Catching Up with Mike Miller
Current Korn Ferry Tour player and two-time MGA Player of the Year Mike Miller was back in the Met Area recently, taking part in the MGA Foundation's Fall Founders Challenge that welcomed international team alumni and supporters to come together in place of this year's French-American Challenge Matches. Miller, a three-time international team member for the MGA, shared some insight on his season and what he has coming up.
Following this Q&A Miller made the cut in the Bermuda Championship and finished T49.
| MGA: | Tell us a little about how this season went on the Korn Ferry Tour. |
| Mike Miller: | It was a great start after quarantine. I got off to a nice start, made a top 10 and then had another couple cuts in a row made, so I was kind of doing well. I struggled a little in the middle portion of the season. I was making cuts, but nothing crazy. The last half of the year was a nice finish—I made a bunch of cuts. I missed two in a row, then made the last two with some good momentum but just didn't have that really low finish on the weekend or put the four rounds together. But the game feels really solid. I was able to Monday [qualify] into Bermuda, so my season is not technically over yet, which is exciting. |
| MGA: | You had some top finishes in prior seasons, but where much more consistent this year—to what do you contribute that improvement? |
| MM: | I was more mature. I wasn't getting quite as upset with myself on the golf course. I was happy that I had a schedule, where last year I was struggling a lot and then I had a great finish [2nd place finish at BMW Charity Pro-Am], which gave me a job, but then this year I knew that no matter what was going to happen after having a good solid start to the season that I was going to be able to play next year. So that was what I wanted and I was just happier—I was happier on the golf course. My caddie Eric Onesi, I owe him a lot of credit. He’s sticking around being with me and my dad [Knollwood professional Bobby Miller] still my coach, so it's nice to have him come to a couple events. He's going to come to Bermuda, but he's just going to come as dad and watch me play on the PGA TOUR, so that's cool. |
| MGA: | There are a number of Met Area guys out there this season, what’s it like to see familiar faces consistently? |
| MM: | One of my best buddies, Ryan McCormick, we stay together a lot, almost every week we play at least one practice round together. It's incredible to have him out there, it's nice to be able to see familiar faces. I see James [Nicholas] out there, Theo [Humphrey] is out there. So, you see guys and they're playing well and deep down inside you want to beat them all because you do still have that rivalry from back home. But it's nice to know that if you're playing well or you're playing poor, you can go and relax and go grab dinner—especially with Ryan we do that a lot. It's nice to have some banter on the road and give each other jabs every now and then so it's very nice to be able to see familiar faces. |
| MGA: | What’s it mean to be back here supporting the MGA’s International Teams in kind of a different way this season? |
| MM: | It’s a pity, with everything that's going on, obviously everyone's affected and Quaker Ridge would have been a phenomenal host against the French. It's awesome to get to represent the MGA. I owe the MGA a lot and to be able to come back and be able to play and kind of support MGA, and just be here is great. You want to be on the international teams growing up. You hear about them—the first time I heard about it was the Carey Cup team. We got to go to Ireland, I never got to go to France, but we played them at Sebonack. The competition is very strong, you know if you go play well, you're going to kind of make a name for yourself and this is the spot to do it. |
| MGA: | You have the PGA TOUR start coming up, then what do things look like for you? |
| MM: | I'm going to hopefully go and play well in Bermuda and then do one more PGA Tour Monday qualifier for the RSM down at Sea Island. Then I'm probably going to take some time off. We just got a tentative schedule of possibly starting in January, so I'm going to take hopefully a month off. I’ll enjoy watching the Masters on TV and then Christmas and then get back down in the swing of things, hopefully in Florida and get ready for the start of the season. |
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