Customer Reviews

I Call the Shots: Straight Talk About the Game of Golf Today

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

An interesting read, and precislely the kind of from-the-hip commentary you would expect from Miller. But the book is also an editorial mess. Sloppy, sloppy sloppy. Aside from a variety of sentences with missing words, the book at one point reports that Hal Sutton played a Ryder Cup match against himself! Mickelson's career earnings are variously reported at "$23 million" and "roughly $25 million" and the citations come only 10 pages apart from each other. How hard is that to get right?

Miller also repeatedly contradicts himself. In an early chapter he calls Woods "the best player the world has ever seen." Later he says of Nicklaus, "I remain firm in my belief that he is the best who ever lived." Which is it? By the way, still later Miller lists "the five greatest players who ever lived," and Woods is not included.

It's fine to shoot from the hip, but in the context of a book, where you have time go back and edit, there is no excuse for such a shoddy display. Plus, how much credence can you give to a writer who thoughtlessly contradicts his own strongly-stated opinions and doesn't take the care to fix sloppy errors prior to publication? It shows a lack of the regard for the reader.

I can only imagine the harsh criticism Miller would dish out to a golfer who conducted himself in such an unprofessional manner. It seems the sign of an unhealthily inflated ego to take pride in doling out no-holds-barred criticism of others, while holding oneself to the most meager standards.

He labels his "friend" Jay Don Blake a "mediocre" player and suggests he really isn't trying hard and is taking advantage of the Tour's exemption system at the expense of hungier, more deserving players. He no doubt considers that admirable straight talking. But he takes huge offense to minor comments made at his own expense. Miller relates how Azinger once called him a big "moron," and then later playfully recanted, saying he had been misquoted and had really called Miller a big "Mormon." Miller is greatly offended by this, calling it "blasphemy" and a "joke about my religion." How is playfully refering to a Mormon as a Mormon either blasphemy or degrading to Mormonism?

Miller has tons of interesting things to say about golf and golfers, but giving your readers a book with numerous errors and irreconcilable contradictions is arrogant and shoddy. One can't help but wonder whether there may be lots of other unstated errors underlying the opinions he offers. Does his ego get in the way of his ability to hold his own work up to the same strict standards he unhesitatingly (and insensitively) applies to his own peers?

This is an interesting book, because Johnny Miller is an interesting guy. But MY GOD whoever edited this thing should be fired immediately! I have never seen so many mistakes and contradictions in a book in my life.

Here is just a small sampling:

1. When Miller talks about the "Tiger Slam," he gets the tournaments wrong AND the years wrong.
2. On one page he states that Tiger is "a very good putter, but not a great putter." Then, on a later page he states that "Tiger is a fabulous putter." Well, which is it, Johnny, very good, not great, or fabulous?
3. Miller states that Tom Watson won six British Opens, when in fact he won five. He states that Hale Irwin won two U.S. Opens, when in fact he won three.
4. Here is my favorite one of all: Miller exalts in the fact that his U.S. Open record score of 63 at Oakmont in 1973 "has stood up for more than 40 years." That's mighty impressive, Johnny, especially considering the fact that 1973 was only 31 years ago.

Now, any one or two of these mistakes could be easily forgiven, but there are literally dozens of them - so many, in fact, that it becomes distracting. The only thing that saves the book is that Miller is so opinionated on so many subjects that it actually does make an interesting read, despite the embarrassing lack of editing.

Miller rates a par for the book (if that's damning by faint praise, so be it) but the ghost writer, editor, and publisher should get a DQ (disqualified) for the effort. The misprints, factual errors, bad grammar, and typos detract to the point of cancelling out anything good Miller says. I wanted to like this book because Miller himself is so likeable and his TV commentary is so good,but thanks to the poor production value it's as hard to enjoy as a triple bogey. For instance,two questions: did Seve win three times on the PGA tour(pg 202)or six times(pg 203)? And how do you hit a ball with the clubshaft perpendicular to the ground? To do that, it would have to be dangling from your hands like a plumb bob. Maybe Johnny can demonstrate that during the rain delay at the British Open.

First, I agree with the many reviewers here regarding being amazed at the many factual errors in this book. (Any halfway decent knowledgable golf fan could have edited this in one sitting.) Irwin, Casper, Tiger, Ballesteros, Faldo etc. all had their records misrepresented in the pages (i.e. both Faldo and Seve had identical records on the PGA tour, which is 9 wins if you count their British Open wins, or 6 wins if you count only American wins. Johnny claims that Faldo had the better record.) Also, in his section on the best of today's players, he of course talks of Tiger, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Mike Weir, even Sergio Garcia and David Duval (??), but neglects to talk about Vijah Singh !! That was an annoying ommission that I couldn't understand. But all in all, if you can somehow ignore these amateurish mistakes, this is an interesting golf book from a former Hall of Famer turned great announcer who isn't afraid to give his opinion. He gives a good argument as to why Tiger will NOT break Jack's record of 18 majors, and that might be worth the price of the book. He also gives a decent analysis of the best dozen golfers he's ever seen up close (from Jack to Lee to Seve to Lanny), and THAT might also be worth the price of the book. And he gives a good analysis of the best golf courses he's played (and why Shinnecock is even better than Pebble Beach.) And he also has a good chapter on chocking, and names names (i.e. Tom Kite, Mark Calcaveccia, Greg Norman, Hale Irwin, Seve Ballesteros, even Lee Trevino.) I liked the book a lot, and if not for the stupid factual errors (and ommission of Vijah) would have given it 5 stars.

