golf

Commencement of random testing in professional golf commenced this week.

PGA Tour Starts Drug Testing
July 3, 2008
A new era began on the PGA Tour Tuesday with the start of drug testing.

No member of the PGA, Nationwide or Champions tours knows when he will be tested. The official start of the policy was Tuesday at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., site of the AT&T National hosted by Tiger Woods, who is out for the rest of the year after knee surgery.

Anabolic steroids, hormones and related substances, diuretics and other masking agents, drugs of abuse (marijuana and cocaine, for example), stimulants and beta blockers are some of the banned substances.

Penalties for violators include disqualification, forfeiture of prize money or FedEx Cup points, ineligibility and fines.



"I don't have a problem with testing," Steve Stricker said in a press conference at the AT&T National.

Stricker and others say their game is clean, but that in the era of drugs damaging other sports, it was time for the tour to start testing, too.

This winter each player received a 40-page manual, which included the list of banned substances ranging from anabolic steroids to stimulants.

Still, there's concern about some over-the-counter items.

"I'm worried when they say that people can have a 'hot' test from taking an over-the-counter drug, a medicine that you're taking for cholesterol or something," Kenny Perry said at the recent Travelers Championship in Cromwell. "That Amino Vital [sport drink] that we all drink, I drink that a lot, and they say that's not passed by the tour on the drug [list] they're using. It's passed by the Olympics, but not us."

There are those who maintain a player can gain distance and club-head speed by being stronger. And if it's artificially enhanced, drug testing is imperative.

Woods, an advocate for drug testing, agrees. During an AT&T National conference call Monday, he said he had himself tested twice in the past six months and said both tests were negative.