Did Driver Testing Work?
Monday, December 20, 2004 at 11:52 AM In the final Golf World of 2004, Ron Sirak writes,
“Although there is absolutely no way of knowing whether it was a result
of driver testing - just as there is no way to verify if Barry Bonds
knowingly took steroids unless he says so - there was a curious drop in
driving distance by big boppers from 2003 to 2004.”
Sirak writes that while the Tour driving distance average went up
one yard in 2004, there was a noticeable fall off in the top 10 this
season. Was it the driver testing ridding the Tour of illegal drivers?
Or if the athleticism theory holds, did the top 10 just go to the gym a
little less often?
On this topic, Sports Illustrated recently published faux
emails between writers Chris Lewis and Jim Gorant, where they revealed
attempts to get the actual number of drivers tested (and those ruled
illegal), resulted in a response seemingly straight out of All The
President’s Men, with the Tour official making contradictory claims and
fudging numbers clearly after some form of internal discussion.
Ultimately, SI could not get a straight answer on the subject.