Not even Augusta mandates shirt colour

ORLANDO, Fla.

Here’s how seriously the Tavistock Cup takes itself. The annual inter-club exhibition between Isleworth and Lake Nona, which has been in the news this year chiefly because Tiger Woods chose not to play it, even requires reporters to dress in team colours.

No kidding. A nationally known golf writer from a leading industry publication showed up there Monday morning and was told he needed to wear either a red or blue logoed shirt, in order to blend in with the gallery, mostly members and measured in the dozens, there rooting on all the big-name pros who belong to either of the clubs, which are about 25 miles apart.

By the way, blue is for Lake Nona and red is for Isleworth, if you’re scoring at home.

He was offered a choice of official shirts to wear, but decided he wasn’t there to be a walking advertisement for either club and simply left, rather than wear the team colours. A wire-service reporter later had a similar experience. Both men were dressed entirely appropriately for admittance to any golf club.

The Tavistock Cup is essentially a promotional tool for the two clubs to attract interest and therefore to sell real estate. Woods, a member at Isleworth, usually plays it, but chose this year to go directly to Augusta National and make his return from his self-imposed exile for serial infidelity at the Masters.

Augusta National, in case you wondered, does not require anyone except its members to wear green.

Maybe Woods knows what's best for his golf game

This would fall under the category of "He must know what he's doing.''

It is probably not surprising that Tiger Woods is coming back for the Masters, given that his career-long pursuit of Jack Nicklaus's record for major professional championships has been his competitive driving force since he turned pro.

What is surprising, at least here, is that he is going in cold, having not played in some five months, since before he went for that short drive in late November and had his public life turned inside out.

No Tavistock Cup. No Bay Hill. He said he will go straight into Augusta National, a place he has won four times but not, it should be noted, since 2005 and the past four years he has been as honed as he ever was for the first major of the season.

Is this a tall order competitively? It certainly looks like it, given that the only time he has ever played a major off this much of a layoff, after his father died a few years ago, he missed the cut at the U.S. Open for the first time in one of golf's four biggest tournaments.

But what the hey. As it said earlier, he knows all the facts and how he feels and knows exactly where his game is, or where it figures to be in three weeks. He doesn't go anywhere to embarrass himself, or at least he hasn't in the past. So if this is his decision, he has earned the benefit of the doubt. If he doesn't know what's best for his golf game, who does?

Augusta probably is of two minds on this one. For certain, it wants Woods around, knowing what he does to TV numbers worldwide and for generating over-all interest in the tournament. On the other hand, Augusta won't tolerate a freak show and/or rowdy ranters heckling him. There's always plenty of security at Augusta, plus a strict policy against cell phones and cell-phone cameras (they search at the gates). Then again, they serve $2.50 beers.

Can't believe Woods would go to Augusta cold

There are conflicting reports on when Tiger Woods will return to playing golf and the best guess here is that he will not go into the Masters cold, i.e. without a tournament under his belt.

The only time he ever went into a major after a layoff was the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, when he missed the cut at a major for the first time in his career. That was after his father died and he was absent for nine weeks. (Incorrect information was edited into a wire-service story in Friday’s Star. It has happened only once.)

Would he go in cold again? Hard to believe, at least here. I suspect he will play in the Tavistock Cup, March 22-23 at his own Isleworth course in Windermere, Fla. That’s an inter-club exhibition against the nearby Lake Nona Club, where Ernie Els and Annika Sorenstam, among many other big-name golfers, are members. The public isn’t allowed in, hardly any press, and the no-pressure Tavistock might be a comfortable place for him to return to competition without his love life taking centre stage.

As well, a little voice here says Augusta National wants Woods to play a full tournament, such as Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill, which runs March 25 to 28, and get the inevitable media circus out of the way before he arrives at Augusta. That way the hubbub from Woods’s first real press conference would not overshadow the Masters in anyway.

That part makes sense here. Sooner or later he’s going to face a grilling. Bay Hill, the only tournament Woods has never missed as a professional and one he has won several times, is held only about three miles from his favourite fire hydrant.

On the other hand, obtaining a Masters media credential is next to impossible, particularly at this time of year, which keeps out the tablod types. Plus, the Augusta fan base, identified by bar-coded badges and tickets, tends to be more golf-centric and less prone to shouting out rude remarks and heckles. Spectators, who live in fear of having their badges confiscated forever, can be more easily controlled at – and be tossed from -- the Masters by the enormous security presence than at Bay Hill or anywhere else.

