Leader has ties to ‘The Babe’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/08/2019 (2557 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

His family has already carved out quite a name in the annals of American sporting history. Now Brad Miller is hoping to add to the legacy of his clan by capturing his first professional golf title.

Miller, 29, sits on top of the Players Cup leaderboard at the midway mark with a 13-under score after rounds of 66 and 65. The Baltimore native has a one-shot lead over Ontario’s Riley Wheeldon (back-to-back rounds of 66) and first-round leader Derek Chang of Texas, who followed up his opening-round 64 with a 68 on Friday. Daniel Stringfellow of Illinois is two strokes back after going 70-63.

They say everybody has a story, and the one involving Miller’s relatives is a doozy. His great-great-grandfather, Jack Dunn, is a legend in the Maryland area. Dunn was managing the Baltimore Orioles in 1914, then a minor league baseball team, when he heard about a young phenom who was living at the Baltimore St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys.

He recruited the young man by the name of George Herman Ruth. Other players on the team dubbed the recruit Dunn’s “newest babe,” which is how Babe Ruth would come to be known for the rest of his incredible career.

“He signed him, had to become his legal guardian. So if you see any pictures of Babe Ruth signing his first contract, that’s my great-great-grandfather. I’m named after him, so that’s pretty cool. Kind of. Jack Bradley Dunn are my first three names. We have a lot of stuff in my basement. We actually gave a lot of it to Cooperstown and the Baltimore Sports Museum. Pretty cool history,” said Miller.

His uncle, grandfather and great-grandfather have all carried on the tradition of playing integral roles in Baltimore’s rich baseball history, which includes becoming a major league franchise. His great-grandfather, for example, previously managed the team and is in its Hall of Fame.

Miller has the Orioles logo on his yardage book and said he “bleeds black and orange,” even though he’s trying to write his own success story on the golf course instead of the baseball diamond.

It’s been a bit of a grind, which is often the case with guys on the Mackenzie Tour — PGA Tour Canada. Miller has missed four of nine cuts across Canada this season, including the last two in Alberta. But he’s looked extremely comfortable at Southwood Golf & Country Club so far.

“I’ve mostly just been hitting the ball really well. Giving myself a lot of looks. I think two of the three bogeys I’ve made have been three-putts,” said Miller.

“Lucky for me, my missed cuts I didn’t necessarily play bad, I shot under par both of them I missed. So that helps. Understanding that you’re going to miss cuts, this game’s just too hard to not miss a cut here and there. So not hitting the panic button and move on. We’re all good enough out here to do this, so just keep having faith.”

Although he’s never won an official tournament, he did finish in top spot at qualifying school last year and said he’ll be leaning on that experience as he tries to navigate the weekend.

“The good thing with this course is you have to shoot under par. And probably deep. There’s no protecting anything. I’m going to have to shoot double digits under par to win. All of us will. So there’s no taking the foot off the gas,” said Miller.

The field of 156 golfers has been cut to 66 for the weekend (top 60 and ties). They all finished at or better than 3 under, the number required  to make the weekend and play for a share of the $200,000 purse.

Moving day

Saturday is traditionally known as “moving day,” but Will Gordon decided to do it a day early. The North Carolina native shot a course-record 61 on Friday, beating the previous low score at Southwood by two shots.

Gordon, 23, who began the tournament with a one-over 73 Thursday, got to 12 under on his round through 17 holes and had a chance at a historic 59 if he birdied the 18th.

Instead, he hit his tee shot into the rough, came up short on his approach, just missed chipping in and two-putted for bogey, his second of the day to go with 13 birdies and three pars.

He’s now among a trio of golfers at 10 under, three shots back of Miller.

“It’s still a great day, and obviously it gets me back in the golf tournament,” said Gordon.

“It felt really good. On the front nine I think all my birdies were basically within three feet. I hit a lot of balls really close to the hole. And then on the back nine I made some long putts. Once the one went in on 15 I knew it (59) was a possibility. Then I birdied 16 and 17. So it was good to execute in those moments.”

Incredibly, this is the second round of the year in which Gordon shot 11 under. He accomplished the feat in the opening round of the Lethbridge Paradise Canyon Open in June, only to follow up the 60 (on the par-71 course) with rounds of 72, 73 and 67 to finish the event in a tie for 22nd.

“I’ve had two chips at (59). I would like a putt at it. But you can’t get too greedy. Once you get going in those moments it’s really enjoyable, and you feel like you can’t miss,” said Gordon, who had an easy explanation for the dramatic improvement on his first round.

“I played horrible (Thursday). I called my swing coach (Friday) morning. We talked at like 5:30 this morning. I was like, ‘Dude I’m not hitting anything like I want to, and my putting I can’t hit the hole.’ (Friday) was a different story. I usually get up three and a half hours before my tee time. I skipped stretching. I was like, ‘I need some sleep. I need to get rested.’ And it worked. It paid off,” said Gordon.

Miller said he three-putted his final hole on Friday, for par, when he glanced at the scoreboard behind the green and saw Gordon was 12 under for his round.

“I was so flustered seeing a 12 under. (The scoreboard) was right behind the hole where I was putting and I thought there’s no way that’s right,” he joked.

The 66 golfers who survived the cut will play in twosomes today, with the first group off at 7:30 a.m. and Miller and Wheeldon in the final pairing at 12:50 p.m.

Admission is free to all spectators for the tournament, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg