Last year, Miles won the Southern California PGA Section championship. Earlier this year, he qualified for his first U.S. Open since 1987 and, although he missed the cut by three strokes, shot a second-round 69 (one under par).
“I shot one-under on a U.S. Open golf course,” Miles said. “For me, at my age and the amount I play, that’s a feat. Those are the best players in the world and I beat a lot of them and that’s a neat thing. It’s a lot of satisfaction, and it tells me that I’m pretty good and I should keep playing.”
Charlene Alfonso, a former UCLA standout who’s also an assistant pro at Virginia, believes it too. She’s been Miles’ caddy for the last couple of years, through this whole run.
Alfonso was there when Miles tied for 16th at the PGA Professional National Championship July 1 in Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M. The top 20 qualified for the PGA Championship.
Miles shot a 70, 73 and 73 the first three days. But he pulled it together with a round of 66 on the final day — the top final-round score among all qualifiers — then survived a playoff to advance.
“He definitely was a bit frustrated, didn’t really feel like he was hitting the shots he could hit,” Alfonso said. “He was making saves for par, but those were kind of courses where you needed to make a lot of birdies. A par there can feel like you missed an opportunity to make a birdie. When your game’s not quite where you want it to be, it’s really frustrating. You tend to get in your own way ... The last day, he basically just let himself play golf the way he knows how to play golf.”
