The Reviewers Have Spoken! "The Vijay Suit" Is A Smash Debacle!
/First, Doug Ferguson's non-partisan AP story covers the basics of the suit filed by Vijay Singh against the PGA Tour (but not WADA), and includes this noteworthy portion:
"The Spray does not contain enough IGF-1 to be anything more than a placebo, as the UCLA Laboratory confirmed and the PGA Tour was well aware," the lawsuit said. It said it was comparable to taking a shot of bourbon, pouring it into an Olympic-size swimming pool, and then drinking a shot of the pool water.
Ginsberg declined to comment when asked if Singh's attorney contacted WADA before the tour dropped its case.
"If this suit is successful, what it's going to do is make the PGA Tour more responsible in the future," he said.
Here I thought the PGA Tour dropping the case after hearing Vijay's appeal and prompting WADA to change its policies confirmed the tour's responsibility?
Ron Sirak points out that "suing the PGA Tour on the eve of its flagship event is not a way to win friends and influence people."
There is also this:
One of the risks in filing the suit is that the move likely means that anything in his file at the PGA Tour headquarters - and Singh has been controversial enough that a file certainly exists - is now fair game for public release, as it was in the case of John Daly when he sued a newspaper for libel.
Bob Harig has issues with the timing, among other problematic issues in the case.
And so Singh picks this week to sue the PGA Tour?
It says more than a little something about the man, a Hall of Famer for goodness sake, to stick it to the tour on the eve of its signature event at the TPC Sawgrass, the place where the Players Championship begins on Thursday and where he will play in the event for the 21st time.
This is the same tour that, incredibly, let him slide without a penalty last week due to a technicality in its anti-doping policy. Putting the legal mumbo jumbo aside: Singh took a substance that was on the tour's banned list, one all players had been warned about; he admitted it in a magazine article; such admissions are deemed under the policy to be the same as failing a drug test; such failures can mean up to a year suspension.
Jason Sobel also can't get past the man upstaging his hometown event, or at setting his home "ablaze." He also talks to some players who aren't so keen on the suit.
For their part, PGA Tour officials offered a staunch “no comment” on Wednesday, but some players weren’t so quiet.
"This is bull----," said one player, speaking on anonymity. "How many millions of dollars has he made on the PGA Tour? And then they let him off and he sues them? What a joke. I'd say more, but they'd probably suspend me."
When it's suggested that the Tour can't levy a punishment for freedom of speech, the player explained, "But I bet they'd try, since I don’t have 30-something wins."