Drug Testing Comes to Golf

It looks like professional golf has decided to join the major leagues and the 21st century of hypodermic needles and pissing into little cups. Yes, drug testing is coming to the PGA Tour and the European Tour. After a year in which an educational drug program was conducted in Europe, the European PGA Tour will begin testing its golfers for performance enhancing drgus, including HGH, in accordance with the somewhat absurd standards of the World Anti-Doping Agency beginning with the start of the 2008 season.

The PGA Tour will adopt the same drug testing standards as the European Tour but will likely delay implementation for an additional year to allow for a year's worth of education of the Tour's golfers. That will give John Daly an entire 12 months to dry out before he has to piss in a cup. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem had been saying for months that golf doesn't have a drug problem and therefore doesn't need testing but apparently has been convinced that it may have a public relations problem if it doesn't begin testing. He had professed the belief that drugs, including HGH, could not help a golfer so why should the Tour test. I guess he has never seen any of his players drive for over 300+ yards.

Adoption of a strict testing policy in compliance with WADA standards could open the way for golf to return to the Olympics after an absence of almost a century.