Woods has hired Ari Fleischer, the former White House spokesman who runs a crisis-control P.R. firm for IMG, the agent firm that also handles Woods. IMG also has a strong presence at Bay Hill, given that Palmer was the first client signed by Mark McCormick, the late cornerstone of IMG. At Augusta, by comparison, IMG has little power or influence.

We will know about Bay Hill by next Friday at the latest; a player needs to commit to the following week’s tournament by Friday afternoon.

Foghorn signals the perfect ending

VANCOUVER, B,C. – A foghorn here in the harbour just belted out the first four notes of O Canada, eliciting another roar from all corners. Between that and the car horns blasting downtown, it’s a sure sign that Canada just won its record 14th gold medal, but more importantly the one gold medal it would sacrifice any other to get: The men’s hockey bauble.

Terrific game, 3-2 over the U.S. on Sidney Crosby’s overtime winner, and now the men are parading around the rink. No cigars or under-age drinking yet and speaking of that kerfuffle, which arose after the women’s team likewise beat the U.S. to win gold, wasn’t that a whole lot about nothing?

Some people think that on the same day IOC president Jacques Rogge put women’s hockey on life support, perhaps they shouldn’t have been doing anything to draw unwanted attention to themselves.

But others would suggest the IOC, given its history, is the last body in the world that should be examining the alleged moral failings of other groups. And besides, when that Canadian skeleton gold-man, Jon Montgomery, paraded through the streets of Whistler drinking from a pitcher of beer, it was considered a moment of pure irrepressible Canadiana. Plus, he was escorted four four Mounties who clearly considered the circumstances and decided to look the other way on the open-container stuff.

But enough of all that. They’re dancing in the streets out here, justifiably overjoyed at this sweetest of all endings, and let’s hope that’s as robust as the activity gets as the evening wears on.

Sitting out Brian McKeever is a terrible call

WHISTLER, B.C. – Congratulations, sincerely, to Alex Harvey, Ivan Babikov, George Grey and Devon Kershaw, Canada’s men’s cross-country team at these Olympics. They didn’t win any medals, but a couple came close and they have had some outstanding performances in a sport in which Canadian men historically are seldom competitive.

That said, unless they finish 1-2-3-4 in Sunday’s 50-kilometre mass start, whoever made the boneheaded decision to leave Brian McKeever, the legally blind athlete who had a chance to make history as the first Paralympian to compete in the Games, should be fired. Immediately.

KEVIN MCGRAN/TORONTO STAR

Brian McKeever speaks to reporters in the mixed zone at Whistler Olympic Park on Feb. 27, 2010.

This is an appalling decision that disgraces the entire organization – an organization that exploited this athlete for publicity purposes without cautioning that he might get dumped at the last second. Surely we can hope someone at a higher level gets it and revises the starting list. Or else one of the other four athletes graciously steps aside.

Do the Olympics need to be entirely about numbers? Does sport always need to be strictly about winning and losing? Can the global inspiration provided by this young man, spread by worldwide media interest since he was named to the team, not figure into things?

Does someone named Inge Braten, the coach who said he needed “to be professional’’ and therefore left McKeever off the team, according to official sources, not understand the situation here?

“I have to choose those guys who are best for the 50-km race,’’ he said, which is fine in any other kind of situation. But we’re dealing with a bigger issue he obviously cannot see.

Good luck to the four guys he named – two of whom were complaining of tiredness earlier in the week when they finished well back in the relay race – but they have all raced at these Games.

McKeever, and all he represents, can’t get one shot to make history? Not one of those four guys can step aside and say, “Go ahead, take my spot?’’

That’s not the spirit of the Olympics – or the spirit of sport. Not to me, anyway.

Bobsleds, true 24-karat gold, to finish in style

WHISTLER, B.C.–All medals are created equal at an Olympic Games, at least in theory. But we all have our favourites, those sports and games we consider 24-karat gold, as opposed to 18-karat or 10-karat or whatever that guy on Eglinton Avenue with the crazy TV commercials about buying your gold is willing to take.

This personal list of 24-karat winter Olympic sports includes hockey, Alpine skiing, figure skating and . . . bobsled.

Not knocking anything else, but those are the ones whose medals shine a little brighter in these eyes and having seen Canadian women destroy the opposition to win gold and silver, all eyes turn to Friday’s four-man bobsled, the granddaddy of them all, the one in which Vic Emery and his Canadian upstarts, a couple of them wearing football helmets, won the gold medal in 1964 in probably the greatest upset in the sport’s history.

