Tiger talks, but still won't say much

AUGUSTA, Ga.—Tiger Woods is letting out information, slowly and gradually, but certainly not about the sordid antics that precipitated his long and humbling free-fall from grace.

Woods was back on familiar turf at Augusta National Monday, first playing golf for 18 practice holes, during which he said he was “blown away’’ by the friendly reception he received from a large but mostly quiet gallery. “It touched my heart pretty good,’’ he said.

Then he got back on to more familiar turf, a half-hour bob-and-weave with the press at a Q&A in which he once again admitted to doing “terrible things’’ and “living a lie’’ that hurt his family and jeopardized his marriage.

The world’s top-ranked golfer has always been guarded in his dealings with the press, or at least has been for more than a decade. Monday was no different. Other than saying he cut his lip for five stitches and “had a pretty sore neck,’’ he wouldn’t give any more information about his mysterious car crash the night of Nov. 27 – “I got (a ticket for) 166 bucks and that’s case closed,’’ he said.

Neither would he go into any of the juicy details of his many extra-marital affairs, nor say why he recently underwent 45 days of in-patient therapy – “it’s personal, thanks’’ – or whether his wife Elin was behind his decision to return to competitive golf at this week’s Masters.

Which is fine; that is his business, his and his wife’s, even though there is a 24-hour celebrity news machine that requires feeding and once again Woods didn’t give it much to digest.

But he did let a few morsels escape.

For instance, he readily acknowledges being treated by Dr. Anthony Galea, the Toronto doctor currently under investigation for allegedly prescribing or providing illegal or performance-enhancing drugs to several clients, including high-performance athletes. He said his agent had been approached by federal investigators and Woods promised “full co-operation.’’

Woods said he had a torn Achilles tendon in early 2009, while he was in rehab for what he called his fourth knee surgery, and used Galea’s blood-spinning treatments. He denied again ever taking performance enhancing drugs or human growth hormone, two substances allegedly linked to Galea, and said he used the Toronto doctor “because he has treated so many athletes.’’

Woods admitted to using both Ambien and Vicodan, two powerful prescription drugs, but denied he had ever required treatment for dependence on either. He said he used Ambien to sleep around the time his father got terminally ill with cancer, then died.

The only other revelation might have been his admission that “golf wasn’t fun any more’’ even though he was winning so often, because of the sex-driven double life he was leading away from the course.

Which is the stuff plenty of people want to know about and the stuff he simply won’t talk about.

By the way, Augusta National restricted access to the room to one reporter for each media outlet. There was a master list of those allowed to attend and reporters were checked off at the door one by one as they arrived. There was only a handful of empty seats among the 207 chairs reserved for reporters.

Woods practices mostly in silence at Augusta

AUGUSTA, Ga. – A large but mostly quiet and reserved gallery is watching Tiger Woods play a practice round at Augusta National Monday morning.

In advance of his 2 p.m. press conference, Woods was going through 18 test holes, playing with Fred Couples. There weren’t many other golfers out on the course, although there was a helicopter hovering high over Augusta and, presumably, Woods during part of his front nine.

No one walking with Woods could detect any insults from the crowd; there were a few “welcome back’’ shouts but it was more gawking than noise-making.

Meanwhile, in what seems to be an unprecedented move, Augusta National has pre-approved certain media outlets, including The Star, for attendance at the 2 p.m. shindig. The press room holds about 225 reporters, plus a few more standing room, and there has been a limit put on the number of attendees. For instance, a wire service with three reporters here might get one or two seats, but not three. A paper with two writers present likely will get one seat. It’s that kind of winnowing.

Reporters on “the list’’ were given a numbered ticket – somebody bet me a 3-9-5 trifecta at Woodbine whenever they can get a nine-horse field – and that brought back memories of showing up at Augusta and being given a numbered ticket for the lottery to play the course the Monday after the final round. (Those who have won within the past seven years are ineligible to enter again.)

All seats for the 2 p.m. show are on a first-come, first-served basis, with doors opening at 1:15 p.m. and closing at 1:50. Why all these rules are in effect remains a mystery, considering Woods isn’t likely to say anything of earth-shattering consequence about his car wreck of last Nov. 27, or his marital situation, absence from competitive golf or 45 days of treatment for an undisclosed condition or problem. But we all shall see.