This book is typical Johnny Miller - candid, slightly irreverent, and very entertaining. Oddly enough, however, it seems they forgot to proofread the manuscript. There are so many factual errors - it is mind boggling. For example, we learn from Johnny that Tiger Woods initiated the "Tiger Slam" by winning the 2001 British Open and PGA Championship, when in fact Tiger did not win either one of those tournaments. We also learn that Tiger is already married - Johnny refers to his girlfriend as "Ellin Woods, Tiger's new bride." This is bizarre stuff, and it happens throughout the book. There are many inconsistencies and typos. Yet all in all it is a worthwhile and interesting read - I would recommend it highly for all fans of the modern game.

As a player, Johnny Miller - at least for a brief period of time - was one of the purest ball strikers the game of golf has ever seen, firing at any flag without fear or conscience. He carried his style of play into the broadcast booth with great sucess, and continues to do so on the printed page.

My fellow reviewers have noted many of the factual errors contained in the book; however, they do not (or should not) take away from the sheer entertainiment value of Miller's straight-shooting observations about the state of golf today. While not always right (Johnny is critical of Sergio Garcia's swing changes, yet since the book has gone to press, Garcia has won twice), Miller is never afraid to challenge golf's bromides ("'Drive for show and putt for dough' is a crock"). Moreover, his love and passion for the game is genuine, and for all of his supposed criticism of players, it's obvious that Miller would love to see all (or most) of them ultimately succeed. If read with this in mind, most readers interested in golf should be able to enjoy this book in spite of the errors noted elsewhere.

love it or leave it, miller puts forth well argued positions and analysis on a wide variety of topics: tiger versus jack, individual tour players -- both current and former, the rules of golf, pga tour requirements, golf instruction, golf courses and announcing.

just when you think he can't get any more candid or personal out pops another pointed passage about a specific individual. it's as close to a no-holds-barred discussion you can have with a golf insider, without actually having one. what really comes through is that miller loves the competitive side of golf and he sees the larger dimensions that surround it. his individual analyses of the players from his era (nicklaus, trevino, watson, player, etc) are especially good and you will come away with a strong sense of what competing against each one of them was like.

a real page-turner and definite must-read for fans of golf.

Having grown up a young sports fan in the 70s in Napa it was inevitable that I become a fan of Johnny Miller. Johnny was a local resident and in my mind, the most exciting golfer during his time. Johnny wasn't subject to the king-like glorification applied to Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer and seemed to be much looser and free than Watson or Weiskopf. Much like many of the Bay Area sports stars of the day (think the Oakland Raiders) Johnny seemed accessible and open to his fans. Since then I have enjoyed listening to Johnny on NBC where his freewheeling style and honesty makes compelling commentary. Now that you know where I stand on Johnny, here comes the book review.

I Call the Shots really is Johnny's editorial on the game of golf. The memoir is un-bracketed by time and or scope and therefore is wide-ranging and I think a little broad. I very much enjoyed Johnny's recount of events that have occurred during both his playing career and his broadcasting career. Of particular interest to me was his self-criticism of his comments about Justin Leonard during the `99 Ryder Cup. One gets the clear message from this event and throughout the book that Johnny himself is not exempt from the honest critique he is sometimes criticized for from tour players and more boring announcers. Johnny's comments on his favorite courses and the choking continuum are fun to read although almost totally predictable. Even more compelling are the descriptions of the "inside" events that occur on Tour like accusations of cheating, gamesmanship on the course and player personalities, however these are few and far between in the course of the book. It appears to me that Johnny is much more willing to editorialize on the game of golf and not the players of golf. Most of his stories/essays seem unfortunately short and thin as if the editor was barking at him for breadth instead of depth. This leads to complete dogs of subjects like "Broadcasting does and don'ts", "Rules of Golf" and "Future Predictions" which almost seem like filler. I'm also at a loss as to how certain top topics get little to no discussion like equipment limits vs. course design. Even so, the book reads quickly and for any of the more die-hard fans of the game of golf it is definitely worth the time.

Overall the book is a good first effort for one of the great voices of the game to spout ideas about just about everything. Unfortunately for me, I know Johnny has more to say than what I read. I think he should be given a mulligan by the Publisher and allowed to write a book more targeted on fewer topics. Also if we want to win the Ryder Cup Johnny should get a look as Captain.

Quite apart from the editing problems, this book has more grammatical errors than pages. They were obvious, and a careful proofreader could have found and corrected them.

I blame Miller's publisher for these mistakes and for the factual shortcomings identified by others. I'm guessing they were just trying to save a buck and this sloppy work was the result.

I admire Johnny and enjoy his comments on the golf broadcasts. He was poorly served in this project and needs to look elsewhere when it comes time to publish his next book, which I look forward to reading.

This book is full of just what we expect from Johnny -- a quick read, conversational, straight from the hip to the gut, without much care for factual or grammatical detail. But then, at the very end, Johnny includes an unedited letter from his late father, written to his son. That brief chapter is a surprise hole-in-one at the end of a predictable round.