There was something strange going on that day in 1973, when Johnny Miller rocked more than just Oakmont Country Club with a round that would come to be known as the greatest round of golf ever played.

They all conspired that day, on a stage as big as the U.S. Open, to produce a moment that alternately tortured the Oakmont membership but also served as the greatest single-day happening in the club's long, rich history.

Beginning the final round six shots from the lead and with 11 players in front of him, Miller, then 23, put together a ball-striking round that was so frighteningly impressive it's almost astonishing he didn't shoot lower than the course-record 63 he fashioned to win the Open, the first of two major championships he would collect in a career that included 24 PGA Tour victories.

It remains the lowest round shot in a major championship, though several players have tied it. And it shook the membership at Oakmont to its very core, a score no one thought imaginable at the historic and usually brutish course.

"You can't get an easier 63 at Oakmont," Miller said.

Miller will return to Oakmont this week as the lead color analyst for NBC Sports, which will broadcast the U.S. Open, and he can still walk you through every shot from the magical day in June 1973, every shot, that is, except for those on No. 11, a short par 4 in which he began a string of three consecutive birdies on the back nine. For some reason, Miller can't seem to recall what he did on that hole, only that he made birdie -- one of nine he had in his final round.

But he has no problem recollecting just about everything else, including the missed birdie putt from 12 feet at No. 17 that lipped the edge of the cup and the 10-foot birdie putt at the final hole that Miller said, "Was down in the hole and came back out again." A cruel ending, to be sure. Enough to still cause Miller to make a face as if he swallowed castor oil.

In the end, though, still not enough to alter history.

And what awesome history it was.

"Tee to green, I would like to match it up with [Ben] Hogan's best round, and I'll take my chances on it beating any round Hogan hit tee to green," Miller said, proudly. "I don't know how you can hit it any better under Open pressure, the last day against a tough field, all those Hall of Famers in front of me. It was a crazy-good, tee-to-green round."

"They've had all kinds of rumors of what happened at the golf course, that the sprinklers got stuck on or whatever it was, so the golf course was extra wet," said Jack Nicklaus, who finished fourth in 1973. "And we didn't know that in the afternoon because the golf course played its normal way. But I don't care if the sprinklers were stuck on or the holes were six inches wide, that's a heck of a round of golf."

Make no mistake, Miller got a little help along the way. John Schlee, the third-round leader, hit three tee shots on the first hole of the final round, even though he never lost his ball or hit one out of bounds. Schlee finished second at 4-under 280, a shot behind Miller, but the opening hole proved to be his undoing.

Not that it would have mattered.

At a course where hitting a green can sometimes be like hitting a lottery, Miller found all 18 greens in regulation in the final round -- "I didn't even sniff missing a green," he said -- proof of the control he had over his game. Consider this, too: In addition to the near-misses at the final two holes, Miller also had a 90-foot sand shot at No. 4 that would have been an eagle hang on the edge.

"That's incredible," Tiger Woods said about hitting all 18 greens in regulation. "You've got to drive it great there in order to have a chance to hit those greens because those greens are so penal that you think you can run the ball up there, but you really can't because the bunkers are so deep that you've got to drive it well and hit your irons well."

And Miller did.

"What stands out was every iron was going right at the pin," Miller said. "I hit 18 greens in regulation. ... There weren't any on the edge or the fringe. I never thought about making a bogey.

"That's one of the reasons why I shot 63 -- I was able to stick those irons in there. The last day the average score was 75 or 76 and none of the leaders played well at all, so obviously it wasn't a piece of cake that day."

Miller only made it seem that way. And he didn't waste any time attacking the soft course.

He started the final round with four consecutive birdies, only one of any significant length -- 5 feet at No. 1, 6 inches at No. 2, 2 inches at No. 4. The longest was an 18-footer at the third hole.

When he birdied the par-5 fourth, Miller sensed something special was happening. At the very least, he started to think he could win the tournament.

"After the first four holes I got so nervous because I knew I was six back and I knew the leaders would be gagging, and I figured I would be one back soon as they got through four holes," Miller said. "I got a chance to win now and a shot of adrenaline went through me, and on [No.] 5 I left it short from 12 feet, six I left it short from 10 feet and I three-putt 8.

"Now I've thrown away two or three shots, at least one shot out of there, and I went from being really nervous to sort of mad. I thought, 'You got a chance to win the Open and you're choking, you're choking bad.' That sort of fired me up again."

After three-putting the par-3 eighth from 18 feet for his only bogey, Miller made the turn in 32. Then, after a two-putt par at No. 10, Miller ran off three birdies in a row, starting at No. 11 and culminating with an 8-foot birdie at the par-3 13th.

The streak ended when he missed a 10-foot birdie putt at No. 14, but he came right back with another birdie at the tough par-4 15th, hitting a 4-iron to 10 feet -- "I hit it within an inch of where I was aiming," Miller said -- to get to 8 under for the day.

A group ahead, Lanny Wadkins was making a charge, too, shooting 65 to match the score produced by club professional Gene Borek, who made the field as an alternate, in the second round. But it was not enough to keep pace with Miller, who was fashioning golf's greatest round a day after he shot 76.

"That round was no fluke," Wadkins said. "It was not easy, not in the least. It was wet, but it still was a tough golf course with very heavy rough."

Miller turned the back in 31, and the 63 shocked the Oakmont membership, most notably, Dick Fuhrer, who was so upset by what Miller did he grew the rough to unplayable heights the next time the U.S. Open came back to Oakmont in 1983, angering the players and causing the USGA to threaten to never to come back.

"The way I played that day, it wouldn't have mattered what they did to course," Miller said.

"That's an amazing round of golf," said Phil Mickelson, who has four second-place finishes but no victories in the U.S. Open. "Just a combination of it all, how tough it is to get the ball to the hole with those greens and what a perfect ball-striking round to have to get around that course in that many under par. I don't think anyone will come close to that this year."

Maybe ever.