So Sergio is ahead of the pack and it is beginning to look like maybe, just maybe this could be his year to throw that major monkey off his back. However unless somebody goes ballistic majors aren’t won on Thursday’s, especially Open Championships at Carnoustie.

With this in mind we bring you the other major story to come out in golf during Open week. Player doping, and we’re not talking about Gary chuffing on Jamaican Woodbines. The South African 9 time major winner and fittest 71 year old since Methuselah has spoken out against the use of steroids in golf.

We don’t want to start telling people we told you so, but, we told you so. Back in November last year we blogged the denial of LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens that drugs exist in the women’s game. Even more prophetically back in May 2006 we reported on the US PGA rejecting claims of drug abuse on tour. We were a little sceptical then and GP agrees with GP, which is nice.

This story is brought to you Christine Brennan from usatoday.com. Take it away Chrissie.

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — After months of self-serving, often-elitist denial, golf officially entered the steroid era Wednesday, dragged into the netherworld of 21st-century sports not by a positive drug test, but by a 71-year-old legend who last won a major championship nearly 30 years ago. It was about time. Somebody had to do it.

Gary Player…. assuredly stated what no one in his game has had the courage to publicly say before: that international golfers are taking performance-enhancing drugs and getting away with it because the sport does not yet have drug testing.

”I know that there are golfers (taking performance-enhancing drugs), whether it's HGH (human growth hormone), whether it's creatine, or whether it's steroids, I know for a fact that some golfers are doing it," he said in a news conference on the eve of the 136th British Open.


Gary Player speaks out.

"The greatest thing that the R&A (which runs the British Open), the USGA and the PGA can do is have tests at random. It's absolutely essential that we do that. We're dreaming if we think it's not going to come into golf."

For more on this story click here

For more on the US PGA comments about drugs on the US tour click here…

For more on the LPGA’s comments about drugs in women’s golf click here…

7/19/2007 1:20:21 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0]