Woods arrived at Augusta Sunday and played nine holes with Mark O’Meara, his close friend and also a former champion, but did not take any questions.

Jays leave Florida with their running shoes on

DUNEDIN, Fla.

The go-go Blue Jays?

No way, but as they break camp in Florida and head for Houston and the final two exhibition games Friday and Saturday, the game plan on offence this season is to run a little more than last year.

The Jays ended their Grapefruit League season against the Yankees, or at least many of the Yankees, at Grant Field Thursday with a 5-2 loss and they did indeed hot-foot it on the basepaths, with three steals. This, along with what seems to be daily error from Edwin Encarnacion at third base, were the more predictable parts of the game and Encarnacion actually had two boots, leading to two unearned runs.

“I think it’s important to manage to what you have,’’ Cito Gaston had said before the game, laying out the grand plan for what will be a long season in terms of wins and losses. “You can’t make chicken salad out of chicken (feathers) – and that’s not to say we have chicken (feathers) – it’s just that you can’t do it. I would not have a steal on for (glacial catcher Jose) Molina. I’m not going to do anything crazy, but we might open it up a little more.

“If it’s successful, fine. If it’s not, you’ve got to shut it down and find something else to do. What else can you do except increase your running game, the hit and run? Otherwise there’s not a whole lot else to day except sit there and wait for the three-run home run.’’

They have some power, but not the kind to wait on.

Aaron Hill stole a base in the third inning with two out and scored on Adam Lind’s double. Vernon Wells then beat out and infield single and he likewise stole second. Get used to it, although Lyle Overbay struck out to end the inning with the runners at second and third and people are already used to that.

A.J. Burnett was pitching for New York so, naturally, Jorge Posada was scratched at catcher shortly before game time. Burnett didn’t like pitching to Posada last season. He lasted 4 2/3 and looked so-so, touched for five hits and two runs. But it’s only spring training, even the end of it.

5-year-old Phillies fan steals the show

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Here’s the way it should be at spring training, and no, that doesn’t mean watching Roy Halladay pitch while wearing the red pinstripes of the Phillies.

It will take some time to get used to that sight.

But what was totally outstanding Wednesday at Bright House Field, the Phillies’ outstanding spring facility, was an impromptu pre-game show put on by a 5-year-old Phillies fan.

The curly headed little jasper, named Jack Duffy from Ambler, Pa., commenced dancing to a rap song during Phillies’ batting practice. A handful of players noticed and pointed and soon most of the stadium was watching the kid, who had all kinds of moves.

He had on a Ryan Howard shirt and Howard, in between swings, eventually called for a pen and signed a baseball and sent it up. Next thing you know the kid was on the field, invited down by Phillies personnel to meet his hero. They talked for a while, the kid showing Howard his batting stance, and then the little guy started dancing again, doing a couple of breakdance spin moves that literally flattened Howard, so hard was he laughing.

Eventually Howard also gave the kid a bat and posed for pictures, while the boy’s mother snapped away, and the kid retreated to the stands with his loot, while the fans applauded Howard. It was just a terrific unscripted moment, something that kid will remember forever, and every player in the majors should have seen how well Howard handled it. More fan interaction like this would go a long way.

Better to be at the dogs, or Molly's

TAMPA, Fla.  – This is an abomination. Spring training baseball games at night. What could be more ridiculous?

No wonder the dog-racing industry in Florida is in trouble.

Once again, call me old-fashioned, but spring training games, which are never, ever to be taken too seriously at the best of times, are meant to be played in daylight, after which you go to Derby Lane, the world capital of greyhound racing, or to Molly Goodhead’s for grouper and gator tails or the sponge docks in Tarpon Springs to get the Greek food.

Yes, the reason probably has something to do with money and there are games being televised back to Northern cities – although Rogers, the communications giant that owns the Blue Jays, hasn’t been able to figure that part of it out yet – and there probably is a market for night ball games someplace.

But there’s a practical side to hating it, too: With the possible exception of the Yankee digs here and maybe the Phillies’ palace over on Highway 19, you’re dealing with minor league parks with minor league lighting. There’s a vast difference in candlepower between the minor league parks and the big-league parks. We don’t want the poor millionaires straining their eyes.

