LPGA Drug Testing

From AP:

The LPGA Tour will start testing players for drugs in 2008, making it the first major golf tour to announce a drug-testing program.  Specifics of the testing plan have not been developed and will be worked on over the next six to nine months, LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens said Wednesday.

"While we have no evidence to date that any of our players are using performance-enhancing drugs, we need to have a very clear policy and a program in place," Bivens said. "We want to take a proactive role."

"We have a great group of guys out here calling penalties on themselves, let alone thinking about drug tests."

Greg Hardwig in the Naples News talked to various Shark Shootout contestants about the idea of drug testing.

"If you were to do that (steroid testing), I think it'd be an interesting thing to do," says Fred Couples. "I know the sponsors would probably support you, but I think the tour would work something out to suspend you. I'm not for it; I'm not against it. I think it would be very interesting.

"The next question would be, do you think anyone's on steroids? I would say I have no idea, which would probably mean that someone is on them."

Okay!

And now for the fantasyland perspective:

"If you suspect someone, yes, but what we have now is probably OK," says Scott Verplank. "If they suspect something's going on, the commissioner has the right to basically levy any penalty he wants, where if we go with some drug testing policy, we're going to have to negotiate through lawyers what the stipulations are going to be, and it's going to be a lot more difficult.

"As long as we have a competent man as commissioner, I think we're probably going to be OK."

And...

"I'd like to think that golfers as a whole are doing the right things out there — to be honest, I don't know a whole lot about that stuff — but I don't think it would be that beneficial anyway," J.J. Henry says. "We have a great group of guys out here calling penalties on themselves, let alone thinking about drug tests."

"Pertaining to specificity"

I'm not clear where Bob Verdi was going with this Golf World column on the PGA Tour's potential drug testing policy. He seems to think this is mostly a a product of the European media.

So where's the beef? Primarily from the media, since it is our duty to make sure all is well in the world. For some reason, most of the pressure is being applied by the European press. At a gathering during the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August, one of my lodge brothers from across the pond asked Finchem how he could know no golfers are taking drugs if he didn't test them? A fair question. Finchem stressed that golf embraces an honorable culture in which players penalize themselves with no one else looking. That didn't fly with the interrogator. Understand, I have many respected peers in the international press, but I wonder about their drug fixation.

The column did yield this doublespeak dandy from the Commissioner:

So at next week's tour policy board meeting, he and his people will continue drafting a manifesto Finchem characterizes as "pertaining to specificity."

Durant: No Drug Testing Anytime Soon

Since none of the slingers assembled for Commissioner Finchem's press conference asked about his about face on drug testing, policy board member Joe Durant was asked about it after second round play. It would seem--shocking as it may be--that the issue has been tabled for the foreseeable future.

Q. Is drug testing on the agenda? I think Finchem raised the possibility that that would be something you would raise at this one.

JOE DURANT: We talked about it at the PAC meeting in Tampa. We talked about setting some type of standard or some type of process, trying to be proactive about it. But as far as details, not at this time.

And...

Q. On the drug testing thing, was it a lack of consensus or just too complicated an issue to get into this late in the year? What was your gut on that from what they were telling you?

JOE DURANT: More just the complication of the thing, because there's obviously different criteria or different screening done for different sports. We just want to make sure that we go about it the right way.

Q. Do you think it'll happen?

JOE DURANT: I would be surprised if it didn't at some point in the future.

Q. Do you think it'll happen during your tenure on the board?

JOE DURANT: Don't know.

Q. Do you think it's good from a credibility standpoint to kind of get in front of it versus waiting for something to happen and lightning crashing down and all bad things?

JOE DURANT: I personally do, yeah. I think the sport has been clean for this long and I want to keep it that way. We all do.

Not What The Kids Can Want

Former NY Times writer Robert Lipsyte pens an LA Times opinion piece on steroids in sports and wonders what all of the angst is about, yet says that no one "under 21 should take steroids because of the unknown effect on developing bodies and brains." 

The way I see it, we're all complicit in the superstars' need for the needle — we fans, coaches, parents, owners and media (I'm a recovering sportswriter myself). We demand that they attempt superhuman feats to thrill us, authenticate us, make us rich and proud — and they need superhuman help to satisfy us. (We also want our Whole Foods food before it rots, so long-haul truck drivers pop speed.) And we don't want to know about the process. When it's jammed in our faces, when athletes come up "dirty" in testing (or truck drivers jackknife on the interstate), we demand that they be punished and expurgated from our fantasies.

