Miller goes back to the future

Johnny Miller is one of my favorite announcers, and he might be the only person in the game not afraid of Tiger Woods*. So I don’t want to slam him, but his comments about Tiger and the Grand Slam this week highlight a troubling trend in sports: the after-the-fact prediction.

The Toronto Globe and Mail recounts Miller’s remarks this week about Tiger’s Grand Slam hopes, which of course ended last month with Trevor Immelman’s surprise win (to everyone but Gary Player) at the Masters.

With his usual candour and edge, Miller said Woods made a mistake and was perhaps presumptuous to speculate in January that winning golf's Grand Slam was "easily within reach."

"I'm not taking a slam at Tiger," said Miller, during a conference call to publicize NBC's coverage of The Players Championship at the Sawgrass golf course in Florida.

"But I think the Grand Slam is something you start thinking about on the first of August, after you've won the three other ones."

That’s fine, Johnny, but your analysis would have been more insightful had you offered it, you know, before the Masters. Maybe later we can get your predictions on the Democratic primary and The Sopranos’ last episode.

*In a recent radio interview, Tiger said he sometimes watches TV broadcasts but never listens to the commentators. If that’s true, how does he know who he’s mad at each week?

(Photo: Chris Condon/PGA TOUR/Getty Images)