Yes, it is here to stay, but that doesn’t mean it’s not just wrong.

Speaking of wrong, how nice to see your friends at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment going out and securing the soccer title game for Scheme-O Field. Let’s see now: The MLS soccer championship and they want more all-star games and one of those outdoor NHL games, all of them money-makers for good old MLSE.

But how about this: How about some playoff games for the Maple Leafs?

How many years has it been?

Forget about the Stanley Cup. How about one lousy playoff series? Is that too much to ask after all the money they’ve removed from fans over the years, not to mention taxpayers?

It’s great that MLSE keeps the focus on all those money-making one-offs that matter – or at least matter to them. Meanwhile, the competitive record of all its teams keep embarrassing the city.

Wouldn’t it be great to have an accountable owner who acts as if he understands what the only priority should be?

Of Brandon Morrow and Tippi Hedren

DUNEDIN, Fla. – It was like a Hitchcock movie over at the Blue Jays’ Bobby Mattick minor league complex this morning, although not for anything horrible seen on the field.

On the contrary, Brandon Morrow was pitching in a minor-league split-squad gig and the entire front office, plus manager Cito Gaston, braved the Dunedin traffic to slip over and watch the young man throw 53 pitches and look good doing it. He was matched up with Kyle Drabek, the other (they hope) rotation mainstay a couple of years from now, and everyone liked what they saw, both young men zipping in strikes. Morrow faced mostly AAA batters and Drabek pitched mostly to AA hitters.

For the record, Morrow retired 12 of 14 hitters, allowing a wind-blown double and a walk, while striking out four. He had four-out "innings"’ and they placed a runner on base to let him work from the stretch, simulating game conditions. Morrow later reported no after-effects from the so-called “dead arm’’ he had earlier in camp and he figures he’s good to go in Houston Saturday as the Jays try to squeeze him into this year’s rotation. They really want him in there, too.

So where does the Hitchcock stuff come from? Well, remember The Birds?

Tippi Hedren or Suzanne Pleshette or one of those babes was just starting to figure out the birds were going crazy in that little town. She wasn’t paying attention and then she looked around and there were like 5,000 black crows all around her, just sitting there quietly on swing sets and fences and such. It was totally spooky stuff, all right, and while they didn’t attack then, you knew it was coming.

Well, watching yesterday, leaning on one of those metal five-row grandstands and concentrating on the pitches, I missed every player in Blue Jays camp coming over to watch the show. There had to be 60 or 70 players, all dressed in black, sitting or standing, silently watching. Plus every minor-league coach, Gaston and Jays pitching coach Bruce Walton. The only ones not dressed in black were GM Alex Anthopoulous, a couple of reporters and PR types and Morrow’s wife.

Birds allusions aside, it surely was interesting watching big leaguers pitch – and Morrow throws mid-90s fastballs with a biting breaking ball – from up close like that, only a few feet away on the other side of the wire fence. Back in the day at the Mattick complex (and long before it was known as that) the press could go stand a few feet behind a catcher, again with a wire fence in play, and watch the pitchers throw a bullpen session. That close, you get an amazing sense of how the pitches break and run, in a way you don’t appreciate on TV. When a guy like Dave Stieb threw with his good stuff, you wondered how anyone could hit him with a paddle.

New putting tricks for two not-quite-old dogs

ORLANDO, Fla. – Mike Weir keeps waiting to put four good rounds together. Stephen Ames, meanwhile, needs two of them and right now.

Both men have changed their putting strokes, Weir going to a hurry-up kind of stroke that looks almost shocking, coming as it does from a guy who is oh-so- deliberate, with occasional gusts to glacial. Ames, meanwhile, is trying the left-hand-low, cross-handed style.

Ames is 45 and Weir will be 40 in May. Plenty of golfers a lot younger than them have gone to far more drastic putting styles: Remember Sergio Garcia briefly with a belly putter, or any number of youngsters trying the claw grip.

Weir is three shots out of the top spot on a crowded first page of leaders after shooting 73 to go with his opening 67. Ames, who needs a very good finish here – probably no worse than a solo tie for fifth -- to move up the four spaces in the world rankings he needs to be eligible for the Masters, worked hard to recover from Thursday’s one-over 73 with a one-under 71 that brings him back for the weekend.

