Pam Miller goes from LHS links to professional golfer
• The following is part of an ongoing series of articles in celebration of Libertyville High School's 100th anniversary.
Pam Miller (Gietzen) is a 1976 Libertyville High School graduate and a four-year LPGA player.
By LPGA standards, Pam got a late start to golf. She began getting serious about the sport in the summer of 1972, right before she entered LHS as a freshman. As Pam says, her new desire to get serious about golf at that time was because "I wanted to have a sport to try out for." She would go on to far more than just making the LHS golf team.
While at LHS she was a four-sport athlete (there were four shorter sport seasons for the girls in the early stages of the Title IX implementation), playing golf, volleyball, basketball and softball.
She did well in all of her sports, being named the 1976 Newsom Award winner that goes to the top LHS senior athlete.
It was in golf that Pam had state success. The fall of 1975, Pam's senior year, was the first year for the IHSA girls state golf tournament. Pam qualified for state and finished in a tie for third place, two strokes back from the champion. She led her LHS team to a fifth-place state finish.
Pam was recruited to play golf for Brigham Young University, where she had a record-setting career. She qualified for the AIAW National Tournaments three times, placing 11th in 1980 and being named an All-American. She won eight college tournaments, including the 1980 AIAW Regionals. Her BYU team earned its first nationals berth in 1979.
Some of the records Pam set at BYU were being the first Cougar golfer to be named to the All-Regionals team and the first to be named All-American. She had BYU's lowest single round score of 67, a record that held up for 31 years. She had BYU's lowest four-round score of 304, a record that held up for 29 years.
All her contributions to BYU were honored when she was named to the BYU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016.
After getting a BYU degree in physical education, Pam continued her golf career. She took second in the 1980 U.S. Women's Publinx Amateur. She was ranked among the top 10 amateurs by Golf Digest before earning her LPGA Tour card in 1981.
Pam joined the LPGA in 1982. She had three top five finishes that year and finished runner up for the "Rookie of the Year" award behind Patti Rizzo. She played professionally until 1985, her daughter Jenn being born in 1986.
After working for several years as an administrative assistant, Pam is teaching golf lessons, living in Athens, Georgie. She regularly plays golf and tennis.