Zack Miller on Tour --- Phoenix Open and 1st two days at the Sony Open

You can follow Zack's PGA Tour exploits on his blog at http://www.csnbayarea.com/pages/on_tour.

Miller: Maintaining momentum

Last week at Torrey Pines, Zack Miller joked with Tiger Woods about not being able to beat a rookie. They both shot 69 in the opening round. (Courtesy Zack Miller)

Feb. 1, 2011

GOLF PAGE

Zack Miller
PGA TOUR Professional

I am currently in Phoenix as the fourth alternate to get accepted into the Waste Management Open. Unfortunately, the prospect of getting into the event with only two days to go before the event is not looking great. It would be great to play because my game is solid right now. As a rookie, however, getting into popular events with smaller fields is just hard to come by.

[RELATED: Waste Management Phoenix Open preview]

I've loved the ride the PGA TOUR has given me the last three weeks. Starting in Hawaii I had some nerves walking around not knowing the majority of players or the people who are affiliated with the TOUR. I played great but left the course Friday with a sour taste in my mouth. 

I went into 18 thinking a birdie would get me into the weekend. A reachable downwind par 5 was all I had left. I drove it behind a palm tree and decided to try to be aggressive when maybe if I had some experience I would chip it out and rely on my wedge game. I ended up smoking the tree dead on and it ricocheted into a bush and ended up making a bogey on the hole. 

Imagine the experience -- putting out on 18 knowing that that bogey cost me over $10,000 dollars. I just wanting to get on the next flight out of Honolulu and prepare for the next event.

Read more: On Tour with Zack Miller
Tune to SportsNet Central at 6, 10:30 and midnight on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area for more on this story 

CSN Bay Area is featuring Zack Miller online.  Zack was an All-American at Stanford graduating in 2007.  Here is the first part of Zack's experiences at the Sony Open in Hawaii:

Zack Miller
PGA TOUR Professional

I'm here in Honolulu, Hawaii for the first PGA Tour event of the season, and my first PGA Tour event ever, the Sony Open. It's amazing seeing some of the big names walking around the locker room and practice facility. My locker is next to Brian Gay and David Duval. 

It is pretty popular to leave your clubs right next to your locker so I have been checking out the names on the bags and seeing what clubs are being playing with and if there is anything I've never seen before. The new hot club right now is the Taylor Made R11 driver and 3 wood. The head is painted cream white and stands out from a mile a way. You will really be able to see it on TV.

[RELATED: Introductions in order at Sony Open]

I played 7 holes with Pat Perez on Tuesday. It's amazing that this will be his 10th year on tour. He is one of the best ball strikers I've seen on the golf course. He helped me with where to hit it and what the wind usually does on certain holes, something he definitely did not have to do. But it was a really great learning experience seeing his confidence and how he attacks the holes.

The Tour set up a Pearl Harbor excursion for us; there were more family members and caddies than players, but I hung out with my old teammate Joseph Bramlett. We walked around on the USS Chafee and had the opportunity to meet four-star Admiral Bob Willard who controls the naval operations in the Pacific. A cool fact about him was that he was in Top Gun in the scene where Tom Cruise was 'flipping the bird' to the Russians while inverted. Well, the Admiral played the Russian pilot in the front seat of the other plane. TOP GUN! Awesome.

Headed to an offsite Pro-Am today to play with people who have contributed to make the Sony Open possible. I am playing Thursday with Chris Baryla and Kevin Kisner, both of whom I know well. I tee off at 1pm Thursday and 8:30am Friday.

Read more: Miller: Sony Open -- my first two days on tour 
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