Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Golf Embraces Anti-Doping

Golf is taking doping seriously. And about time too. Professional golf has taken another step away from its antiquated past when the worlds major tours decided to introduce drug testing at the highest level of the men’s game next year. The assertion that there are drugs in golf has gone from widely ignored to attention stealing headline in recent years with this move seen as admission something has to be done about it.



This move is seen by some as opening the door for golf to become an Olympic sport, however the European, PGA and Asian tours have not adopted the full list of substances proscribed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, including human growth hormones. At first we thought this was not a big enough step but golf has argued that HGH testing is in it’s infancy and is not regarded as infallible. We think this is a reasonable stance. After all we don’t want a golfing Marion Jones on our hands, where one of the games top players is falsely accused of gaining an unfair advantage. Incidents like this unfortunately colour public opinion about the player and raise doubts about the validity of testing.

But the fact that some drugs are tested for and others not got us thinking. Should testing be about performance enhancing drugs or drugs full stop? Is it up to sport to set an example that it will not tolerate the use of illegal drugs or just to catch people who use drugs to cheat?

We’d love to know your thoughts. Either vote, post a comment or join the debate on the GOLFPUNK Forum thread Drugs In Golf.

Or post on anything else at www.golfpunkonline.com/forum

For more on drug testing in golf click here…

Five Things We’d Like Added To The ‘Banned’ List.

M&Ms – It may spell the end for John Daly but at least Marshal Mathers won’t be the new Tarby.

Belly Putters – If taking Nandrolin is cheating these pendulum putting monstrosities deserve at least a caution.

Tiger’s Trousers – They are bound to put his opponents off.

Fans Screaming “Get In The Hole” No Matter What – No further explanation needed. We need this blight out of our game.

The Leather Wedge – (It is – Rules Ed)




9/19/2007 2:02:21 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #  Comments [3] 


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