No steroid stain on golf -- yet

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), May 11, 2009 | by Mike Sorensen Deseret News

By now, news of still another baseball superstar using illegal drugs isn't shocking or even the least bit surprising.

Last week it was Manny Ramirez. Last month it was Alex Rodriguez. Last year it was Roger Clemens. Before that we had Rafael Palmeiro and Jason Giambi along with strong suspicions against the likes of Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.

Who's next?

Albert Pujols? Ryan Howard? Phil Mickelson? Tiger Woods?

I'm only partly kidding. But the way things are going, no athlete can be above suspicion, not even golfers.

I've covered golf for 30 years, played it for 40 and one of the things I like best about golf is that it is the one sport where cheating isn't allowed on any level.

In nearly every other sport, cheating is looked upon as part of the game, whether it's offensive linemen trying to get away with holding or players on second base stealing a catcher's signs. As the saying goes, "it's not cheating if you don't get caught."

However golf is a sport of integrity, where players call penalties on themselves all the time, for things as minor as seeing your ball move a fraction of an inch just before impact. In pro golf these penalties often come at the expense of thousands of dollars.

It's not like everyone laughing off how Gaylord Perry was able to throw spitballs for all those years. The last thing a golfer wants is to be labeled is a cheater. Just ask Vijay Singh, who was accused of cheating two decades ago on the Asian Tour, a rap that still follows him around.

When the subject of testing golfers for performance-enhancing drugs was brought up a couple of years ago, most in the golf profession pooh-poohed the idea. What? Golfers would never stoop to using performance-enhancing drugs to get an edge on fellow competitors.

Or would they?

At the 2007 British Open, golf legend Gary Player caused a stir when he said, "There are golfers who are doing something, whether it's HGH, or creatine or steroids. I know for a fact some golfers are doing it."

Player said one golfer had admitted it to him and he figured there could be many more golfers around the world using something, adding "We're dreaming if we think it's not going to come into golf."

At the time, several top golfers such as Woods, Mickelson, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen downplayed the remarks, saying they didn't know anyone who took performance-enhancing stuff.

The fact is, professional golfers are hitting the ball 40 yards farther than two decades ago and the accepted reason is improved technology of clubs and golf balls as well as improved fitness for golfers. It's the golf balls on steroids, not the golfers. But what if some of that increased distance is also because of improved fitness of golfers due in part to performance-enhancing drugs?

In an October 2007 article in Golf Digest, Dr. Jim Suttie, a former PGA Teacher of the Year, said steroids could indeed help golfers hit the ball farther.

"There's no doubt steroids build muscle and increase strength," says Suttie, a Ph.D. in biomechanics. "Bigger muscles mean more explosive core strength, more explosive hip strength, more arm strength."

Obviously players can't get too muscle-bound or they lose their flexibility. But strength can mean faster clubhead speed and more distance off the tees. There's also the factor of drugs aiding endurance, which golfers need with consecutive days of walking 18 holes.

Most sports fans probably don't even know that the PGA and LPGA tours started testing for drugs last summer on a random basis. That may not sound very stringent but it's better than baseball's previous policy of scheduled drug tests.

According to reports out of the Players Championship last week, so far the PGA Tour hasn't had a positive drug test and even Woods has been tested twice, which he acknowledged in an interview. Woods has been one of the few outspoken pros in favor of testing, perhaps because he knows he's clean and the only way someone else can threaten his dominance is through performance-enhancing drugs.

The problem for professional golfers is that it's a no-win situation. If no one is tested positive, the testing must be flawed. If someone is tested positive, even if it is a little-known player, it must mean a lot of golfers are guilty. And to some observers, just the fact that there is testing must means there is a problem.

Unfortunately drug testing for golfers as well as athletes in any sport is a necessary evil.

I compare it to airport screening. Even though the majority aren't taking drugs, all athletes in every sport are going to have to be tested on a regular basis, just like everyone must go through the hassle of going through security every time they go through an airport.

It's no fun doing it, but it's the only way we can be sure there are no terrorists with bombs. The same thing goes for athletes and drugs. And even then we can't be 100 percent sure.

E-mail: sor@desnews.com