Pierre Lueders has won Olympic gold and silver and before Kallie Humphries took gold and Hellen Upperton the silver, Emery and Lueders were the extent of Canada’s Olympic podium finishes. Lueders has had troubles keeping teammates over the years, but he’s the face of the sport in Canada and is a strong sentimental choice on his home track.

Lyndon Rush is the younger, less expereinced pilot but has the outstanding starting push of Lascelles Brown on his side.

So there is plenty of rooting interest as they go up against the typically strong Swiss, dreamy Americans (who are 62 years with a gold) and, of course, the great German Andre Lange, who is seeking his third consecutive four-man gold and fifth over-all. He and Kevin Kuske, who looks like an NFL linebacker, only bigger and faster, won the two-man.

Adding intrigue to the competition is the reputation for danger of the Whistler Sliding Centre track – it has been taking a beating for weeks here – and the withdrawal of four teams so far, those from the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Australia, all for reasons to do with crashes and injuries or, in the case of Edwin Van Calker of the Netherlands, because he simply lacked confidence that he could handle the course. It’s the last big event of the Games up here and it looks like a great finale.

Where the golds fit, and too many blue rings

WHISTLER, B.C. – Sitting up here, waiting for the bobsleds to roll and watching that great Canadian, Clara Hughes, go out with another Olympic medal, it seems that for Canada right now, it’s six of one and half-dozen of the other.

That is six gold medals and six silver or bronze, including Hughes’s in the 3,000-metre speedskating, and while there are plenty more medals heading for the Canadian pile in the next few hours and days, we should all note that six golds represent the same number won at Nagano and is only one below the seven won at Salt Lake and Turin. Prior to that Canada had won more than two Winter Games golds only once, and that was three at Lillehammer in 1994.

In terms of Summer Games golds won, other than the boycotted Los Angeles Games of 1984, whose 10 come with an asterisk, the high-water mark there was seven at Barcelona in 1992.

Just pointing all that out for the sake of argument, because there will be plenty when the final medals count, and what it all means, is being batted around.

Speaking of counting, the security crew tends to operate on a strictly random basis here at these Games. Upon entry into any secure Olympic venue, whether a sports site or a media centre, our bar-coded credentials are scanned and our faces pop up on a laptop next to the scanner. The person checks to make sure we are who we are credentialled to be. There’s a coloured ring around our pictures on the laptop; green means in you go with a cheery wave. A blue ring means you get searched, like a standard airport search.

Scuttlebutt says 1 in 10 arrivals is searched on a random basis, but in the first 10 days here, I was searched only once. No big deal; it takes about two extra minutes and for some reason they decide to frisk only your left ankle.

Well, that was then. My number keeps coming up; five of the past nine entrances to venues I have been blue-ringed. Either than flies in the face of randomness, they know something, or I am due for a hot streak.

On bets, BlackBerries and bobsleds

WHISTLER, B.C. -- Not that this really means who will win and lose, but before the women’s bobsleds began last night in the rainy gloom of the Whistler Sliding Centre, a guy looked up the betting odds, just for fun.

Lo and behold, the sled driven by Kallie Humphries is the favourite on Interbet betting sites at plus-$200, or 2 to 1. Germany;s Kathleen Martini is next at plus-$275, Sandra Keriasis is third choice at 3 to 1 and Canada’s Helen Upperton is fourth pick at 5 to 1.

For those thinking pucks, it was expensive to bet on Canada against Germany; Canada was 4½-goal favourite and even laying that many goals, you needed to lay $140 to win $100.

There is time to check things like odds on the hand-held whilst riding the buses around, from venue to venue. British Columbia apparently has different traffic laws from Ontario. Leaving Whistler Olympic Park, we sat on a bus for about 15 minutes waiting for the departure time. The instant he pulled out, the driver was on his BlackBerry, chatting away to whomever. Wouldn't that be illegal in Ontario?

Good thing these are not exactly those winding Alpine roads, like the ones in France. Back in ’92, the road up from Albertville was so twisty and sharp-cornered that a Toronto columnist with a fear of heights (not this one) lost his lunch on the bus to the point he had to change hotels from the one up the hill. And those same Games, the road to Les Saisies was so wild a ride, particularly coming down, that Dave Anderson, the terrific New York Times columnist, nicknamed the press bus “the 44-man bobsled.’’

We all survived.

Say, the hockey game just started and how about that first shot of Martin Brodeur sitting on the bench? He looked like he just found out the hard way that someone else farted.

Spectacular views and Chief Wahoo, too

WHISTLER, B.C.

