You best believe he was thinking about redemption. And redemption Brayden Miller did get.
It was 364 days ago when Miller was in striking range of one of the biggest goals of his high school golfing career. He was sitting within the top five of the 2023 IHSAA Boys Golf State Finals, but saw a bogey and double bogey on the back nine foil his plans of a state title, the double on 17 a sticking point.
“I wanted this so bad, wanted it so much,” Miller said just minutes after wrapping up his redemption tour a state champion at the 2024 IHSAA Boys Golf State Finals. “I knew if I was going to get there, I was going to have to stay humble and be there in the moment. But, yeah, I did think about 17 last year and I wasn’t about to let that happen again.”
Miller was at one-under in 2023, but five shots back of champion Leo Wessel of Guerin Catholic.
That competitive fire burned all through the summer tours, and into the winter. While Miller golfs nine months of the year for his personal and potential growth in the sport as an individual, there was a part of him that wanted to perform for his school. He wanted to win for Fairfield, and he wasn’t about to let another shot at the Prairie View course in Carmel leave him flat again.
That sixth place finish last June as a sophomore doubled the 12th place finish he had as a freshman. No one outside of Miller, his coaches and his inner circle really expected much those first couple of years. But Miller put all the pressure on himself to better his game, both physically in places like reading greens and putting speed, and also on bettering his mental approach.
It’s notable to say Miller, who everyone now knows in the area golf circles, wasn’t a world beater this past spring season. Westview’s Luke Haarer outshot him in an April dual, and Miller was just the three-seed to barely get out of the Warsaw Regional. That put Miller in the first group to tee off at this week’s IHSAA State Finals, where the Golf Gods seemed to follow Miller all over the course.
A birdie on the second hole put Miller at one-under, which would benchmark the remainder of his tournament, where he would lead wire-to-wire, remaining under par on one of the toughest golf tracks in the state. At one point on the back nine on the second day, Miller led the field by six shots, sitting at seven-under, but soon saw that lead whittle down to three after back-to-back bogeys moved him to minus-five and a trio of golfers sitting at two-under. But that redemption tour Miller promised himself to make was facing him on the 17th, where he fell apart a year ago.
Wednesday, there was nothing of the sort.
Miller parred the hole, then closed out 18 with his approach shot landing within six feet of the pin. A tap in for par sealed his five-under championship tournament score of 139, four shots better than the trio of Aidan Gutierrez of Valpo, Justin Hicks of Leo and Jake Cesare of Westfield - Cesare being Miller’s caddy when he won a tournament at Purdue University as a freshman.
Gutierrez and Hicks both beat Miller last year, and Wessel was a full nine shots behind in the standings this time around.
“I admit, I did look at the leaderboard at the turn. I wanted to know where everyone was,” Miller quipped. “I was in pretty good shape and saw they had made some mistakes that gave me a little cushion. I also knew they were going to make a run, and two of them were playing in my group. It was fun. We all wanted to win. That’s the way it should be.”
The whirlwind of sudden elevated stardom began as Miller left the 18th green, first hugging his dad then working through his entourage that included head coach John Kauffman. Upon arrival back at the Fairfield campus just over three hours after receiving his champion’s medal, over a hundred supporters and area fire and EMS personnel greeted the overly humble Miller. At one point, Miller’s mom, Ashlee, had to remind her son to thank his supporters as an exhausted Miller looked like he just wanted to find the nearest clubhouse and have an Arnold Palmer.
“This course, you miss at all and it will penalize you,” Kauffman said of Miller’s overall tournament approach. “That happened to him a year ago. We made some adjustments, specifically to three woods which were drivers a year ago. He made some really big shots, and he really, really worked on his putting. His putter was so much better this year, and that was the difference. He didn’t give much away on the greens.
“It was a blessing to walk along with him. What a fantastic finish to this season. Just incredible.”
For historical perspective, Miller becomes the first male athlete to win an individual title, joining Renee Schlabach’s 800-meter girls track championship in 2000. It was noted that Miller was also the first golfer from Elkhart County to win a title since John Williams of Elkhart did it in 1939. Alaska and Hawaii weren’t yet states, McDonald’s wasn’t a restaurant, and Winston Churchill wasn’t even Prime Minister of England.
“Yeah, I have a tournament to play next week and just keep getting better,” laughed Miller about taking a break from the game. He has already verbally committed to play collegiately at the University of Cincinnati. “The goal now is to go back-to-back, win two in a row. That would be pretty cool.”