Miller Ignores Naked Spectators to Capture Sea Pines Heritage Golf Classic
Captures fourth title of 1974 and tops $149,000 in just the 12th week of the schedule
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The PGA TOUR visits Harbour Town for the RBC Heritage, a tournament that dates to 1969. This tournament has become a nice, relaxed week after a pressure-packed week in Augusta. We’re going to backspin to 1974 when it was held three weeks prior to the Masters. In the first few months of 1974, Johnny Miller was taking the tour by storm.
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Johnny Miller Captures Fourth Title of 1974 PGA TOUR Season
Photo: Harbour Town Golf Links.
Johnny Miller stood on the tee of the 16th hole at the Harbour Town Golf Links, late in the day on Sunday, March 24th, 1974, during the final round of the Sea Pines Heritage Golf Classic. He held a three-stroke lead, thanks to a birdie on the 15th hole, over Gibby Gilbert. There was a disturbance up near the green as a couple of streakers, a boy, and a girl, romped their way through a greenside bunker. Streaking, where one strips naked and runs through a crowded scene, was a fad in the early 1970s.
Miller was trying to win his fourth tournament of the young season, and he had to ignore the chaos going on up at the green. Let’s backspin to see how we got here.
Johnny Miller got his 1974 season off to a hot start by winning the first three events. He won the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, the first tournament of the season, and followed up with victories in the Phoenix Open and the Dean Martin Tucson Open. He shot a cumulative 37-under-par for those three tournaments. Then he caught a nasty cold.
He retreated to Palmetto Dunes, a resort not far from Harbour Town that Miller represented, to rest and recuperate. He practiced his short game, enjoyed the home cooking of his wife, Linda, and fished in the local ponds. After three weeks, he deemed himself healthy and reading to play. He arrived at Harbour Town brimming with confidence.
“The biggest thing about my game,” Miller said, “is that I can take two or three weeks off and come back and still be playing as good as before.”
His game backed up his brash confidence. He shot a first round 67 in the wet and wind blown first round for a one-stroke lead over Allen Miller (no relation). Another 67 in the second round increase his lead to six over Allen Miller and Lanny Wadkins. Wadkins shot a 70 despite a double bogey after hitting into the pond on the 14th hole.
Miller aced the 167-yard seventh hole and increased his lead to 10 strokes in Saturday’s third round. His mind then turned to basketball and played some March Madness golf.
“I was more worried about UCLA than I was my golf,” Miller admitted to reporters after the round. UCLA was playing North Carolina State in the NCAA basketball semi-finals.
He bogeyed the 11th hole, then added another at the 12th. He double bogeyed the 15th after hitting into the water and added another bogey coming home.
“I was trying to play smart golf,” Miller said. “I just should have paid attention to what I was doing and played it shot by shot.”
He now held a four-shot lead over Tom Weiskopf, who saw opportunity in the Harbour Town course.
“When you play a tough course like this, and you’re within five shots, you’ve got a chance,” Weiskopf insisted.
Robert Crawford and Gibby Gilbert were tied with Weiskopf. North Carolina State defeated UCLA in two overtimes ending the Bruin’s shot at an eighth straight NCAA basketball title.
Miller bounced back from his disastrous Saturday back nine with a conservative start to his final round. He made a deuce on the fourth hole to gain a stroke on par but gave it back with a bogey on the 13th hole. Gilbert was getting hot on his way to shooting a 69, pulling within two shots after 14 holes. Miller answered with his birdie on the 15th hole and made his way to the 16th tee.
He was able to tune out the chaos created by the streakers up on the green. The television broadcast also tuned out the streakers. Miller played the hole cautiously, securing his par and from there on it was a battle for second place. Gilbert finished one stroke in front of Richard Crawford for the $22,000 second place check while Miller deposited another $40,000 in his bank account, bringing his yearly earnings to $149,105, an astounding $60,000 in front of the next player on the money list. The season was only 12 weeks old.
With a birdie on the 15th hole in the final round and the ability to tune out the streakers on the 16th hole, Miller continued his dominance of the 1974 PGA TOUR. He would go on to win the money title and Player of the Year honors.
Johnny Miller putting at the 1974 Sea Pines Heritage Classic (photo: Sports Illustrated)
Check out the bonus fact below for more on the traditions of the RBC Heritage.
The songs of 1974 are featured on this week’s playlist. Listen HERE.
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Larry Baush
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Tour Backspin Quiz | Rank the Purses
Rank the purses, from smallest to largest, from these events on the 1974 PGA TOUR schedule.
Sahara Invitational
World Open Golf Championship
American Golf Classic
Doral Eastern Open
Answer below
Bonus Story
Tartan is to the Heritage Classic what green is to the Masters. The winner is presented with a red tartan jacket and returns the next year for a unique pre-tournament celebration.
The past champion joins Heritage Classic Foundation Board members, tournament volunteers, and state dignitaries to parade around the Harbour Town Yacht Basin as the Citadel’s Pipe and Drum band play Scottish tunes.
The past champion is then presented with his Captain of Gentlemen Golfers plaque. He then takes a hickory shafted golf club and hits a featherie-style golf ball into Calibogue Sound in unison with a canon shot. This reenactment of a Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews ceremony, dating back to the mid-18th century, officially opens the tournament week at Harbour Town.
Johnny Miller uses a hickory shafted club to hit the traditional opening shot of the Heritage Classic golf tournament. (photo: Heritage Foundation)
Blind Shot
Click for something fun. 👀
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
Sahara Invitational $27,000
Doral Eastern Open $30,000
American Golf Classic $34,000
World Open Golf Championship $60,000
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