The PGA Tour Drug Testing Policy: Much Ado About Nothing or The Tip of an Iceberg?

Sep 25, 2014; Auchterarder, Perthshire, SCT; European players Henrik Stenson (left) helps Justin Rose (right) do a fist pump as they walk down the 8th fairway during practice for the 2014 Ryder Cup at The Gleneagles Hotel-PGA Centenary Course. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

The PGA Tour drug testing policy is beginning to feel like the Black Hole of Calcutta.  First it was deer antler spray, which may or may not actually be on the list of banned substances, and may or may not have an effect on athletic performance, but got Vijay Singh a public slap on the wrist for using it.  Then there was Dustin Johnson, who may or may not have failed a random (or not-so-random) drug test, (or two, or maybe even three), who may or may not have used cocaine (and or marijuana) recreationally, and who may or may not have been suspended from Tour play.  Then  Tiger Woods fell victim to rumormongering and John Daly told it like he saw it.

Through it all the tabloids, Twitterverse, and various pro golf publications have chewed all these stories over endlessly and, I add, with considerable futility.  The PGA Tour’s not talking.  Official lips are sealed, except to issue denials and no comments.  But the issue just won’t go away.  To the contrary, it’s turned into a PR nightmare.

Viagra might be the only one that’s going to get you anywhere . . .

Henrik Stenson has now weighed in.  At the pre-

Valspar Championship

press conference the number three-ranked golfer disclosed that he’s tested about three times a year and doesn’t regard it as a big deal, regardless of what Daly says.  Stenson didn’t stop there, however.  Perhaps recognizing that golf’s a sport that doesn’t require extraordinary physical strength, he went on to suggest what drugs might be most useful in enhancing performance for pro golfers.  I’m assuming Stenson implicitly excluded LPGA and LET players in his opining.

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Stenson’s quip aside, one would think that the professional golf industry would be a bit more forward-thinking and a bit more transparent when it comes to monitoring PED use.  After all, at some point in the next 12 months golfers, like all other Olympian athletes, are going to be subject to a comprehensive and utterly transparent drug-testing program; and the penalties for violation of IOC regulations are severe.

Still, golf as a sport is relatively inexperienced at confronting the use of performance-enhancing drugs, a behavior fueled by the competitive drive and the struggle of all athletes to transcend ordinary physical limitations, a struggle surely as old as athletic competition itself.

Early Greek Olympians used a variety of potions including hallucinogens to improve their performance during competition, as did Roman gladiators, who added strychnine to combat the fatigue of battle.  Dosing was delicate and critical and not always precise.

Nineteenth century athletes discovered the value of cocaine to sustain athletic performance during prolonged exertion.  That practice that continued until 1928 when the first prohibitions against the use of performance-enhancing drugs by competitive athletes was enacted by the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF). 

The IOC introduced anti-doping controls in 1968 at the Winter Games in Grenoble, France.  Major League baseball didn’t officially address the matter until 1991.  But the Barry Bonds steroid scandal in in 2003 and the various NFL struggles over the past two decades make very clear that even in the face of strong policies prohibiting the use of PEDs in athletic competition, both athlete compliance and organizational enforcement remain problematic.

As Golf prepares to step back into the Olympic arena the PGA Tour is ideally positioned to provide leadership within the sport and to craft a policy that effectively addresses the use of performance enhancing drugs.  It can only do so, however, by devising regulation and enforcement strategies that are effective and transparent, not ones that in effect have generated public ridicule and denigration.

Next: What's The Real Problem With the PGA Tour Drug Testing Program?