Clampdown backed

A leading Bahrain golfing personality has backed a comprehensive anti-doping policy for the sport that will begin in 2008 … and believes it should go further by banning alcohol and cigarette smoking from the hallowed turf.

Professional golf has entered a new era after The US PGA Tour, the Royal and Ancient (R&A) and other leading golf organisations announced the introduction of drug testing at the highest level of the men’s game.

The move will bring golf into line with other sports and opens up the prospect of the game one day featuring in the Olympics.

Michael Braidwood, general manager of Riffa Golf Club, told GulfWeekly: “I think it is a great initiative. It brings the sport in line with a majority of other high-profile international sports and will confirm that golf is the cleanest of them all.

“Golf historically has a great image, there is no cheating, the game is based on fine etiquette and integrity, the players are self-governed (no referees, or very few), there have been no instances of players “throwing” an event for the lure of a gambler pay off (although performances of some players down the stretch may suggest otherwise!) the game has reputable and long lasting sponsors, it is clean and this policy will confirm that.

“My biggest fear is that a player may get caught out through ignorance. A lot of tournament professionals are walking hypochondriacs!

“With the amount of travel they endure – and the repetitive stress they put on their bodies through hitting a golf ball time after time – puts a lot of strain on their bodies. As a result many players pop pain-killers, anti-inflammatory pills and other substances to numb the pain.

“This is when athletes get caught out and oh would the media just love it if a squeaky-clean golfer was proven positive and deemed a drug taker!

“Golf is a game of strength, finesse, stamina, concentration and a test of nerve, if you could find a drug to help with all of those let me have it!

“One or two “drugs” that have prevailed in the great game for hundreds of years are cigarettes and alcohol. Cigarettes help golfers calm their nerves and alcohol dampens adrenalin – two emotions that many players have a hard time controlling.

“I, for one, would ban both of those substances on the golf course, especially during tournament play – after all, are golfers not supposed to be athletes?”

Players on the European Tour, where an educational drugs programme was introduced last year, will be tested from the start of the 2008 season.

The PGA Tour has resisted the adoption of the full list of substances proscribed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, including human growth hormone (HGH).

Testing for HGH is in its infancy and is not regarded as infallible, leading the American authorities to demand its removal from the banned list on the grounds that if it is undetectable there is no point in censoring its use.

Nevertheless, the acceptance of a drugs policy represents a major climb down for the most powerful man in golf, the PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who argued last year there was no evidence of drug use in the sport and cast doubt on whether drugs would improve a golfer’s performance.

The latter claim has been discredited by numerous experts in the field, who pointed out that the increasing importance of long hitting in the game meant some competitors could be tempted to use substances that might enhance their power, such as steroids and HGH.

Meanwhile, the former major winner Gary Player claimed at this year’s Open Championship at Carnoustie that “at least 10 players and maybe more are on something”.

The South African declined to name names and was accused of attention-seeking by several leading players.

But it is believed his comments may have hastened agreement between representatives of the European, Asian and PGA Tours who had been negotiating over an anti-doping regime since last summer.

In November, Wada is expected to adopt a strict regime that will require all athletes to provide their whereabouts for one-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week, to the drug-testing authorities.

Dick Pound, the chairman of Wada, has welcomed golf’s decision to come into line with other sports, although he argued that any anti-doping regime should include a test for HGH which he described as the “drug of choice for anyone who wants to hit the ball far”.

The list of banned substances includes anabolic agents, hormones, diuretics, stimulants, narcotics, beta blockers and masking agents.

R&A chief executive Peter Dawson, who has spearheaded the drive for a global anti-doping policy, said: “We are delighted we are going to have a great degree of international consistency in the way this subject is handled. It is a very good day for golf.”

Think drugs and you think weightlifting, track and field and cycling. But newly-released global statistics make a lie of such assumptions.

Official figures from an internal IOC report show the sport with the highest percentage of anti-doping violations is – wait for it – golf.

Participants returned the highest percentage of drug positives at IOC-accredited laboratories around the world, with four positives in an admittedly small sample of 240 tests in 2003.

The statistics, the first released by the IOC comparing all 28 Olympic sports and the five fringe candidates which includes golf, make no reference to the types of drugs taken.