NBC's Miller returns to site of U.S. Open glory

By: JOHN MAFFEI - Staff Writer | Thursday, June 14, 2007 11:41 PM PDT ∞

The glare of the spotlight has never bothered Johnny Miller. As a winner of 25 PGA Tour events ---- including the 1973 U.S. Open and 1976 British Open ---- a member of two Ryder Cup teams, and now the outspoken lead analyst on NBC's golf coverage, fame will find you.

But when you return to the site of your greatest accomplishment ---- one of golf's greatest rounds ---- to call one of the sport's premier events, the gleam can get overwhelming.

Miller, who is the golf analyst I enjoy the most because of his frank, no-holds-barred commentary, will be joined by the NBC crew of Dan Hicks, Gary Koch, Bob Murphy, Roger Maltbie, Mark Rolfing and Dottie Pepper for this weekend's U.S. Open from Oakmont.

NBC's second-round coverage starts at noon today and runs to 2 p.m. ESPN's coverage today starts at 7 a.m. and runs to noon, then picks up at 2 p.m. and runs to 5.

NBC has six hours ---- 10 a.m.-4 p.m. ---- both Saturday and Sunday.

It was at Oakmont in '73 that Miller shot a final-round 63 to charge from five shots off the pace to win the U.S. Open.

Voted "the greatest single round of all time" during the Centennial Celebration of Golf in 1996, Miller shot nine birdies, eight pars and one bogey that day.

Now he gets to sit in the tower on the 18th green and watch as the likes of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh take aim at Oakmont.

"This is the hardest course in America without any trickery," Miller said. "You've got to be good to play here.

"Seven of the par 4s here ---- 1, 3, 7, 9, 10, 15 and 18 ---- are the toughest in the world. And there are five other par 4s that average 360 yards.

"If you're not striking it good here, you'll make a lot of bogeys. There is no rain in the forecast, so I hope they water the greens and fairways.

"They say this is a par 70 course. But if this isn't a par 71 or 72, I've never seen it."

While PGA players carve up most courses, often winning with scores as low as 20-under par, the experts are saying 5-over could win at Oakmont.

But will that make for good TV?

"I think the viewers enjoy seeing players faced with this type of challenge," said Maltbie, a five-time PGA Tour winner. "Maybe not every week, and obviously the players don't want it every week.

"This is the hardest event to win, and it's on the hardest course. There are 4,000 trees at Oakmont, but it's not about the trees, it's about the putting surface that will get you. And can you put the ball in play where you can make shots?

"You must put the ball in a good position at Point A to get to Point B. If not, you're in trouble at Point C. I can't see anyone playing 72 holes here under par. This course could make Winged Foot look like a picnic.

"But I think it will be a very entertaining event."

So who can win here?

"This course has the exact same 18 greens as in '73," Miller said. "It has pretty much the same bunkers. They have some new tees, so it's a little tougher, but not much.

"Tiger looks peaceful and relaxed, but I'm not sure what he'll do on the gambling par 4s. And I don't know about his putting.

"He's the definite favorite unless Mickelson's wrist is 100 percent. If it were between Tiger and Phil, I take Phil.

"I believe that he's the favorite. It wouldn't surprise me if he won by six shots."

More golf

- Tommy Roy, the producer for NBC's golf coverage, said the network doesn't plan to overload the audience with Miller's great round of 63 in '73. "We'll have some flashbacks and clips of Johnny's 63," Roy said. "But we'll have clips and flashbacks to various other Opens. But there has been so much coverage of Johnny's round that we feel it's necessary to focus on live coverage."

- A recent Sports Illustrated poll said that 82 percent of PGA Tour players prefer CBS' Nick Faldo to Miller. That doesn't bother Miller one bit. "I am what I am," Miller said. "I don't pay attention to polls. Golf needs both of us to do well. I hope he knocks 'em dead."

- Geoff Ogilvy, the defending U.S. Open champion on TV reports he shot an 85 and lost a dozen balls in a practice round at Oakmont: "That's an exaggeration. I think I shot 83 and lost two balls."

- Hicks, NBC's lead announcer for golf, is very much looking forward to this weekend. "If Mother Nature cooperates and this is a hard, fast track, I think this will be one of the toughest U.S. Opens ever," he said. "It's Father's Day on Sunday, so that adds some drama. I'm really looking forward to the bottom line Sunday.

- HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" returns Wednesday with a segment on Miller. The show airs at 10 p.m.

- If you can't get enough golf, The Golf Channel will have same-day coverage of the CVS Caremark Charity Classic at 1 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. The two-day tournament at the Rhode Island Country Club features 20 players from the PGA and Champions tours into 10 two-man teams in a 36-hole, best-ball format. The purse is $1.35 million. There will be a re-air both nights at 5 p.m.

NBA Finals

Sunday's Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Cavaliers and Spurs on ABC drew a 5.6 rating, down 30 percent from last year's Game 2 between the Mavericks and Heat. ABC is available in 113 million homes and the game was seen in 8.5 million. Sunday night's finale of "The "Sopranos" on HBO was seen in 11.9 million homes. HBO is available in only 30 million homes.

Game 1 posted a 6.3 rating, the worst-rated opening game in prime time ever.

Tuesday's Game 3 got a 6.4 rating, down 20 percent from last year.

With the series now at 3-0 Spurs, the numbers for Thursday's Game 4 will very likely make this the worst-rated NBA Finals in history. That number is 6.5 for the Nets-Spurs series in 2003.

This isn't good news for the NBA, which is working on new TV contracts with ABC/ESPN and TNT. The current deals, which are worth about $765 million annually, expire at the end of next season.

