"Pro golf is approaching its own mental health reckoning"

There’s a lot to take in via Daniel Rapaport’s GolfDigest.com story on pro golf “approaching a mental health reckoning”, including some frank disclosures from players and predictions of mental health becoming a big topic in years to come.

But this stood out from Dr. Michael Lardon, a clinical psychiatrist “who has worked with Phil Mickelson, David Duval, Will Zalatoris and dozens of other tour professionals.”

Rapaport writes:

But meditating and blocking Twitter only go so far if there is a chemical imbalance in the brain. A growing number of tour players are seeking professional help not only from the types of sports psychologists that have hung around the tour for decades, but from medical doctors like Dr. Lardon, who can diagnose psychiatric conditions and prescribe medication to treat them.

“There’s a number on the men’s tour that I help,” says Dr. Lardon, “but we never talk about it. There are some super-high-profile golfers, and ones in the past, that are on medication. And what does the media say? They say what the player’s PR person or agent says. I hurt my back. I got dizzy. I wish more would come out and just be honest about what’s happening, but it’s not my place.”

Of course it’s understandable he wants to normalize the disclosure of mental health issues to help the greater good, but it’s ridiculous to expect media to draw this out of players. It has to come from them.