Grouchy Golf Blog

Wednesday, March 05, 2008 at 8:42 PM

Matt Jones: Johnny Miller's Man Crush?

Johnny Miller sounded like a man in love last week at the Honda Classic. However, the object of his affection wasn't some hot young Betty, but a 27 year-old Aussie golfer named Matt Jones. Johnny's frequent gushing over this PGA Tour rookie during the 3rd round reminded me of some pre-teen girls talking about heartthrob Corey Haim back in middle-school.

Just read a giddy Miller commenting on a slo-mo replay of Matt's swing on Saturday: "He has a perfect setup...Just a "10" on a scale of 1 to 10...He has a real good "chase"...I really believe that he has a good chance to be a star in the next couple of years."

Ironically, these comments came shortly after Johnny criticized Ernie Els' swing, arguably the best swing of all-time! I guess Johnny reserves the über praise for golfers that have incorporated his patented "chase" move. It's been a recurring theme with Johnny Miller for quite some time now. I just wish that I knew what the heck he's talkin' about.

And Johnny, don't you think that you're a little premature anointing this guy as the next young golf star? In four years on the Nationwide Tour, he failed to win any of the 94 events that he played. Have the Wies finally convinced you that winning doesn't matter? Remember, people once thought that Corey Haim had star potential. Those people were morons.

 Anonymous said...

johnny sounded like he was gonna bust a nut on the air..  

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 Anonymous said...

Johnny does like to talk about the old "chase move", but I think the thing that he is totally compulsive about are those little mysterious stones that seem to always get between the clubface and ball on those poor bunker shots - personally, I think it's those UFO guys that are doing that.  

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 William said...

I'm not entirely sure that the "chase move" as Johnny imagines it really exists, but I do think I know what he means. Tiger does it. The right shoulder works down the line and through the shot with full extension of the right arm - sort of "chasing" down the line of the ball. It carries Tiger (and Adam Scott) to that very full straight up and down finish, as the right shoulder and arm sort of pull everything entirely around and over onto the left side. Arnold Palmer also chased it like this, but, presumably because of the extreme strain it puts on your back to go to a full finish this way, pulled the finish up, whereas Tiger (known as 'gumby') goes ahead and lets it wind all the way out. Compare this "chase move" to anyone who swings more in the reverse C fashion. Colin Montgomery comes to mind. Presumably, the "chase move" keeps the club tracking down the line longer. I don't know if that's true, or if it lessens the frequency of hitting the ball after the club has started working back inside. It'd be interesting to find out. Logically, the wider the swing arc, the smaller the deviation from "straight down the line" for the 3 or so inches before and after the ball -- compared to a narrow arc. Presumably, that would tend to improve average accuracy, by increasing the distance through the ball through which the club is moving more nearly straight down the line. Ah..hell - just hit it.
https://www.williamyavelak.com/images/chase.jpg  

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 Anonymous said...

I've heard a lot of golf people say that the guy that kept it going down the line and square for the longest distance was Lee Trevino - no surprise there.

He always said, "take the back of your left hand right on through the ball for as far as you can". Not too many crooked shots there.  

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 Javier said...

Great drawing, William, thanks.  

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 Anonymous said...

"Hmmm. What do you think Rog? Did he release that a lil late there?

Roger-"Uh, not really Johnny, its acutally going right at the flag"

Johnny-"Uhu.. ahh.. well... uhh. He does that sometimes you know.. uhh.."

The common theme when Miller is commentating, usually involves his foot in his mouth and a giant "d-bag" symbol marked on his forehead.  

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 Ben Hogan Collection said...

The chase move, call it whatever you want. Hogan did it and Trevino was probably most obvious with it because of the big loop in his swing.  

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