Miller’s Time

For Kelly Miller, turning off the busy road in Juno Beach, Fla., into the entrance of Seminole Golf Club is a moment unto itself.

“Every time I roll across those stones going in there, I feel like the luckiest guy in the world,” says Miller, who is at Seminole this week teeing it up in the Coleman Invitational, one of the country’s most prestigious amateur events.

The Coleman is no ordinary amateur tournament. Like the Crump Cup at Pine Valley, the Thomas Invitational at Los Angeles Country Club and a handful of others, the Coleman occupies the rarefied air shared by the elite events where golf, classic layouts and camaraderie create their own special feeling.

Miller won the Coleman in 2001, a highlight in a career that also includes the 1994 North Carolina Mid-Amateur championship, the 1993 Carolinas Mid-Amateur championship and the 1996 Azalea Amateur.

Golf and Miller, 60, are intertwined. He is married to Peggy Ann Bell, daughter of World Golf Hall of Famer Peggy Kirk Bell, and they run Pine Needles and Mid-Pines, siste...