Tuesday
29Jan
Drug Policy Meetings Flash: Players Realize They Better Give Up The Reefer And Vick's Vapor Inhalers
Doug Ferguson reports on last week's player meetings on the new drug policy:
"I was caught off guard," Jim Furyk said. "I thought everyone was pro-testing. What I drew out of the meeting was that a few guys aren't. Not a few. Let's say more guys had negative opinions."Sheesh...it's not like they'll be posting these "TUE's" in the locker room, right?
Lickliter doesn't understand why the tour adopted WADA guidelines for golf, noting that Vick's Vapor Inhaler is prohibited.
"If I use Vick's nasal spray three times, they can kick me off the tour forever," Lickliter said. "Now, do you think Vick's nasal spray is helping me compete out here? Half the stuff they're testing for doesn't help golfers. These so-called experts are not experts in golf."
Furyk told of a player who confided having a disorder that required drug treatment. Requesting a TUE for the drug means letting his secret out.
Tim Herron wonders if Danny Edwards' failed attempt to start a players' union 10 years ago was ahead of its time.Love how you just slipped that in, Doug!
For many, it was the thought of a positive test for something not intended to help them lower their score, even if no one has been able to identify a drug that will do that.Oh dear lord. Obviously he hasn't bought a Medicus.
"I don't think anyone on tour is in the business of trying to find something to enhance performance," Jeff Maggert said.
"Maybe there is, and I'm naive. There's a bigger chance of someone getting tested positive who has absolutely no intent of trying to break the rules. The downside outweighs the upside by 1,000-to-1. The downside is just terrible."
Yaaaawwwwwnnn...
For the millionth time guys, you can't have it both ways. You can't tell us you're better athletes and working out to hit it longer and then claim performance enhancing drugs are out of the question. Okay, I'll stop bringing that up...this week.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 07:27 PM
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Reader Comments (7)
2-test everybody, and post all the positives for vapor inhaler, cough drops, hayfever, etc. on the web. DON"T post coke and reefer, but fine 'em and get 'em "help".
After a while, this will go the way of the driver tester--do they even lug this thing around tour anymore?
Once we learn that nobody is doping for stuff like steroids and beta blockers, people will lose interest, or better yet, they will see how ridicuous some of the wada items are
Paging Danny Edwards......wait a minute, Danny took a liscensing agreement from the Tour for (of all things) a divot repair tool. What do you get for that Danny, $10 for every $1 dollar divot fixer sold?? Danny Edwards sold out like all the others.
(1) The players realized, before the Tour figured it out, that there are many things on the WADA list that don't make a difference for golf -- or, except in extreme cases, for other sports, but drug testing is mostly about extreme cases. Accepting WADA's list is a shortcut, and that shortcut may not be the best way to go -- or maybe it is, and everyone would be best off by forgoing their Vapo-Rub.
(2) The whole thing, as outlined by RGT, is the brainchild of a Machiavellian mastermind who has found a way to weed out undesirables from his soon-to-be-pristine domain.
My guess, going with the scenario that doesn't sound like the Unabomber, is that the players and Tour still have some work to do, and they'll remove some of the nonoffending drugs from the offending list.
Beta blockers are on the list. I take them and my index is still 11.2! I must be doing something wrong!