This pattern of denial and demonization is our problem, not theirs. Steroid use in sports is a symptom of our disease more than theirs, and a fascinating, if tinted, window on jock culture and its connection to the complicated, dangerous, exhilarating way manhood is measured in America, from the field house to the White House.

And yet...

As the ideal of sportsmanship gave way to the tactics of gamesmanship, it seemed as though the win-at-all-costs virus infected professional athletics just as it infects all aspects of American life, including, most visibly, politics and big business. Or, as some sports apologists claimed, sports had fallen victim to the ills of the larger society.

So why should we care what those players use as long as they entertain us?

As a tunnel-visioned sports fan, I don't. (Although as a father, grandfather and a shooter of steroids, I simply don't understand how we can make no national effort to screen the thousands of young, under-21 high school and college abusers.)

Wow, that's quite a rationalization. Okay for adults, but no one under 21 will be allowed to use steroids. Oh yeah, that'll really keep the kids from wanting to sample steroids! Great idea! 

It's a Tie!

Idaho Statesman column Brian Murphy (no, I couldn't find his first name) polled players at the Nationwide event on drug testing in golf.

During the first round of the Nationwide Tour's Albertsons Boise Open, held Thursday at Hillcrest Country Cub, I posed the same question to 39 professional golfers: "Would you like to see drug testing in golf?"

The results may surprise you — and they may surprise the PGA Tour, which runs the Nationwide Tour and the Champions Tour.

It was a tie — 16 responded in favor of drug testing, 16 were opposed and seven offered no opinion on the matter.

Most of those who said no offered a variation on the PGA Tour's official stance: Performance-enhancing drugs won't help golfers.

"Our players don't kick the ball in the rough and they don't take illegal substances, including performance-enhancing substances," said Bob Combs, the PGA Tour's senior vice president for public relations and communications.

He was parroting the sentiments of PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who has been extensively quoted as claiming the sport does not need testing.

"We've never seen any evidence of use nor have we seen evidence that steroids or other performance-enhancing substances would be beneficial," Combs said.

Sheesh...get Bob the latest Finchem take on this. Those lines he's repeating (verbatim!?) are like, so August 2006. 

"Typically golfers are skeptical that a supplement can effectively improve their golf score..."

Well, it looks like the golf writers of America can't claim they haven't heard of golf performance enhancing drugs vitamins:

TO:    Golf Writer
FROM: GolfBizNews.com
RE: Tests Show Panovil Supplement Improved Scores For Golfers

Tests Show Panovil Supplement Improved Scores For Golfers

LAS VEGAS, NV -(September 12, 2006)- Recently released tests show a large group of golfers experienced dramatically improved scores after regularly taking Panovil Supplement.  "These were double-blind clinical trials conducted with 18 to 77 year-old golfers over a period of many years.  The results are astounding," says Panovil distributor Gus Skarlis.

More than 86% of those in the study shot lower (better) golf scores. Even more impressive, 78% lowered their scores on the more difficult and important Back Nine.

"Clearly Panovil gives just about any golfer a big advantage, wether they're just playing for fun or involved in competition," Skarlis said.

Panovil is a proprietary blend of natural herbs and plant extracts that encourages Herbal Invitro Cell Cultivation and Extraction Concentration.  These processes in the body are specifically designed to give golfers improved performance.

"Back in the 80s when this science first came out, Panovil tablets would have cost $18,000 and were only used by the ultra-wealthy.  But thanks to recent advancements, this remarkable advantage is available to golfers at everyday affordable prices," Skarlis said.

Panovil currently comes in a 5 round supply, 10 round supply, and 20 round supply and costs as little as $13.99 per round.  Order Panovil from the web site at http://www.Panovil.com.

Typically golfers are skeptical that a supplement can effectivel improve their golf score, but are soon won over after trying the product.  "Most golfers understand how lessons with a pro or a set of better clubs can lower their score.  So the idea of simply taking a tablet to win your next round is a new and exciting concept," Skarlis said.

Panovil is completely natural and safe.  The herbal blend causes none of the side-effects that harsh prescription drugs often create.

Panovil comes with a complete money-back guarantee.  "If you try Panovil and don't see an improvement in your golf score, we'll refund your money no questions asked," Skarlis said.

"Somebody said the clubs are the ones on steroids. That was pretty funny."