There’s one thing about going to work every day on a chairlift, which is how you do it if you cover skiing or sliding sports around here.

You either don’t do it or you get over your fear of heights.

In less than two weeks, I have gone from a nervous passenger, gripping the safety bar with both hands and never looking down, to talking on the phone, pointing and waving, that kind of thing. If I saw a bear I might throw gum at it.

But Monday I tried the ultimate fear-of-heights test, this sensational engineering marvel known as the Peak2Peak, the world’s longest gondola ride, stretching mountain to mountain, from Whistler to Blackcomb or, if you’re coming from the other direction, from Blackcomb to Whistler.

Well. What a ride. Views more breathtaking that you can imagine. Thousands of skiers and snowboarders baking in the sun on one side and, 2.73 miles away across the valley, thousands of skiers and snowboarders baking in the sun on the other side.

It takes 11 or 12 minutes to get across in big, comfortable mostly glass-sided gondolas that seat 22 (so the sign says) and accommodate six more standees. That’s a lot of people, plus ski poles and skis and helmets – and one guy was apparently skiing in a Cleveland Indians batting helmet and who ever figured you could meet Chief Wahoo up here?

At the middle of the ride, even with the steel cables sagging what look like a couple of hundred feet, because the two support towers are 1.88 miles apart, the distance above the little creek in the bottom of the valley is 1,427 feet, according to the signs.

You can look straight down from some of the cars – two of the 28 have glass floors, for which you can line up separately – and that’s the acid test if you have the height heebie-jeebies.

But no. Not one short breath. And no bears to throw things at.

If you ever get out here, take the ride. It’s unforgettable.

'Heartbroken' Hollingsworth starts looking to 2014

WHISTLER, B.C. – Considering the devastation she has gone through since Friday night and will continue to endure all because of a little mistake in the heat of competition, Mellisa Hollingsworth is either courageous or crazy to want to put herself through the four-year wringer once more.

Or maybe a little of both.

She wanted to talk to the country Sunday morning. She wanted not to hide but to talk, to unburden herself, to say she’ll be back for Sochi in 2014, to thank total strangers who sent her more than 500 messages — but no marriage proposals – telling her to keep her chin up.

“Every one of them let me know I didn’t let my country down,’’ she said and tears flowed again. “I want to tell Canada thank you for being so supportive. Thank you for the compassion and understanding.’’

She said she did nothing Saturday except lie in bed all day wondering, as she put it, “Why did I make a mistake like that in the biggest moment of my career?’’

The mistake, she indicated, was being off-line about an inch heading into a critical corner in Friday night’s final run, the gold medal – and only the gold medal – squarely in her sights. That inch on the entry translated to the wrong exit point and ping-ponged her off the wall, what she called “two big exploding hits,’’ that dropped her to fifth place.

“Fifteen years of work and training and it comes down to this,’’ she said, holding her hands four feet apart. “The difference between first and fifth place. It’s heartbreaking.’’

Most of us cannot imagine how she feels, how all the hard work and dedication and sacrifice can be undone by that inch. Yet she wants to come back for more and it is entirely up to her; if she wants to pay that price for four more years, knowing the ultimate reward can disappear by such a tiny margin, more power to her.

As she lay in bed Saturday, she began reading the messages, talked with family and friends. She got up at 5 p.m. and went to the medal ceremony for Jon Montgomery, her skeleton teammate who seized the golden moment, and with the support of friends and family began stitching her life together again: And what it said was four more years.

She said her decision was set when she sat alone and dumbfounded after the competition, “sitting in shock and hoping for a do-over,’’ she said, and her coach told her she had nailed the start. First time the world’s best in her event had ever had the fastest start, 4.93 seconds.

“I did it. My training had paid off. That’s what we work 15 years for, the hundredths of a second, and I had finally done it. That’s when 2014 flashed through my mind.’’

In the big picture, on a track where a Georgian slider had been killed – which had its upsetting effect on every competitor, Hollingsworth included – winning or not winning a skeleton race is a matter of perspective. Canada will still win plenty of medals at these Games, although maybe one less than everyone thought.

Hollingsworth also spoke for a moment about Joannie Rochette, who lost her mother Saturday night, and that jarring development helped her regain her own perspective.

“This isn’t the worst thing she has gone through,’’ insisted her proud father, Darcy. “When she didn’t make the (Olympic) team in 2002, that was worse. This time she had an opportunity. That time she didn’t.’’

And it sounds as if she wants to invest the sweat to give herself another one.

“I want to be on top of that podium,’’ she said.

Dry-land training begins in May.