Miller of Canucks ready for U.S. Open golf qualifying

VANCOUVER -- J.T. Miller is used to performing in front of 20,000 screaming fans without giving it a second thought, but stepping onto the first tee of qualifying for the 2023 U.S. Open golf tournament will be a different story for the veteran Vancouver Canucks center.

Miller is one of 78 golfers entered into local qualifying at The Club at Nevillewood in Presto, Pennsylvania, on Monday. It's a one-day, 18-hole event, with a limited number of players advancing -- last year it was the top five and two alternates -- to final qualifying and the chance to play their way into the Open, one of golf's four major tournaments, being held June 15-18 at the Los Angeles Country Club.

"I'm still going to be nervous," Miller told NHL.com. "I'm a human. That's part of it. In hockey you have 18 other guys that can bail you out. You can make mistakes and the outcome of the game may not change, but if you do that in golf? I think that's why a lot of hockey players are so fascinated with the sport of golf is how hard it is personally and how hard it is mentally."

For Miller, it's a chance to compete in a sport he mostly plays for fun and test himself under a different kind of pressure, all while still trying to enjoy the walk with his father, Dennis Miller, as his caddie.

"My dad got me into golf when I was a kid, so I know he really enjoys it and it's just a fun day for us," Miller said. "Honestly, it's just so much different than what I do year-round, to turn the brain off and try to have fun and you're putting everything out for real. I enjoy competing in general, but it's really not as serious. I'm not expecting to move on. It's just a nice day to see what I can do against guys that eat, breathe and sleep golf. It's a good test for me."

It's a test that Miller, who has 536 points (201 goals, 335 assists) in 718 NHL games over 11 seasons with the New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Canucks, has taken before.

The 30-year-old also had his dad on the bag for local qualifying last year at Butler Country Club in Butler, Pennsylvania. He tied for 40th with a 7-over-par 77, but that came after an NHL season that ran almost a month longer than usual because of the scheduled Olympic break, leaving Miller with less than a week to prepare after getting back to his offseason home in Pittsburgh.

"I had like one day to practice," Miller said. "I hadn't played in like seven months outside of one round with rental clubs, which is how it is every year. From October to April, we probably play three to five rounds of golf if we get lucky on the road with rentals, so I came home and it was basically my first round, and I was humbled quickly by how fast the greens were. I just wasn't ready. I probably was in the low-20s with putts on the front nine alone but started to figure it out on like the eighth hole and I played 1-over from there on, so I played pretty well."

As Miller pointed out, anyone with a handicap index better than 1.4 strokes and $200 for the entry fee is eligible for the local qualifying tournaments. He's playing with a minus-1.2 handicap, meaning he's better than scratch (0.0), but said it typically fluctuates between there and a handicap of 1, depending on the time of year. Like a lot of golfers, Miller said his season usually starts well because he "doesn't have a lot of swing thoughts," which could bode well for this event.

Miller isn't the only NHL player who also excels at golf. The League has plenty of golfers with low single-digit handicaps or better, including Anthony Mantha of the Washington Capitals, Joe Pavelski of the Dallas Stars, Gustav Nyquist of the Minnesota Wild and Clayton Keller of the Arizona Coyotes. Winnipeg Jets forward Mark Scheifele played a PGA Tour Canada event in 2018 and 2022, and NHL referee Garrett Rank qualified for and played in the 2018 U.S. Open.

An offseason conducive to playing lots of golf certainly doesn't hurt, but the theory held by many players that the motion and mechanics of a slap shot and golf swing are similar doesn't apply to Miller because he shoots left-handed in hockey and swings right-handed in golf.

"I just think hockey players are typically strong guys and so you're hitting the ball with more speed, and if you can hit the ball long obviously you're going to shorten courses up, so it's fun, right?" Miller said. "But getting those to match up and to go straight is the challenge."

It's a challenge Miller enjoys and sees as a perfect break after the hockey season, which ended for Vancouver on April 13.

"It's good mental reset to get away from hockey," Miller said. "It's obviously a lot different than hockey, which is probably why I like it. Hockey is such a team-oriented game 90 percent of the year, so to get out and try to do everything myself is very difficult, and I enjoy a good challenge. You don't have a team around you to bail you out with golf, and that's what is attractive to me is how completely different it is and how mentally tough you have to be to be good at it."