Having grown up in the San Francisco Bay
Area, Miller played several junior and amateur
tournaments at Silverado. He also won two
PGA Tour events here, the Kaiser International
Open Invitational in 1974 and 1975. He says
he knows “every inch of both courses,” having
competed here so frequently, as well as playing
leisurely rounds with his sons who learned to
play on Silverado's fairways when the family
moved nearby.
Thus, when it came time to redesign, Miller
knew exactly what he had to work with and
what he wanted to do. The original design was
one of Robert Trent Jones Jr.'s first after he
broke away from his father's employ. Opened
Inever thought I'd be an owner,” Johnny Miller says of Napa Valley's 36-hole
Silverado Resort and Spa, his
voice and face belying a great
pride. “But I’ve been redesigning
these courses in my mind for
40 years.” ¶ So when Miller—
25-time PGA Tour champion
and now lead commentator
on golf telecasts for NBC
Sports—and an investor group
purchased the landmark resort
in 2010, his first mission was to
start work on redesigning the
North Course, bringing it back
to the championship level it
once enjoyed.
“
116
napa b
silverado 80
5
b fairfield
san francisco b
205
close to 50 years ago, it stood the test of time
as a resort and popular members course, but
its runway tee boxes, flat bunkers and straightaway fairways were dated.
Enter Miller. “I took out 15-20 bunkers,” he says, “but the bunkers that are left are
there for a reason. They don't always come into
play for the members, but for better players
they will. We also moved tee boxes to create
doglegs and add shape to the holes. We pulled
many bunkers into the fairways and flashed the
faces. The only common denominator in great
courses is great bunkers, and now I think we
have great bunkers.”
<<even at the
busiest points in
his broadcasting
schedule, miller
would spend his
free time working
on redesigning the
north course.
Saying he was influenced by the bunker
styles at Pebble Beach and Augusta National,
Miller's bunker work at Silverado transformed
the playing experience by adding an element
of strategy from tee to green. Now, standing on
any tee box is not just a matter of gripping and
ripping, but contemplating position and even
club selection.
One thing that Miller left pretty much untouched from a design standpoint was the putting surfaces. But with the superior agronomy
standards brought to bear by new management
company, Troon Golf, the greens now not only
showcase great design, but are in tip-top shape.
“The greens had not been good for 20 years,”
