LAT: Tiger Woods Calls for Drug Testing for Professional Golfers

[DeepModem Mom]

Woods Calls for Drug Testing
Commissioner has said golf works fine on the honor system, but experts disagree.
By Thomas Bonk, Times Staff Writer
August 26, 2006

There is no drug-testing policy on the PGA Tour, and when Tiger Woods called for one this week at the Bridgestone Invitational, no one should have been surprised, according to Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg of IMG.

"There's a lot out there right now, with BALCO, the cycling and the sprinters, so what he's saying is, 'Start with golf, start with me. I'm clean and I think the sport's clean,' " Steinberg said Friday....

***

Woods, who has a one-shot lead after 36 holes at Akron and is trying to win his fourth consecutive tournament, said in an interview after his first round Thursday that pro golfers should be tested for performance-enhancing drugs as soon as possible....

***

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem had said Wednesday that the tour closely monitored drug testing in other sports, such as how the testing is done, what substances are being studied and what happens to the collected information. But he said golf remained a game of honor, where players call penalties on themselves, then equated the behavior code of the game with how the PGA Tour should deal with illegal drugs....

***

Added Charles Yesalis, professor emeritus at Penn State and an expert in performance-enhancing drugs and sports...."With a ton of money involved in golf, there's talk of beta blockers, low doses of human growth hormone, and if you already have the 10th of a 10th of a 10th of a percentage of the public that is good enough to play the PGA Tour, then you take that guy and add 10 pounds of muscle, are you telling me the ball won't go farther?"...

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-tiger26aug26,0,3945830.story?coll=la-home-sports

[meisje]

1. I call for drug testing of Ping Pong players

[0007]

7. I call for immediate drug testing of all air guitarists

[Howardx]

9. haha

are you trying to wipe out the sport?!

[0007]

11. No! I just want it to be on square like professional wrestling

[Tellurian]

17. How about a Drug Test for the DRUG TESTERS? hmmm?

Might as well know the result before the question needs to be asked!

[bahrbearian]

19. I'm up with that.

[LeftyMom]

2. How about golf fans?

You'd have to be on something to find it at all interesting. :P

[geiger]

3. I wonder how he defends his surgery to over-correct his vision

(better than 20/20) so that he could see the ball and course better.

what a hypocrite. he should just keep his mouth shut.

[John Q. Citizen]

4. Yeah, and how about athletes who wear glasses? That's cheating!

/sarcasm

[BrotherBuzz]

6. Tiger Woods wore contact lenses...

he was a sneaky cheat!

[LostinVA]

24. Oh brother....

[michreject]

42. You said it...............eom

[michreject]

43. Every now and then

I read something that is so far out that all I can do is shake my head.

(where's the shaking head emoticon?)

[unblock]

5. there's some serious doping on the putt-putt circuit

hey, there's big money involved just in the tourneys themselves.

but the endorsements, that's where the big bucks are!

[Botany]

8. Outdoors, nature, long walks, and guessing @ distances

[0007]

12. After taking Enzyte, Bob can out drive Tiger - and Tiger's wife will be

found chasing Bob around swimming pool.

[madville]

10. Well judging from

Well judging from the membership at my country club it's a good thing that hard liquor, beer and cigars aren't performance enhancing substances :)

[corporatemedia]

13. "Don't BOGEY that joint, my friend, pass it over to me." n/t

[bmbmd]

14. I take beta-blockers.

Haven't noticed any improvement in my putting...

[xultar]

15. There should bed drug testing for golfers

Why should they be any dfferent from other pro sports.

Frankly I'm shocked that DUers would want to let rich people in a rich sport playing @ segregated clubs get away with doping.

:crazy:

[jakefrep]

31. So it isn't the $500 driver that helps them hit the ball 300 yards?

Each sport ought to be able to make its own determination on whether or not it needs drug testing.

[LTR]

16. Is Tiger really THAT threatened by John Daly?

:shrug:

[OwnedByFerrets]

18. I thought this was rather rediculous

when I first heard about it, but after some thought, I changed my mind. Heck, why not? If, like we assume, its a moot point, they can be on the forefront of change. All professional athletes look for advantages, why not golfers also. That extra 10 yards means hitting ONE less club into the green. So, anyway, why not? It could be a good thing.

[bmbmd]

20. Tiger is botching it up today.

You think all that steroid talk makes him nervous??

[truthisfreedom]

21. i used to take propranolol for "butterflies" when performing on stage

and it was like magic. no butterflies, and no side-effects.

[HuffleClaw]

22. what a non-issue

*yawn*

[Rex]

23. We should drug test the drug testers drug testers drug tester!

Just say NO people! To drugs and sex. Just live a dull and boring life. Stop all this living it up! Play by the rules like Tiger...:puke:

This should do it, test the clown, cyclist, golf, derby participants! Now!!!!!!!

