Tina Miller

Tina Miller is a cast member on the Golf Channel series "Big Break: Kaanapali." The shaded text below is the "official" "Big Break: Kaanapali" profile of this golfer provided by the Golf Channel.
• Tina Miller pictures

Residence: Miami, Fla.
Hometown: Miami, Fla.
Date of birth: Jan. 31, 1983
College: University of Miami
Home course: International Links, Miami Golf Club
Interests: Exercise, dancing, "Lost"
Family: Single

About Tina Miller:
Miller won seven times in college at the University of Miami, including the 2003 Big East Championship. She turned pro in 2005. In 2006, Miller made 12 cuts in 15 tries on the Futures Tour with a best showing of fourth. In 2007, she made four cuts in 12 tournaments. Miller also models, including an appearance in the "2008 Golf Digest World Ladies Calendar" published by Golf Digest Japan.

The Golf Channel says:

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 a dagger in her confidence. A year later she hurt 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 put 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."

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