"It is what it is; all you need is right there in the statement."

After Doug Barron's positive test and one-year suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs, Jason Sobel concludes:

In a twisted way, it's actually a good thing that Barron got caught, as it proves the PGA Tour's ongoing efforts toward wiping out any potential PED use weren't fruitless nor a waste of time and money. It also discredits the theory that Tim Finchem and the folks at the Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., headquarters would cover up any positive tests to keep suspicions to a minimum.

You know what they say: Once is a coincidence, twice is a pattern. Until there is further proof that other PGA Tour members have been guilty of attempting to subvert the system, consider this a singular issue for one individual rather than a trend throughout the sport.

Steve Elling tracked down the Commissioner at the Hall of Fame ceremony and notes the oddity of releasing the news on induction day, among other elements to the story he covers in a thorough analysis.  Elling also doesn't get much out of the Commissioner, who was never a believer in testing until Tiger Woods said he thought it was needed.

"I don’t have anything to say," Finchem said. "Nothing I can say, no comment. It is what it is; all you need is right there in the statement."

Not exactly. Finchem resisted the implementation of testing for years, claiming he was personally certain that golf didn’t have the same cheating issues as other sports. It has a different culture, he insisted, where honesty rules the day.

And this...

Barron isn't exactly the rippling-muscle type. In fact, he looks like an average schlub.

"One of the funniest things I've heard today is when one of his friends called him to say, 'If you were trying to build more muscles, you did a pretty bad job,'" Horne said.

There was some collateral damage. The Barron news, to a large degree, cut the publicity legs out from under the World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Monday in St. Augustine, which had some staffers at the museum rightly grousing about the timing, since this is the biggest day of the year for the game's shrine.

Comments

[Warren]

A lame outing.