After Tiger Woods spoke on the need for drug testing, voila! Tim Finchem issued a clarification on his bizarre stance while speaking to the press in Canada:

COMMISSIONER TIMOTHY W. FINCHEM: Well, my position has been so misconstrued. I've said several factors that we evaluate on a regular basis that could lead us to take a number of steps. But I don't want to get into, in a press conference forum, answering specific questions on this subject. And the reason is that I've done that a couple of times earlier in the year and pieces of my answer get reported that seem to reflect a sense of what our policies are. And this is a complex issue that has to do with testing protocols and things that would be tested. We've done, as I said last week, a lot of research on what other sports are doing. We will, later this fall, make a comprehensive statement about what we are recommending to our board be done in the area of substance, substance abuse and performance enhancing substances. I'd ask you to be patient, because I would much rather put in your hands a comprehensive statement so that you can report within the context of that statement and understand exactly what our thinking is, rather than answer piecemeal questions about it that get either reported in part or out of context.

Q. I know it's a complex issue in some ways, but whether or not you have testing is fairly simple. Are you open to that?

COMMISSIONER TIMOTHY W. FINCHEM: It's not simple. So if you just bear with us and we will be providing a comprehensive statement in just a few weeks for you. And then you'll have an opportunity to answer any questions you want.

As Thomas Bonk reports in the Thursday L.A. Times, this appears to be conformation that testing is on the horizon. 

Ed Moorhouse, who is also the tour's co-chief operating officer, said drug testing remains on the table when the policy board meets Nov. 13-14 at Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

"If we thought testing was needed, we would probably go ahead," Moorhouse said. "Will [the drug testing topic] go away? That's not for us to say. I would very well expect we'll continue to have a discussion on that issue when we meet."

He also offers this from Ben Crenshaw:

Ben Crenshaw, another board member and player from the Champions Tour, said he wouldn't be surprised if a policy was instituted that listed banned substances, followed by some sort of testing program. "There may be something on the horizon," he said.

Crenshaw said he is a strong supporter of Finchem's position.

"There's no policy, and if there's any drug usage on the radar screen, he hasn't seen any indication of it. We haven't either," he said. "Those of us who have played forever, we don't know what in the world that performance-enhancing drugs would do for a golfer.

"Somebody said the clubs are the ones on steroids. That was pretty funny."

More Drug Testing Follow-Ups

Alan Shipnuck follows up his SI Scorecard piece with a few more thoughts on the drug testing story.

It made sense that beefy power hitters were juicing, but more surprising was the evidence that implicated just as many pitchers, who wanted to add a few feet to their fastballs and speed their recovery time between starts. Steroid use in golf is counterintuitive, but so was the idea that a junk-ball middle reliever might be using.

Pat Jones at Golf Course News also takes on the issue, and writes:

...it’s a good thing Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem is confident that professional golf doesn’t need drug testing, huh? None of our noble sport’s athletes would ever resort to performance-enhancing substances, would they?

Hmmm … let’s see. Pro golfers do everything possible to improve their game by a stroke or two. They hit 500 balls a day, hire sports psychologists and putting coaches, test 39 different drivers made from materials developed for the space program and put themselves through workout regimens that would kill the average duffer.

Oh, but none of them would ever try human growth hormone or EPO any other performance-enhancing substance just to get those extra five or six yards on a drive that might mean the difference between making millions on the Tour and giving lessons to Mrs. Hacker at Podunk Hills Golf Club, would they?

"Golf is a power game"

The September 4 issue of SI opens with the traditional "Scorecard" piece, this time with Alan Shipnuck writing about the emergence of golf as a "power game." He then lays out the perks headaches coming with the power shift.

Golf is a power game, a point driven home by a recent confluence of events in Ohio that rocked a sport that has always been resistant to change. In Springfield on Aug. 22, the Ohio Golf Association held a tournament in which competitors were compelled to use identical balls that had been engineered to fly roughly 10% shorter than the average rock. (dead-ball golf is what headline writers at The Columbus Dispatch called the attempt to put the toothpaste back into the tube.) Then, in Akron last week, Tiger Woods took time out from winning his fourth straight tournament, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, to stump for the implementation of performance-enhancing drug testing in professional golf. It was a public rebuke to PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who has staked out a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil position on steroids.

And after considering the recent events and Tiger's feelings on the matter, Shipnuck reminds us that Woods pushed for a pro-active stance on driver testing. And of course not mentioned here but equally as important to the topic at hand, Woods has advocated changing the spin rate of balls.