Whatever happens on the weekend, both men are thinking about the longer term than the shorter. Perhaps both recognized that their careers had stalled and that they weren’t getting any younger.

They both look like different men on the greens. Ames, whose ball striking has been very good this year, simply needed to start making more putts and after two poor putting weeks in Hawaii, he went this route. You can see it in his play, the confident way he rolls the ball now.

He teed off at No. 10 and went two under on his first nine holes, making birdie at No. 12 from 11 feet and pitching within about an inch at 16 for another birdie. After saving par from the sand at No. 1, he knocked in a 10-footer at the third for birdie.His only poor putt was at the seventh, when he missed a five-footer for par after a nice bunker shot.

This round, like Weir’s, came in a windy afternoon when par was a good score. All the low scoring had come in the morning.

Weir has been hitting the ball well on recent Fridays. He shot 64 at the Honda, tying the course record along with a few others that day, and posted a 65 at Doral in the second round. On each occasion, he then backed up on the weekend to 26th place and after Honda, he shed his old putting style and adopted the new one.

“The last two events I’ve played really well on Fridays and stumbled on the weekend. I think I’m trying too hard on the weekend,’’ he said. “I’m within three or four (strokes) of the lead and I’m just trying too hard. I’ve been working so hard on my game. I think I need to relax a little bit and let it happen.

“I haven’t quite put four rounds together,’’ he said of a season in which his best finish is sixth at the Bob Hope in his 2010 debut. “I’ve been fighting myself a little bit.’’

Weir plans to take next week off and work on his game for the Masters, although he hasn’t scheduled any early practice trips to Augusta.

“I’m not really thinking about Augusta yet. I’m trying to do well this week. I think the best preparation is just playing well, gaining confidence going in there.

“If you’re marginal on your game, it gets exposed at Augusta more than anywhere.’’

Of good Fridays and half-grapefruits

ORLANDO, Fla. – Okay, it's Friday, still a couple of hours away from Mike Weir's tee time as this is written, and if Weir continues his recent pattern, this could be a good day for him.

He shot a five-under-par 67 Thursday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which left him one stroke off the lead. That lead has moved away this morning, Davis Love III shaving off three more strokes to turn at nine-under, but we'll see how everyone stands by dinner time.

Weir has been hitting the ball well on recent Fridays. He shot 64 at the Honda, tying the course record along with a few others that day, and posted a 65 at Doral in the second round. On each occasion, he then backed up on the weekend to 26^th place.

"The last two events I've played really well on Fridays and stumbled on the weekend. I think I'm trying too hard on the weekend," he said here. "I'm within three or four (strokes) of the lead and I'm just trying too hard. I've been working so hard on my game. I think I need to relax a little bit and let it happen.

"I haven't quite put four rounds together," he said of a season in which his best finish is sixth at the Bob Hope in his 2010 debut. "I've been fighting myself a little bit. Got off to a nice start (Thursday) and see if I can put four rounds together."

Weir plans to take next week off and work on his game for the Masters, although he hasn't scheduled any early practice trips up to Augusta.

"I'm not really thinking about Augusta yet. I'm trying to do well this week. I think the best preparation is just playing well, gaining confidence going in there.

"If you're marginal on your game, it gets exposed at Augusta more than anywhere."

On a totally unrelated matter, earlier this week, hanging around the practice tee soaking it all in, I watched a guy named Kevin Streelman work on his game. I don't know him at all, but was fascinated by his training regimen. For openers, he was hitting balls while balancing on these rubber-ball types things. Think of a half-grapefruit, about the size of a catcher's mitt, with a round bottom and flat top.

He had the round side down, one under each foot, and was balancing himself on the flat parts while hitting. Never saw that before.

He also had a rig, a hockey stick-shaped piece of plastic that attached to the club shaft, just below the grip, and bent back almost on to his wrist. If he cocked his wrists wrong on his backswing, the plastic would hit his wrists. Again, it seemed sensible, but you don't always see pros getting this tricky.

Anyway, at the ballpark Thursday, watching the Jays and checking the Bay Hill scores, right up there on the leader board, tied in fifth after shooting 68, was Kevin Streelman. So who ever knows, right?

