Troon Golf & Travel

COVER STORY: A QUICK Q&A WITH JOHNNY MILLER

YOU HAVE LIVED NEAR AND PLAYED THE SILVERADO COURSES FOR MANY YEARS... WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FONDEST MEMORIES OF PLAYING HERE?

Probably, my fondest is the first time I played in the Anheuser Busch/Kaiser International in 1968 as an amateur. I was in 2nd place when they rained it out. They played it during the winter back then, and I remember the pro, Craig Williamson gave me a new pair of Foot-joys. I guess mine weren’t looking too good.

Then my wife and I had the second part of our honeymoon here after spending the first part at Pebble Beach. It was so peaceful and quiet, a great place to play golf and everything was new back then.

In 1970 I started playing in the Kaiser as a pro. Winning it in '74 and '75; In '74, I won it by 6 or 8 shots, which was great. I’d been living there since 1970, so there was a lot of pressure, but I knew the course better than anybody. That was a heck of a year and a real treat to win here two years in a row.

Then, my second senior event was at Silverado. My other great memories were playing golf with my kids and my dad and catching a few fish out here as well.

HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE THE PLAYING EXPERIENCE HERE?

They are really two different courses. The South Course is a hilly course, with difficult greens and it’s shorter. It has a lot of angles to it, so you can make a lot of birdies if you can hit good shots. That’s one of the reasons the Senior Tour played the South Course I think; it’s exciting and fun.

The North is more of a championship course.
You can hold the U.S. Open here now that I’ve
redesigned it and lengthened it. It’s more of a
flatter course. There’s a little bit of hill on 2, 3
and 4, but it’s an easy walking course,. Still, it’s
a real test of golf. North of San Francisco, it’s
the best course in the state now that we opened
it up a little bit and took some trees out.

ANY THOUGHTS OF BRINGING CHAMPION SHIP GOLF BACK TO SILVERADO? We’ve been in discussion with the LPGA, the Champions Tour, the USGA and the men’s tour. We’ve had some tournaments laid at our feet and decided not to go down that road. We can be picky because players will want to come to Napa. The tournament is nice, but the wives the families the friends will all want to come to Napa. The food and wine is the best in the country, maybe the world outside France. All of the guys who played in the Kaiser want to come back. We want the rooms to be ready, even though we do have 100+ rooms that are all really high quality, we want to get them all up to the same level first.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE NAPA VALLEY PLACES TO DINE? WHY DO YOU CHOOSE TO MAKE THIS AREA HOME? I’m a part owner in Bistro Don Giovanni, which is a fantastic restaurant. If I never ate at another restaurant, I’d be happy. So Bistro, Ad Hoc, Rutherford Grille, French Laundry, in that order, would be my choice for eating in Napa. I used to be thin until I owned Bistro Don Giovanni.

DESER T DRY TM X TRA-LI TE (D2XL) is a combination of Antigua’s exclusive DESERT DRYTM moisture wicking feature combined with specially constructed ultra-light fabrics for maximum wicking performance and optimum comfort.