Consistency is key, says golfer Norm Miller

He has taught golf and physical education and been vice-principal of Fort Assiniboine School.

But Norm Miller knows full well that he remains a student of golf, a sport that can confound even the best.

One moment it seems the simplest thing in the world to control that little white ball.

Then a misplaced putt, a hooked iron shot into a bunker, a wayward drive and your game can fall apart.

In that sense, 70-year-old Miller is no different from Tiger Woods or someone venturing onto a course for the first time: all should be wary of this wonderfully infuriating game.

Miller hopes to be at his consistent best when he plays 36 holes over two days at the Alberta 55-plus Summer Games. He is competing in the 65 and over category.

Currently his handicap is eight, although it has dropped as low as four in his 45 to 50 years as a golfer.

“My aim is really just to play well, to post a decent score and keep my game under control,” he says.

Consistency is key

from 4A

For someone who has tasted tournament success, it sounds a modest goal. Yet Miller knows he will be facing stiff competition – and the only thing predictable about golf is its unpredictability.

Nevertheless how wonderful it would be if he could roll back the years to his glory days in the 1970s.

As a young man, he became a fixture on the leaderboard of the Barrhead Open, triumphing three times.

“That was probably the high point of my time in golf,” he says.

Such success belies the fact he was a late starter in golf. As a boy he never got into the game.

It was only when he studied for a Bachelor of Physical Education degree in Edmonton that he took a week of golf lessons and realized what he had been missing.

A life in education may have beckoned, but he has remained an avid golfer, juggling it with another passion – slow pitch.

“I’ve actually participated in the games before in slow pitch, but never in golf,” he says.

“As far as which game I prefer, it depends on the day. You never know whether you are going to have a good day at golf.”

In retirement Miller has become a familiar sight at Barrhead Golf Course, competing with a group of friends.

He plays about 120 rounds a year, loving the constant challenge that golf provides.

“It is a challenge to be consistent and make the ball go where you want it to go,” he says. “I would say my strengths are probably my iron shots.”