[soothsayer]

25. they should test the officials that let him drop that ball yesterday

What a phoney baloney move THAT was! Should have incurred a penalty stroke (but he makes too much money for golf, so...)

[soothsayer]

26. just legalize performance enhancing drugs. even the playing

field. If people want to take dangerous substances, let them.

[BadgerKid]

27. Rather, politicians need drug/psych testing

seeing as how many lives and how much money are at stake.

[Buns_of_Fire]

28. Tiger, with all due respect, STFU!!!

I want to see MORE professional golfers chasing little woodland creatures around on their hands and knees! I want to see MORE professional golfers trying a chip shot from the middle of a 3' water hazard! I want to see MORE professional golfers teeing off towards the clubhouse instead of the pin! I want to see MORE Gerald Ford-type wiping out of members of the gallery with a mis-aimed tee shot!

Geez, it's like watching grass grow as it is...

"Full-Contact Golf" -- now THERE'S the ticket!

[gratuitous]

30. Gotta agree there: Tiger, go work on your putts

Shit, major league ballplayers have to hit a 97 mph fastball with 50,000 people screaming at them and eight guys in front of them trying to catch it. Everybody's gotta be quiet for golfers, the ball isn't even moving, and nobody catches it and throws it back to the tee.

[tinrobot]

29. Some say golf is a game, not a sport.

Just thought I'd that into the mix.

[Scout1071]

32. People who don't play say that........

I'm sometimes sore for days after I play. It's a physical sport.

[President Jesus]

33. yeah right. Look at this and tell me it's "physical"

John Daly is consistently one of the top 25 players in the world, so I'm guessing he's just a little better than you.



You're going to tell me this is an athlete?

It's a game, like pool (another "sport" that you can eat, drink, and smoke while playing).

[NashVegas]

34. I Think That's Kind of the Point

In many sports where doping hasn't entrenched itself, there are often players who look like normal Joes and Joans, rather than the idealed-perfection that gets rammed down our throats. They may not have Playboy/Playgirl perfect bodies, yet they've devoted themselves to excellence and succeeded, beer bellies and all. As a normal Joan, I find that more inspiring & example-setting than Anika Sorensen's rather obvious-looking hormonal tinkering.

[President Jesus]

41. which is precisely how someone gets good at chess, pool, etc

No one is saying that pro golfers are not devoted to excellence. Nice straw man. You could find tons of work on 1600 Pennsylvania these days.

[NashVegas]

44. Oh, Stop It

What I see/saw in this thread were dozens who were either sarcastically ripping on Tiger, for reasons unknown, or saying that using shortcuts like steroids, etc., are just fine. "Levels the playing field," as one poster put it.

[PeterPuck]

35. Hardly top 25

John Daly is nowhere near top 25. He is around 180th in $ and scoring average. Overall scoring he is ~150th.

I don't think he was ever consistently in the top 25 in his career.

[KansDem]

36. "It's a game, like pool ..."

If I recall correctly, when I was in college taking "pool" satisfied the physical education requirement. The classes met at the student union.

I also remember bowling as a "sport."

The college phased out the phys-ed requirement a year or so after I arrived, so I never had to take a phys-ed class. But I thought if I had to, I'd take "pool" (I wondered what my uniform would have looked like or what athletic equipment I would have had to taken to practice or the match!).



Put me in, Coach!...Let's win one for the Gipper!

[Scout1071]

37. Well, by those standards, are these people athletes?

Babe Ruth?


Gilbert Brown?




Yea, you are right, you couldn't possibly be overweight and be a damn good athlete.

I'll say it again. Those that say it's not a sport are very likely those who have never played.

[Name removed]

40. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[followthemoney]

46. Two Words, "Babe Ruth" nt

[NashVegas]

45. All Sports Are Games

They require skill, dexterity, stamina (often) and strategy.

To draw a comparison to games that are not sports, how often would you want to play a card game against someone who always kept a few under their sleeve? Would you get up and leave the table, or would you adopt their methods?

[Anakin Skywalker]

38. Umm...Are there Many 'Roided Golfers?

[KamaAina]

39. That's it. No more Eldrick. Not even if the opponent's a foreigner.

By the way, how much of the Tiger Mystique would vanish if the media were to start calling him "Eldrick Woods" (his true and actual name)?

Now I'm really sorry Stewart Cink choked yesterday. That whole playoff not only served to further aggrandize Eldrick, it bumped a Frasier rerun that was scheduled afterward (remember, that was 12:30 out here)! :P

edit: true and actual name