From Setback to Triumph: How Searcy Native Alex Miller Refused to Let CMT Define Him

SEARCY, Ark. – For Alex Miler, days at the Searcy Country Club consist of reading the greens, practicing his short game, and spending as much time as he can around the game; he loves the most.

He always had a knack for making the difficult shots look easy,

“I remember watching him on eighteen, he holed out from about sixty yards in junior league practice,” Bruce Baxley, the Searcy Country Club Pro, said. It was pretty phenomenal, and he was only nine.”

Off the course, Miller was facing challenges far greater than anything on a scorecard. In the third grade, he was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a progressive nerve disorder that can cause muscle weakness, difficulty walking, and loss of feeling in the lower legs and feet.

“I remember trying to have that conversation with him,” Candice Cargile, Alex’s Mom, said. “It’s difficult with a small child. We didn’t know exactly what it would mean, but we told him we were going to be there for him every step of the way.”

As he got older, the effects became more noticeable, and by the fifth grade, he was wearing leg braces to help with balance and stability. He also faced the difficult decision to give up the sport he loved the most.

“When I quit baseball when I was twelve, that was really hard because I couldn’t run very well,” Miller said. “If I overdid a muscle, it could actually fatigue it. I like to work overtime. to where most people for them, it would make it grow, for me, it would make it worse.”

In the moment, he didn’t realize it, but fully committing to golf would be one of the most life-changing decisions he’d ever make.

At first, walking on the course was an adjustment, but soon the game became a place of peace.

“When I golfed, you don’t have to run; you can just walk and hit, “Miller said. “I just fell in love with the game because it was one of the only things I could do.”

From there, success followed with tournament wins and all-conference honors along the way.

But in 2023, he faced one of the biggest setbacks of his career. As CMT progressed, he developed a stress fracture in his fifth metatarsal, requiring surgery and a seven-month recovery.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen, Miller said. “I worked really, really hard that summer going into my junior year, and I just propelled.”

That recovery became a turning point. As Miller returned to the course, he set his sights on playing golf at Arkansas Tech. He needed NCAA approval to use cart during competition, making an already daunting recruiting process even more uncertain.