Nicklaus Miller, Johnny’s grandson, qualifies for Drive, Chip & Putt

Nicklaus Miller has a name with 20 major championships between them.

The grandson of World Golf Hall of Famer and two-time major champion Johnny Miller also has a first name for World Golf Hall of Famer and 18-time major champion Jack Nicklaus.

“We named him Nicklaus, not Nicholas, but Jack Nicklaus, and Miller, so he’s got, I’m always behind Jack so I’m 2nd place but the bottom line is, he’s got the right stuff,” said Johnny to the local ABC affiliate in Utah two years ago.

The 12-year-old from Provo, Utah, is proving to be a chip off the old block and living up to his lofty pedigree — he’s already a scratch golfer. He’ll have a chance to do something his grandfather never could quite do: win at Augusta National. Nicklaus recently qualified for the National Finals of the Drive, Chip & Putt the Sunday before the Masters gets underway in April after winning the Boys 12-13 Division in the Pacific Northwest at Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington.

Nicklaus’s father, Todd, the director of golf at Brigham Young University, said his son has been trying to qualify since he was seven or eight years old and had made it to the finals at Chambers Bay, where the winner advances to the National Final, before but this will be his first appearance at Augusta National.

An Augusta National spokesperson said that in April, Flynn Lewis, the grandson of 1987 low amateur Bob Lewis, became the first relative of a Masters competitor to compete in the DCP. Johnny Miller finished second four times at the Masters, including in 1975 to Jack Nicklaus, who won the Green Jacket a record six times. But that didn’t prevent Johnny from counting the Golden Bear as one of his closest friends.

Todd’s wife, Shannon, accompanied Nicklaus to the competition and was texting him videos while he hosted a recruit at BYU. Nicklaus didn’t get off to a promising start in the driving portion, which is usually his strong suit.

“He kind of hit a heel push, and it went out by like a yard,” recalled Todd of the first of three attempts to stay within the grid. “And so you could see in the video he kind of just dropped his head.”

But Nicklaus rallied to finish in the top three, chipped well enough, putted even better and when the scores were added up, he did just enough to eke out the victory.

“My wife texted me ‘YES,’ with about five exclamation points,” Todd said.

Nicklaus calls his grandpa after every competitive round for a debrief. “I’ll call…