10. WADA Hell is Going on in Golf
Having succumbed itself to a rigorous 13 weeks of drug testing last summer in order to qualify for the Olympics, the game of golf in general and the PGA Tour in particular has reverted to its old clandestine ways when it comes to one of the most important questions in contemporary sport; can you truly believe in what you are watching?
Whilst top tennis stars such as Andy Murray and athletes like Usain Bolt require to advise their national anti-doping agency where they will be for a nominated hour each and every day of the year, golfers calmly go about their business without a care in the world.
The R&A, the USGA and the European Tour all insist that regular but unspecified testing takes place at a number of their various events, whist the PGA Tour simply thumbs its nose to sporting convention; the only element of the sport that has fully embraced drug testing from education to testing is the LPGA and they are to be congratulated for that.
The routine response when questioned on the issue of doping in golf is the hoary old chestnut, that, ‘There isn’t a drug available that could enhance a golfer’s game.’
Really?
In a game where brute strength is now a prerequisite, could the use of Anabolic Steroids or Human Growth Hormone (HGH) not help one player to out-drive another by a crucial 10, 15 or 20 yards, maybe shave a shot or two off the scorecard?
And in a sport where a missed pressure putt could cost a player significant six-figure sum and / or a tasty sponsor’s bonus, would beta-blockers not help calm the nerves as they have done, in the past, in snooker.
Meanwhile, performance-enhancing drugs need not necessarily enhance the performance there and then; many doping violations take place out of competition, to enhance training capacity, or expedite recovery from a potentially-expensive injury, which is the rationale behind the ‘Whereabouts Rule.’
But, as the saying goes, ‘If you don’t go looking, you won’t find anything,’ and golf is in denial when it comes to not only the possibility of a doping problem, but also the doubt that avoidance of the issue casts over the image of a game supposedly based on the ultimate integrity.
However, the elephant in the room is recreational drugs, such as cocaine or cannabis, and nobody will ever convince me that, given that sport and golf reflect society at large, that a travelling circus of wealthy young men with time on their hands and money to burn, does not have at least a handful of lads who might do a line of coke or smoke a spliff from time to time.
That’s what was rumoured to have happened to a certain Dustin Johnson went on a sabbatical to, ‘Confront his demons,’ yet the PGA Tour conveniently used personal privacy as camouflage, before nominating a player who should have been serving a ban as their Player of the Year.
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