Source: Tiger built brawn over years
A former local high school athlete wants to offer some perspective on the subject of trainer Keith Kleven's work with Tiger Woods.
Pat Curran, Nevada's Class A player of the year in 2000 and 2001 while rushing for 4,500 yards at The Meadows, said he went to Kleven for 16 years, starting with knee problems at age 10.
During his junior and senior years at The Meadows and the summer before college, he was a regular at Kleven's institute, starting training sessions at 5 a.m. Woods was among the few people there at that hour, he said.
That would indicate Woods' physical transformation "did not happen overnight as your column seems to suggest," Curran said.
Curran was responding to Sunday's column, which included reports that Kleven has come under a cloud of suspicion after performance-enhancing drugs were discovered by authorities in October in a car belonging to a Toronto doctor who faces charges of supplying a substance deemed illegal by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
According to the published reports, that doctor, Tony Galea, supplied Woods this year with "blood spinning," a platelet-rich plasma injection therapy to help him recover faster physically.
Curran, in his e-mail, said that when he was 17 he lifted 300 pounds on the bench, "which I thought was pretty good" until Kleven told him he was "still behind Tiger."
Woods, Curran said, "is probably one of the best-conditioned athletes ever and this is all thanks to his tremendous dedication, and the skill and knowledge of Mr. Kleven.
"Tiger's physique took shape over several years, and it was not 'out of the ordinary' for someone who followed a training regimen designed and supervised by Keith."
He added that Kleven "is one of the premier PTs (physical trainers) and athletic trainers in the world and I can't say enough about just how amazing he and his staff are. I, myself, put on 30 pounds of muscle starting the summer before my junior year at Meadows and leading up to my freshman year of college football."
THE HAUCK CONNECTION
Back in my early sportswriting days during the late 1960s, a friend of mine during my tenure as sports editor of the Billings (Mont.) Gazette was Tom Hauck, an assistant coach at Billings Senior High School.
Tom and his brother, Bob, who became a football coaching legend at nearby Big Timber, came out of Butte, a mining town known for double-tough football teams.
Bobby Hauck, named UNLV's new football coach last week after an 80-17 run at the University of Montana, played for his dad at Big Timber.
As for Tom Hauck, he's been coaching the Grizzlies' defensive tackles for more than a decade.
Another old Montana friend, Scott Wilson, recalls being the team manager for Montana's football team in the early 1980s. His counterpart for the basketball team and then-Montana coach Mike Montgomery was a teenager named Bobby Hauck.
THE SCENE AND HEARD
Brando's Bar & Grill at 2973 Industrial Road has come up with a quintessential Vegas promotion: porn star karaoke. Every Tuesday, from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., a porn star hosts Karaoke XXX, which includes a best-breasts contest. Sunset Thomas launched the sexy sing-a-long on Dec.1. Trinity James is up next at Brando's. A surprise guest host is scheduled for Jan. 8, the week of the Adult Film Awards (AVN).
SIGHTINGS
Jerry Seinfeld, at Texas Station on Sunday morning, taking in the movie "Sherlock Holmes." ... Philadelphia Eagles outfielder Shane Victorino, at the Playboy Club (Palms) on Sunday, playing blackjack with UFC President Dana White. At Moon nightclub (Palms) on Sunday: Australian skateboarder Jake 'Ironman' Brown.
THE PUNCH LINE
"It turns out 'El Niño' is Spanish for snowdrift." -- Brad Dickson, Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald sports columnist, after one of the worst storms in years hit the Midwest.
Norm Clarke can be reached at 702-383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find additional sightings and more online at www.normclarke.com.
