Miller on McIlroy: “Tiger Woods didn’t have any trouble going after everything he could get, but not everybody can do that”
Rory McIlroy walks with his caddie Harry Diamond up to the seventh green during the second round of the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa. on Friday, June 13, 2025. (Mike Ehrmann/USGA)
Johnny Miller is understanding of Rory McIlroy’s struggle to back up his Masters win and career Grand Slam achievement with more brilliance.
Miller was at Oakmont yesterday where in 1973 he came from six strokes behind a four-man group that featured home hero Arnold Palmer and shot an incredible closing 63 to win the US Open by a shot.
“He had a little letdown,” Miller said of McIlroy, who finished 14 shots behind Scottie Scheffler in the PGA Championship and missed the cut in last week’s RBC Canadian Open.
“I think he was sort of like, ‘Wow, I did it.’ It’s hard to regroup the way you were before.
“Tiger Woods didn’t have any trouble going after everything he could get, but not everybody can do that.”
Miller’s final round, where he hit every green in regulation and made nine birdies and a bogey at what was then a par-71 Oakmont as the ninth was a par-five, is regarded as one of the greatest rounds in the history of golf.
“Well, if you’re going to win the U.S. Open, I had a pretty interesting way to do it,” he said during NBC’s second-round coverage.
“That 63 was just a heavenly round, literally. I think it was inspired by somebody upstairs.
“To hit every green and not have one putt downhill, I just hit the ball close to the hole all day long. I don’t think Arnold Palmer liked it very much.”
He birdied the first four holes, three putted the 244-yard eighth for bogey but then birdied the 11th, 12th, 13th and 15th to win on five-under from John Schlee.
Tom Weiskopf was third while Palmer tied for fourth with Lee Trevino and Jack Nicklaus on two-under.
“The winds were down this morning, maybe the course was a little bit softer, but very quickly it turned from gentle to brutal,” Miller said. “We only had a handful of players under par.”
There are just three players under par so far this week after Sam Burns shot 65 on Friday to lead by a shot on three-under from JJ Spaun and by two from Viktor Hovland.
Adam Scott and the in-form Ben Griffin are tied for fourth on level par while South Africa’s Thriston Lawrence returned to the course at 7:3am following last night’s suspension and brushed in a four footer for par on the ninth green to shoot 74.
He tied for sixth on one-over 141 with France’s Victor Perez.
“He’s a good looking player,” Miller said of Griffin, who has won twice this year. “It’s funny – in my planner, I wrote his name. Don’t ask me why, but I did write in the June section ...he’s playing pretty good.”
Paul McGinley was also bullish about Griffin, who added a 71 to his opening 69.
“Keep an eye out for this guy,” he said. “Outside of Scottie Scheffler, this is the hottest player in the game.”
Rain was falling from early morning after Friday evening’s deluge and McGinley expects it to make the course play marginally easier.
“It’ll make it easier, make the fairways wider because the ball will hit now and stop,” he said. “It won’t be bouncing off into the rough the way it did, not as much anyway.
“The greens will be softer. Because of the slopes on them and the speed of them, you might see a lot of balls spinning away from the flags more and then maybe off the greens so the players are going to have counteract that…But, wet golf is not going to be nice.”
McIlroy birdied two of his last four holes to shoot 72 and make the seven-over cut with a shot to spare, hurling a club in frustration on the 12th before smashing a tee marker in another outburst of anger at a bunkered three wood at the 17th.
At six-over, he’s tied for 45th but he will have an opportunity to get back into the tournament with a sub-par round later today.
World number one Scottie Scheffler is lurking on four-over despite struggling with his swing for the first two days.
