Vijay In Fine Spirits! "No comment to you. No comment to anybody."

Bob Harig calls the PGA Tour's deliberate handling of Vijay Singh's admission to violating the tour's doping policy "pathetic" and hopes Singh contends so that the World Golf Hall of Famer can display his grumpy attitude for all the world to see.

Harig writes:

Singh would not even give a PGA Tour media official a few cursory comments about his round.
"No comment to you. No comment to anybody," were Singh's relayed words.

It would be great if he won the tournament and said the same thing.

It would be even better if he captured his fourth major championship at the Masters, becoming the oldest major champion in the game's long history.

What then?

Harig goes on to remind us that Commissioner Finchem said there was "no time urgency" in this case of a player admitting to violating the rules. What could possibly take so long to process that claim?

No doubt, the folks at WADA are watching this farce play out.

R&A's Dawson: Vijay Situation Will Lead To Testing Changes

Ewan Murray comes to Vijay Singh's defense and gets a surprising statement from R&A chief executive Peter Dawson who also is golf's representative with the International Golf Federation, and therefore the Olympic movement.

Singh admitted using the antler spray during an interview with Sports Illustrated. The spray reportedly contains IGF-1, a substance named among those banned by the PGA Tour. Singh's subsequent statement that he did not know what the antler spray contained would represent little or no defence.

That much is straightforward but IGF-1 would be detected only by a blood test, which the Tour does not undertake and, in any case, Singh has not been tested at all.

Dawson said: "You begin to wonder if your testing regimes are right. This is going to cause a lot of soul searching and I wouldn't be surprised if there are changes to procedure."

This is an odd statement for the reason Murray noted: that Singh did not fail a test. It's also strange in that the policy specifically states that even an attempt to acquire a banned substance is a violation. So how is the testing at fault when the policy was violated by an admission of guilt under the policy guidelines?

Also, deviating from the current policy could lead to golf not being in compliance with World Anti-Doping Association guidelines, therefore jeopardizing its place in the Olympics. Some people wouldn't mind that.

Drug Testing Coming To The U.S. Amateurs...

What administrative joy this will bring...click to enlarge the email that went out to past amateur participants today:

Two Calls For Vijay Singh To Step Away

ESPN.com's Bob Harig asks, "How is it that Singh is even playing?"

He's referring to admitted doping policy violator Vijay Singh, who is in the field this week at Riviera for the Northern Trust Open as some feel his situation becomes a distraction for the tour each week he plays.

Because his status is under review, Singh is permitted to play, although there is a possibility that any official earnings or world ranking points could be rescinded, depending on the outcome of Finchem's investigation.

This much is clear: If Singh took a banned substance, knowingly or not, he has to be penalized by the tour's own rules. Ignorance is not a defense, nor is the argument that deer spray or IGF-1 is ineffective; it has been on the tour's banned substance list since the drug testing program began in 2008. Players were warned in 2011 about deer-antler spray in literature and emails widely circulated.

Doug Ferguson also submits a commentary suggesting that Singh should take a leave of absense until his situation is resolved.

Under the anti-doping policy, the Tour is required to disclose the name, confirm the violation and declare the penalty.

So far, there has been silence.

This is not a call for the Tour to rush to judgment. Singh's case is muddled. Yes, a player who admits to using a banned substance is the same as a player testing positive. But is there evidence that IGF-1 was in the spray that Singh was using? More than one doctor has said it's impossible for IGF-1 to enter the blood system through a spray. And the Tour does not have a blood test, anyway.

Plus, players have the right to appeal, and the policy says a hearing must take place within 45 days.

Singh brought this mess on himself, and now is the time for him to give back to the game that has provided him with so much. Singh could eliminate this distraction by taking a leave of absence until the Tour sorts this out. The sooner the better.

Update on 2013-02-13 01:07 by Geoff

**James Corrigan in the Telegraph sees it the other way, responding to much of the criticism in Europe, though this discounts the doping violation language which does not require a positive test. An admission of attempting to take a banned substance is enough.

The Tour will also know by now that minute quantities of IGF-1 may be found in milk and beef and many other products it would not think to outlaw. It will have heard the generally held view of the experts that it is impossible to absorb IGF-1 in the body if it is not injected.

Indeed, it may well prove the case that Singh was actually less ignorant than the authorities.

The lynch mob are loudly baying for Singh’s sporting life. They would presumably be satisfied with the potential scenario of a man being banished from his profession for unknowingly doing nothing wrong?

This absurdity is where hysteria has taken sport and the vigilantes’ demand for action is set to become more shrill with the revelations of widespread doping in Australia. The temptation is to declare that here is a simple case of good against evil. But it is not necessarily black and white. The Singh affair shows it can be a mess of grey.

Vijay "Shocked" To Learn He Was Using Banned Substance

Guess Vijay Singh hasn't heard of Google either.

His statement following the SI story where he is quoted confessing to using a banned substance was sent out by the PGA Tour:

"In light of the recent article on sportsillustrated.com, I want to issue the following statement:

"While I have used deer antler spray, at no time was I aware that it may contain a substance that is banned under the PGA TOUR Anti-Doping Policy. In fact, when I first received the product, I reviewed the list of ingredients and did not see any prohibited substances. I am absolutely shocked that deer antler spray may contain a banned substance and am angry that I have put myself in this position. I have been in contact with the PGA TOUR and am cooperating fully with their review of this matter. I will not be commenting further at this time."