On the OGA event, Shipnuck writes:

It was an open-minded band of volunteers that showed up when the OGA staged its one-ball tournament, bringing to life an idea that for years has been kicked around by everyone from Jack Nicklaus to recently retired Masters chairman Hootie Johnson, who grew weary of annually having to tear up his golf course to keep pace with advances in equipment. (Augusta National has grown more than 500 yards, to 7,445, since Woods's overpowering victory in 1997.) OGA president Hugh E. Wall III said that maintaining the relevance of older, shorter courses in his jurisdiction was the primary motivation for testing the restricted-flight ball. "[We have] great courses, but many don't have the resources or the real estate to expand to 7,400 yards," Wall told GolfWorld. "[We want] our member clubs to see there may be another option ... other than bulldozers."

Thus every competitor at Windy Knoll Golf Club received a dozen balls with an OGA logo and a side stamp of CHAMPIONS 08222306 (the name of the tournament and its dates). All other details about the ball were supposed to be top secret, but by tournament's end word had leaked that it was manufactured by Volvik, an obscure Korean company. (A U.S. manufacturer examined the OGA ball for SI and reports that it was a three-piece, dual-core construction with a Surlyn cover and 446 dimples.) These instant collector's items left most players pining for their regular ball. Derek Carney of Dublin, Ohio, typified the conflicted attitude: He agreed that something has to be done to protect older courses but said that he didn't like the OGA ball "because it doesn't benefit me."

Oddly, such a selfish attitude in other sports would be laughed, but in golf, such an attitude is seen differently. Shipnuck explains:

Such grumbling merely previews the howls of protest that would accompany any efforts to roll back the ball on the PGA Tour, where players have spent years using launch monitors and computers to find optimal combinations of balls, shafts and clubheads. The irony of the OGA event is that it is PGA Tour pros who threaten to make a mockery of classic courses. Yet bifurcation is a dirty word in golf. Differing rules for pros and amateurs would destroy the business model of the $4 billion equipment industry, which is built on stars like Woods being paid handsomely to peddle their gear to weekend hackers.

Golf is still grappling with the ramifications of the boom-boom ethos that has redefined the game, but the almighty buck remains the sport's most influential force. When it comes to reigning in the power game, steroid testing will be an easier sell than dead-ball golf. Especially when Woods is the salesman.

Finchem Taking Brunt Of Drug Testing Heat

A theme is developing in columns and stories critiquing the PGA Tour's stance on drug testing: Tim Finchem is losing credibility. What makes that unusual is his uncanny ability in the past to cut off such stories from festering (and therefore giving the Tour a black eye).

But this time his stance has made drug testing a story.

The Detroit Free Press's Carlos Monarrez writes:

There's a serious problem on the PGA Tour. Most players and officials want to ignore it. Maybe it will go away quietly. But the problem threatens to destroy the PGA Tour as we know it.

The problem is PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem.

And Jeff Shain in the Miami Herald takes a similar stance in this piece.

Meanwhile, Lorne Rubenstein talks to Greg Norman who was in Canada constructing a new course, and Finchem's good buddy added to his comments from last week.

"I just don't understand why they wouldn't want to implement a policy," Norman said after drawing the shape of the 14th green and its surrounding area in the sand on the site where he and his team are turning a sand and gravel pit into what promises to be an intriguing course. "They're saying we don't know [if it's necessary], but you have to think 25 years down the line. You have to be proactive, 100-per-cent proactive."

But PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem wasn't talking of being proactive last week when asked about the subject during the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio.

"We believe we are paying close attention [to the matter], and we believe that we will be positioned if we ever believe it necessary to take additional actions beyond just telling players what the rules are," Finchem said.

And this gets to the heart of the matter, something that speaks volumes about the role equipment plays in golf. Oh yeah, and agronomy, don't forget!

"If I was a kid coming out now, I'd ask, what do I need to do to compete?" he said. "It's a power game now, not a finesse game."

Norman's point is valid. Young golfers hear about athletes in other sports who have taken drugs in the belief they'll improve. Steroids not only help somebody bulk up, they also help with joint and soft-tissue recovery. Golfers wear themselves out pounding balls. Human growth hormone, meanwhile, can also promote healing and even sharpen one's mental game.

Woods is aware of what could happen. He said last Thursday that the PGA Tour should "have a program in place" before players are taking drugs.

Rubenstein pulls out this from the files, which, if nothing else, gives Finchem a chance to blame his predecessors if he runs out of reasons to postpone testing.

The issue of drug testing is gaining traction. Yet the debate's been around for years.

Here's what David Eger, a PGA Tour official at the time and now a Champions Tour player, said in September of 1988, when asked what might happen if a player used a beta blocker to calm his nerves:

"We have no policy related to beta blockers," Eger said. "I guess there would be a fine line. I'd have to call the commissioner on it."

Deane Beman, the commissioner at the time, didn't institute a drug testing policy.

