June21 drugs
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The PGA Tour is getting closer to a rule on performance-enhancing drugs, and with testing likely to follow, commissioner Tim Finchem says golf organisations around the world should make sure they’re on the same page.
Even with Tiger Woods among those in favour of drug testing to prove golf is clean, Finchem has defended the tour’s lack of plan because he has found no evidence of performance-enhancing drugs or evidence of players using them.
He conceded, however, that drug testing in sports has become a reality. “It’s unfortunate that these realities are with us, but they are,” Finchem said at the US Travellers Championship. “And we have to deal with them. I think it’s important that golf deal with them collectively.”
Woods said last summer that he didn’t think anyone was using steroids, but it could be a problem in the future. Asked when he would like to see a drug-testing plan, Woods replied, “Tomorrow would be fine with me.”
Finchem has moved a little slower. The PGA Tour policy board in November authorised the tour to develop a list of prohibited substances, along with creating an education programme to inform players about how they might get into the body, the health risks, potential testing and possible penalties.
“We don’t have a rule on performance-enhancing drugs; we never have had,” Finchem said. “We’re getting close on that. I suspect we’ll be done with that certainly this year.”
Finchem said he is working with other golf organisations “to see if we can’t move forward together with respect to what a rule is, and then beyond that, in terms of the execution of the rule.”
He said it was likely that would mean a testing programme.
The LPGA Tour announced last year it would start drug testing in 2008. The penalty for testing positive would be 25 tournaments for the first offense, 50 tournaments for the second offense and a lifetime ban for a third violation.
European Tour chief executive George O’Grady said last month that his tour would have a drug policy in January, and he urged that the golf world unite on any such policy.
Finchem recommended that all golf organisations develop a single standard on what to test for and how.
* In the next issue of Golf World magazine – on sale next week – see what the European Tour players say about drug tests, plus an exclusive interview with the chief doctor in charge of making it happen.