Woods wins this round of "chess with press''

Tiger Woods either hasn’t been getting good advice about his dealings with the press -- or else he has been ignoring it – but there’s a smart touch to his scheduling of his Masters press conference.

Augusta National Monday evening sent out a press release stating Woods will make himself available in the press room on Monday, April 5, at 2 p.m., which from his point of view is a masterstroke.

He, or someone, knows that the final game of the NCAA tournament is always held that Monday evening, and that many of the top U.S. columnists do not arrive at Augusta until Tuesday. Further, on the grounds that no one can be in two places at once and that most big-league newspapers restrict their columnists to write one piece a day, the men and women booked for the basketball championship won’t be at Augusta and won’t be writing first-hand on Woods.

“Chess with the press’’ is how a friend in the business describes Woods’s recent dealings with the media; first a corporate announcement with no interaction, then two five-minute interviews with reporters well known to Woods. He also has staked out his ground emphatically: Anything about what happened the night of his car crash is, he said, “in the police report’’although there is almost nothing in the police report because they did not talk to him. Remember? He took a powder and never did speak to the cops. On many other topics, Woods claims it’s a private matter between himself and his wife and, surely, there’s that element to consider in his behalf.

This move, though, will further dampen the impact of his “facing’’ the media; the basketball game is a huge event in the U.S. and it will take away much of the play from any Woods grilling. And vice-versa.

It’s probably no coincidence that one of his media handlers is Glenn Greenspan, former media relations director at Augusta National who knows better than anyone the press room at Augusta is no more than about 40 per cent full on the Monday.

Smart move for Tiger. Finally.

  

 

   

Of apps, low left hands and changed names

ORLANDO, Fla. – You hear the darnedest things around a practice green at a PGA Tour event.

For instance, a few of the caddies, killing time Tuesday at Bay Hill while the boss hit balls, were comparing their iPhones and asking whether or not they had the "Tiger Text" app. In short, it's a program  that automatically erases messages 20 minutes after they are sent.

Naturally, this is named in honour of Tiger Woods, who was busted by his wife when she found incriminating text messages still on his phone, which he apparently left lying around the house. Something like that.

One other caddie had the new episode of South Park stored, the one that savages Woods for his infidelities, and was playing it for other caddies and players.

So, yes, he remains a subject of great interest among his competitors.

Nobody would take a rip at Woods on the record, perhaps out of fear that he might still be logging insults in his head and might be able to come back and do something about it, but he and his self-made predicament were being made sport of, for certain.

The other interesting thing heard on the putting green was from Stephen Ames. The Calgary resident, who now sits 54^th in the world rankings, needs something good here at the Arnold Palmer Invitational to hit the top 50 and regain a place in the Masters.

Ames recently took the somewhat drastic step of switching to cross-handed putting. This will be his third tournament putting with the left hand low and he likes it, the way it removes the wrists and makes it more of a shoulder-pendulum move through the ball. He particularly liked it after finishing sixth in last week's Transitions at Innisbrook.

"I'm working with a guy out of L.A., can't even remember his last name. I met him through a friend from Calgary and started doing it in L.A. and wow. It felt right. I haven't played much since L.A. This is my third week putting with it and I'm sure my stats have come down," he said. "I was 10^th in putting last week. I'm feeling more comfortable with it, noticing that it's much easier. I spend more time on putting than I ever have and each day I come out here it feels more and more comfortable."

He is longer off the tee this year and hitting more greens in regulation, but his putting stats had been something like 1 ¼ putts per round-- five a tournament -- higher than last year before he switched. He needs a good finish, something like a top-six or top-seven, to make the Masters. It appeared he had played his way in when he won the final event of 2009 at nearby Disney, but slipped badly in the point standing in the off-season.

"It's the points system. The win moved me literally nowhere," he said. "Then you look at certain other wins, like the Australian Open. Adam Scott went from 72^nd to 34^th by winning the Australian Open and I said, ‘You've got to be kidding me.' The whole points system is whacked . .. but all I can do is work my way back into it, which is what I'm trying to do."

Trying cross-handed, that is.

Ames then disappeared for lunch with Scott Simmonds, executive director of the former Royal Canadian Golf Association, soon to be officially now known as Golf Canada.

It sounds less snooty and allows for that old "re-branding," but as Joe Friday used to say, the names have been changed to protect the innocent.