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Thursday, May 12, 2005 Miler in midseason form By BRIAN MURPHY Sports Editor sports@starcourier.com Kewanee golfer Tom Miler is in mid-season form. Miler, the winner of 15 straight City Am titles and 17 overall, defeated
the rest of the field Wednesday at the Illinois State Mid-Amateur at White
Eagle Golf Club in Miler fired a two-day total of 148 to beat 36 other golfers to win by
three strokes over Chip Travis of Hinsdale, Mark Esposito of Hoffman Estates
and Steve Sawtell of The mid-amateur is open to any amateur golfer in Miler survivied the cut to the top 37 with an
opening day 78 on the 72, 6,921-yard layout. He trailed by four strokes heading into Wednesday's final round. Miler fired a two-under par 70 to post the low round of the day in
conditions that were less than favorable. "The course is a real difficult course and a big part of it is the
weather conditions," Miler said. "At this time of year they usually
get a lot of wind and it was windy yesterday. They had a big storm roll
through the area prior to us playing which made the conditions worse.'' Miler bogeyed the first and third holes and at that point was just looking
for a top 15 finish. "The top 15 are exempt for next year's tournament," Miler said.
"My thoughts after the first three holes were to just get it together
and stay in the top 15." Miler then went on to par No. 4 and birdie five and six to get back to
even par at the turn. He would later birdie No. 11, No. 14 and No. 17 with a bogey on No. 13 to
finish with his two-under par total of 70. "Since I was tied for 13th I had a lot of time before people came in
and the lowest score posted before me was a 151," Miler said. "The
conditions really worsened as the day went along. It got cold and the leaders
were three or four holes behind me and they had more of the weather to deal
with." Miler watched as golfer after golfer came in with scores higher than his. "I thought if I could come in under par that I could finish in the
top five," Miler said. "But there were no scores that were
updated." "I don't know how to explain the 70, but it just happened,"
Miler said. Miler is coming off surgery on his ankle over the winter and had just
picked up a club for the first time on April 1. "I wasn't sure how any of this was going to play out," Miler
said about playing. "For this to happen is a little crazy. You don't
quite know how it happened, but it was a welcome surprise." Miler was second in the same event last year. |