Tina Miller

Miami, Fla.

Hometown: Miami, Fla.
Birthdate: 1/31/83
College: University of Miami
Home Golf Course: International Links, Miami Golf Club
Interests: Exercise, dancing, watching television program Lost
Family: Single

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Professional golfers have special demons that lurk at the cut-line, waiting to pounce on the psyche and toy with conviction to the point of bashing any sense of self-worth.

The demons have tortured Tina Miller too often and she is looking at Big Break Ka’anapali as an opportunity to prove to everyone, but most importantly herself, that she still has it in her to compete on an LPGA-level. “I came within a shot of getting my LPGA card a year ago (for the 2007 season), so I know I have the game, “said Miller, who played in two U.S. Women’s Opens. “I need to get mentally tough and play fearlessly like I used to. “

It wasn’t always that way. Raised in Miami, Tina was recruited by power programs such as the University of Georgia and UCLA. Ultimately, she chose to stay in her hometown and accept a full scholarship to the University of Miami. Winning seven times, including four times as a senior, she said college was the best four years of her life.

The one downside of her collegiate career was an injury in her senior year. Before the 2003 NCAA Championships, Miller stepped on a sprinkler head and played 36 holes with her ankle swollen the size of a grapefruit. It was the first of two injuries that would greatly hamper her game and partially stick dagger in confidence. A year later she her foot during her rookie season on the Duramed FUTURES Tour, but nonetheless kept her tour card for 2007. The same can’t be said for 2008. After a disappointing year in which she forth the effort to improve her game, she failed to earn playing privileges for the upcoming season.

“I played horrible. There is no nicer way of putting it,” Miller wrote about the failed qualifying attempt on her website tinamillergolf.com. “I was ashamed to even call myself a professional golfer. All the hard work and lessons just didn’t seem to help.”

Personal issues also contributed to her poor showing. The end of a relationship with her long-time boyfriend, along with her grandfather’s illness and subsequent death in the summer, contributed to an unfocused and inconsistent season on the course.

With only the prospects of playing the Victory Golf Tour and the Canadian Tour, as well as appearing in the 2008 Golf Digest Japan Ladies Calendar, Big Break Ka’anapali will play a large role in determining the direction of her career. “Everything happens for a reason, I believe that,” she muses about her professional predicament.

Proving the philosophy, it was a chance meeting with PGA TOUR star Fred Couples that fueled her interest in golf. While playing in a National Golf Day event with the 15-time TOUR winner, he saw something special in the 9-year-old. “He told me that I was playing really well and hoped that I would stick with it,” said Miller, who started playing golf at age seven and won her first event two months after. “When he said all that, it kind of made me think that being a professional golfer would be pretty cool.”

For Miller to continue chasing the dream of one day playing on the LPGA, she needs something positive to happen in her career. Winning Big Break Ka’anapali would fit in that category and could be just the ammunition needed to conquer the demons that plague her mind.

Click to See What’s in the Bag

Club	Name
Driver:	Adams Insight Tour 4350 8.5°
Woods:	3WD Adams Insight 14.5° Prototype
Hybrids:	19°Rescue Hybrid (Mid) & 22°Rescue Hybrid (Mid)
Irons:	4 & 5 iron Taylor Made RAC OS, Taylor Made R7 irons 6-PW
Wedges:	Taylor Made Black, 54° & 60°
Putter:	Heavy Putter B1-M 32”
Ball:	Taylor Made Red Ball