Eighteen years later, the PGA Tour still has no drug testing policy, nor does it have a list of drugs that might enhance golf performance.

The PGA Tour needs to get its head out of the sand and begin random drug testing.

"Tomorrow would be just fine with me," Woods said.

Tomorrow's come and gone. But Norman and Woods aren't likely to let the subject pass. Nor should they. Their heads aren't in the sand. Their eyes are open, and they see possibilities they don't like.

Two More Calls for Drug Policy

The Houston Chronicle's Steve Campbell on the PGA Tour's drug policy complacency:

Psst: When you're lagging behind an organization with "ancient" in the title, you're definitely behind the curve.

"I know some people say, 'Tim is naive on this; he's got his head in the sand,' " Finchem said.

If not in the sand, then some really dark, dreary place. How did the see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil-until-Jose-Canseco-decided-to-turn-into-an-author approach work out for Major League Baseball? The hands of baseball commissioner Bud Selig were tied by an obstinate baseball player's union. The tour has one major — and we do mean major — force working in the favor of setting up a credible drug policy and a system of enforcement.

And...

It sounds suspiciously like the commissioner is more interested in spin control than ensuring the honor of his tour.

We should expect more — so much more — out of a sport that sets itself above the rest. A commissioner presiding over a gentleman's game should feel honor-bound to do the right thing, not the expedient thing.

And add Ryan Ballangee to the list of those advocating that the Tour deal with drug testing.

Hawkins On What Drugs Can Do

With all of the drugs in golf talk, Golf World's John Hawkins makes a courageous admission about taking the prescription drug Adderall and its positive impact on his golf game:

The matter of legality regarding “performance enhancement” depends totally on the sport itself. Do I think pro golf needs some form of drug testing? Absolutely, but not just because it has become a hot-button media topic once again. The game’s governing bodies should feel obligated to examine the concept in a prudent, somewhat urgent manner. In failing to establish suitable policies on equipment in recent years, those two adjectives have been conspicuously lacking.

Something To Look Out For...

In Thomas Bonk's piece on the drug talk in golf, he writes:

The driving distance of the top players on the PGA Tour has been steadily increasing for decades.

Well, actually only "steadily increasing" in the last decade (which Bonk points out, leading me to believe there was an editing mistake). Anyway...

Advances in equipment, such as shallow-faced drivers with thin faces of space-age metals, plus improved physical conditioning by the players, inspired largely by Woods, are most often credited with the longer drives.

After the last five or so years of hearing executives, players, and media say that the distance explosion has been driven by the incredible player conditioning, might we going to see most of the blame shifted back to equipment in order to protect the image of players and quiet the calls for drug testing?

Wishful thinking, I know.   

"'If people are speculating about golf, let's get it over now.'"

Thomas Bonk files a front (sports) page story on Tiger's call for drug testing, with several interesting quotes. Starting with Tiger's agent, Mark Steinberg:

"There's a lot out there right now, with BALCO, the cycling and the sprinters, so what he's saying is, 'Start with golf, start with me. I'm clean and I think the sport's clean,' " Steinberg said Friday.

" 'If people are speculating about golf, let's get it over now.' "

And some experts weigh in:

Added Charles Yesalis, professor emeritus at Penn State and an expert in performance-enhancing drugs and sports, "Anyone who doesn't say it's a can of worms or that it's a time bomb that is going to explode in your face is nuts. "Given what [baseball Commissioner] Bud Selig went through with his stupidity, with the way he handled it, golf, before it gets hauled into court, should start with something. That's what the smart money would do.

"I've heard every excuse, every rationale you could ever think of, and to listen to the spin of the holier-than-thous — the spin people always point their finger in every direction other than the right one — is misguided.

"With a ton of money involved in golf, there's talk of beta blockers, low doses of human growth hormone, and if you already have the 10th of a 10th of a 10th of a percentage of the public that is good enough to play the PGA Tour, then you take that guy and add 10 pounds of muscle, are you telling me the ball won't go farther?"

And, in response to Finchem's position: 

"Although the 'Chariots of Fire' model is interesting, that's not the world we live in," John Hoberman, an expert on drugs in sports at the University of Texas, said Friday.

Because there is no PGA Tour list of illegal performance-enhancing substances, drugs such as beta blockers, which have a tranquilizing effect on users, could find their way into golf, according to Hoberman.

"The real threat to golf, with all hell breaking out in baseball because of steroids, are the drugs that would probably be more useful, say the beta blockers, for calmness, self-control, lack of anxiety, steady hands, attention and focus, all qualities that would seem useful in putting," he said Friday.