions. Meanwhile, its Tallahassee neighbor FAMU makes do on a public course, with players carrying heavy course loads and working jobs on the side to keep up with expenses. And while a recent deal with TaylorMade and a new practice range will help the Rattlers, so much more is needed to prepare them for pro careers. Tim O’Neal, an HBCU grad and touring pro, says it’s a giant leap from HBCU golf to the professional game. “Like going from high school baseball to triple-A,” he says. “There are some players who have the potential. But if you go to an HBCU, you’re not gonna be playing at a level to go up against a top-five school. Not to say it can’t happen, but it’s gonna be a while you see a guy from an HBCU come out and just dominate.” It’s been 36 years since South Carolina State’s Adrian Stills graduated from Q School; he’s the last Black player from a black college to reach the PGA TOUR. He didn’t have the benefit of the APGA Tour, which seeks to provide playing opportunities for promising minority golfers, and for which he serves as Director of Player Development. Nor did Stills have help from the APGA Collegiate Ranking, which can at least provide players with exemptions and cover travel costs associated with APGA Tour events. In theory that makes HBCU products more competitive with counterparts from predominantly white institutions. In reality, though, those kids get their own boost from PGA Tour University; upperclassmen in the top five of that ranking receive a yearlong Korn Ferry Tour exemption, while the next 10 finishers win free passes into the PGA TOUR’s three international tours. Some coaches and others believe HBCUs need to be given the chance to play against bigger Division I powerhouses more than once a year at the conference tournament. Yet another challenge for HBCU golf programs is that many are under the constant threat of being shuttered. That the Rattlers even have a course at their disposal, in this economy, is a luxury. “Don’t get me wrong,” Rice says. “Southwood is a good course, and I love it. But at a public course, greens are running an 8, 10 [on the Stimpmeter] max. And then you go and play in a bigger event where the greens are running 12 to 14. That’s a huge adjustment.” The system is still in the early stages, and far from perfect. O’Neal believes the APGA Tour Collegiate Ranking formula will require some tweaking to brace players to jump up. Some would like to see it opened to all minorities, not just seniors. At the REX Hospital Open, Dillard exulted after bombing his opening tee shot 310 yards down the fairway. But his round quickly unraveled from there. Thrown by a rainstorm that slowed the greens and stretched first-round play over two days, Dillard shot a 79. It was a rough start for a player who had two top-10s in three APGA starts as an amateur. “It was frustrating,” he says. “That was probably the nerves and, you know, just being a little uncomfortable.” Urging him on were coach Rice; his parents, who flew in from Chicago; and former FAMU teammate and friend Logan Bryant, whom Dillard hadn’t seen since the start of the pandemic. But what ultimately cut through was advice from three-time PGA TOUR winner Johnson Wagner, with whom he’d played a practice round after a chance meeting on the back nine. “He told me this five times, but it didn’t really click until the fourth time,” Dillard says. “I told him how I was sponsor exempt, kind of how I got there, and he was just like, ‘Go for it.’ “I understand what that means,” Dillard continues, “but what does it really mean?” That’s when Charles Raulerson, Dillard’s swing coach and caddie, broke it all down. “You don’t have anything to lose,” he said. “You’re not out here trying to make a list or fighting for your next meal or anything. You’re here to learn and get better. So don’t be scared. Don’t leave anything on the table.” Once Dillard committed to “getting comfortable with everything that made me uncomfortable,” he says, his prospects turned around. Playing with more self-belief in the second round, he fired a 72. And though it proved too little, too late to make the cut, it was proof he could compete. Along with signing his scorecard, he wrote a note to himself: Just go for it. The phrase could well serve as a rallying cry for the next class of Black golfers aiming to land on the APGA Collegiate Ranking.

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