Top 10.. BY RON KROICHICK
Let the 19th-hole debate begin. Northern California’s rich golf tradition doesn’t easily translate into
a tidy, top-10 list of the region’s greatest players. A parade of golfers emerged from our little corner of the world to scrawl their names into the game’s competitive lore. So, for starters, some ground rules for this highly subjective exercise: • We only considered players who grew up in Northern California, or at least played much of their junior golf here. This eliminates some big-name players who passed through the area in their college years— including Tom Watson, Mickey Wright and, yes, Tiger Woods. • We tried to look at a player’s full body of work, including
amateur achievements. Still, the PGA and LPGA tours are the game’s highest levels—and success on those tours thus was the most compelling factor in putting together these rankings. • We focused on a player’s on-course achievements and the
era in which he or she competed. That’s why a candidate such as Jack Neville—who made an enduring impact on the North- ern California golf landscape by co-designing Pebble Beach, and also won fi ve long-ago state amateur titles—ultimately was omitted. Enough chatter. And off we go…
MEN 1
Johnny Miller
Johnny Miller Long before he won 25 times on the PGA Tour, includ-
ing two major championships—and became television’s leading golf ana- lyst—Miller was just a blonde-haired kid hanging out at Harding Park. Miller started hitting balls (off a
mat, into canvas) in the basement of his San Francisco home at age 5. By the time he was 12, he started spend- ing his summer days at Harding; he often couldn’t afford the big course, but the starter let Miller and his
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friends tee off on the back nine. He played mostly with Roger Mi-
alocq and Tommy O’Kane, and he also occasionally came across tour pros Ken Venturi, George Archer, Bob Rosburg or Bob Lunn. The 1960s were a golden era of golf in the Bay Area, and that shaped Miller as much as the city’s narrow, demanding courses. “I was totally aware of the tradi-
tion,” he said. Young Johnny watched the City
Championship every year with his dad, Larry. Later, he occasionally
caddied for a group including Tony Lema and Harvie Ward at nearby San Francisco Golf Club. And the wave of players slightly older than Miller—including Lunn, O’Kane, Dick and John Lotz, Jim Wiechers and Ron Cerrudo—offered abundant motivation. “I had to match what those guys
were doing,” Miller said. “They were re- ally setting a standard. Those guys were kicking butt nationally, and that really pushed me.” Miller, now 67, eventually exceeded
The Greatest Golfers in Northern California History
PHOTO: USGA
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