Goodbye, old friend

Ron Oakes, the long-time voice of hockey in San Diego, passed away recently.

Oakes called Gulls games from 1966-72, then left for a string of jobs that included broadcasting games for the Vancouver Blazers, L.A. Kings, St. Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks and for the CFL's Ottawa Blue Bombers.

He returned to San Diego as voice of the San Diego Mariners of the WHA for six years.

A truly class act as well as an excellent announcer, Oakes was 73 when he passed away from complications from progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurological disease.

College World Series

Baseball fans will get the chance to see several Padres draft picks as well as three former North County high school standout pitchers in the College World Series.

Scott Lonergan (Poway) has appeared in 18 games for Rice, which plays Louisville at 11 this morning.

Mike Leake (Fallbrook), who is 13-1 as a freshman this season, figures to start Arizona State's first game at 11 a.m. Saturday against UC Irvine. Reid Suitor (Torrey Pines) has made six appearances for UC Irvine.

For Padres fans, look for Oregon State catcher Mitch Canham, a first-round pick, Arizona State second baseman Eric Sogard, a second-round pick, North Carolina's Robert Woodward, a 20th-round pick, and UC Irvine pitcher Dylan Axelrod, a 30th-round selection. Woodward will start either Game 1 ---- today at 4 p.m. against Mississippi State ---- or the second game for the Tar Heels.

Oregon State plays Cal State Fullerton at 4 p.m. Saturday. Oregon State associate head coach Dan Spencer played one season at MiraCosta College before moving to Texas Tech.

Today's games are on ESPN2. Saturday's games are on ESPN.

ESPN will use three crews at the College World Series ---- Mike Patrick, Orel Hershiser and Erin Andrews; Gary Thorne, Robin Ventura and Rob Simmelkjaer; Sean McDonough, Barry Larkin and Kyle Peterson.

- The championship game of the Women's College World Series last week between Tennessee and Arizona drew a 1.8 rating on ESPN2 and was seen in 1.676 million homes, making it the most-viewed college softball game ever. The three-game series between the Vols and Wildcats was averaged 1.363 million households, up 50 percent from last year.

Around the dial

- For the second day in a row, the Padres will not be on flagship Channel 4. However, Padres fans can catch today's game against the Cubs on Chicago's WGN. The Padres are back on Channel 4 for day games Saturday and Sunday against the Cubs.

- Paul Rudy, sports director at KUSI Channel 51, will be out about a month after undergoing hip surgery.

- Saturday afternoon's Fox baseball game is the Angels at the Dodgers with Matt Vasgersian ---- TV Voice of the Padres ---- calling the action with Joe Girardi. The Angels-Dodgers game goes to 7 percent of the country ---- L.A., San Diego and Las Vegas. Most of the country will see the Giants-Red Sox game. Vasgersian will also work the Brewers-Cubs game on June 30 for Fox.

- According to the L.A. Times, the Dodgers have three stations bidding for their radio rights that belong to KFWB (980) through the end of this season. KFWB, ESPN 710 and KLAC (570) are all interested in the Dodgers, but all have drawbacks. The programming at 980 doesn't allow for spring-training broadcasts, the Lakers have priority on 570 and USC football has priority on 710. The Angels, who are on 710 now, are already committed toKLAA (830) for next season.

- There is good and bad news for soccer fans. All 52 matches of the FIFA U-20 World Cup will be carried on TV. That's the good news. The bad news is that the games from six Canadian cities will be on ESPNU and ESPN360.com. Matches run from June 30-July 22.

- Boxing expert Larry Merchant and HBO have agreed to a new contract. Max Kellerman will also provide analysis on HBO fights.

- Boxing announcer Steve Albert has had a big month. He received the Sam Taub Award for excellence in broadcast journalism from the Boxing Writers Association of America last week. The World Boxing Hall of Fame, which is located in Ontario, announced Albert will be inducted on Oct. 13 for his overall contributions to the sport.

- Nick Charles, the voice of Showtime's "Shobox" since 2001, has joined Versus as its voice of "Fight Night."

- Versus announced it will carry 18 college football games this season. The schedule includes three BYU games, a pair of UCLA games, one USC game as well as the Sept. 29 Cincinnati-San Diego State contest.

John Maffei's TV/Radio Column appears every Friday. He can be reached at (760) 740-3547 or jmaffei@nctimes.com.

USD hoops tabs Padres' announcer

The "nationwide search" to find a voice for University of San Diego men's basketball went no further than Petco Park. Padres announcer Andy Masur was named to the position on Thursday by John Lynch of XX Sports Radio 1090, the university's new flagship station.

Masur, who has fit nicely into the Padres' broadcast booth in his first season working with Ted Leitner and Jerry Coleman, has experience doing college basketball, handling the play-by-play broadcasts for Loyola-Chicago men's basketball games the past five seasons.

As a matter of fact, he was on a road trip with the Loyola basketball team when he learned he had secured the Padres job.

"I appreciate the opportunity given to me by USD and XX Sports to be the voice of Toreros basketball," Masur said in a statement released by USD. "The program continues to reach new heights, and I look forward to being associated with the program.

"The West Coast Conference is very competitive, and coupled with the upgraded non-conference schedule, it's an exciting time for USD."

A 1989 graduate of Bradley University, Masur began his broadcasting career working as a top-40 DJ in Peoria, Ill. He has worked as a radio traffic reporter, a radio talk-show host and sports reporter.

He hosted an overnight show on the One-on-One Sports network before getting hired by WGN, where he worked Chicago Cubs broadcasts for eight years.

USD basketball games will air on 1090 this season with Toreros football on KASH 1700. An announcer for football has not been named.

---- John Maffei

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