SI Writer On Morning Drive: “I’m guessing that Vijay Singh doesn’t know the product has been called out by the PGA Tour specifically.”

I was a tad skeptical of Vijay Singh's admission to using deer antler spray from his friends at S.W.A.T.S.  But after listening to SI's very credible and thorough David Epstein on Morning Drive for ten minutes, it's going to be very hard for Singh to claim a context issue. Especially when the writer has seen the big check Singh wrote for the products! (Uh Veej, pay cash next time big guy, you have plenty of it.)

Ryan Lavner summarized the Espstein interview and noted this:

Asked if he thought Singh knew he was taking a banned substance because of how forthcoming he was in discussing the products, Epstein said, “It makes me think that he probably didn’t know that. It would be a little strange because the guys in the company are usually very upfront that their products are banned by major sports organizations, but they can be a little equivocal about why it’s banned sometimes. But a quick Google (search) would tell anyone it’s banned.

“I’m guessing that Vijay Singh doesn’t know the product has been called out by the PGA Tour specifically.”

Check out the Epstein interview with Morning Drive here:

Rex Hoggard contacted the PGA Tour for comment.

“We were just made aware of the report and are looking into it,” said Ty Votaw, the Tour’s vice president of communication and international affairs.

Votaw declined to comment on whether Tour officials had spoken with the Fijian, who is in the field at this week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open

NY Times Recovers: Beta Blocker Ban And Anxiety

After a severely overplayed A1 story and a ludicrous examination of average golfers suffering extreme heartburn, The New York Times finally gets around to doing what it does best: taking a story like Charlie Beljan's panic attack and talking to experts about the efficacy of anxiety treatments and PGA Tour drug use rules that ban such treatments (with medical exemptions).

Bill Pennington saves the day reports:

The permissibility of beta blockers in golf’s top level has come into focus anew this week. Charlie Beljan won a PGA Tour event Sunday, two days after being hospitalized with a panic attack. Beljan, who said that this week he was going to consult doctors near his home in Arizona, might be treated with medication to prevent future panic attacks.

For those of you following this epic saga, Beljan got a clean bill of health Tuesday from Jim Rome, Diane Sawyer and Inside Edition. There is no mention in the linked story of the Mayo Clinic that he was supposed to visit on Tuesday (reported here, here and here.)

Anyway, back to beta blockers and their ability to help...some:

“Some level of anxiety is good for performance,” said Richard Ginsburg, a sports psychologist at the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. “It keeps you on your game. A beta blocker can take away some edge, mellow you too much.”

Danforth, who twice played in the United States Women’s Open, agreed, though she added that beta blockers, purely from a golf perspective, had been likened to the stabilizing advantage some find using a long putter.

There are medical concerns for those who acquire beta blockers without a prescription, perhaps through the plethora of Web sites selling the drugs. Singh said there was a serious risk for people using beta blockers without a genuine, long-term medical need for them.

“They are a very powerful class of drugs that have enormous impact on essential bodily functions,” he said. “They are not without adverse effects.”

You can read the banned drug list here (PDF).

"I think with the testing, it's only enhanced that respectability throughout all of sport."

There wasn't much in the way of coherent questioning from Tiger's Malaysia press conference to launch whatever event it is they're playing this week the CIMB Classic.

Anyway, there was this:

Q.  It's been a difficult week for sports in some respects with the Lance Armstrong scandal.  Just wondered to what extent you thought golf has any similar problems?

TIGER WOODS:  Could you repeat the last part of it?

Q.  I just wondered if you thought to what extent golf has similar problems, and are the authorities doing enough to catch people who are taking the wrong things?

TIGER WOODS:  Yeah, we just implemented testing probably three years ago I think it is, three years now.  I know we don't do any blood work like some of the other sports do.  Right now is just urine samples, but that's certainly a positive step in the right direction to try and validate our sport.  I mean, this is a sport where we turn ourselves in on mistakes.  A ball moves in the tree, and the guy calls a penalty on himself.  Golf is a different sport.  I think that's one of the neat things about our great game, and I think with the testing, it's only enhanced that respectability throughout all of sport.

It's always worth remembering that if not for Tiger raising the issue, as Steve Elling noted here, the folks in Ponte Vedra might be resisting drug testing. 

For a fun flashback, here's one of Commissioner We Don't Need No Stinkin' Testing's many tortured answers on the topic before he saw the light.

Is Golf One Of The Sports Keeping Weed On WADA's Banned List?

In light of the judo Olympian expelled after innocently eating a marijuana brownie, Kate Kelland talks to scientists and others wondering why marijuana is banned by the World Anti Doping Agency when it seemingly would not help athletes in most sports.

But archery and golf were cited as reasons why it might be handy. Commissioner Mr. Rogers, of course, never believed in any kind of testing because no golfer would ever cheat. So glad he (was forced) to come around.

While it is generally accepted that cannabis is unlikely to give athletes any advantage in fast-paced sports, some experts say it could prove helpful in sports like shooting or golf where a steady hand is needed.

Under WADA's rules, athletes face a two-year ban if cannabis is found in their system while they are in competition.

But the anti-doping body does not sanction those who test positive for marijuana outside of competition times, while they are in training camps or during rest periods.

Scientists say this smacks of double standards and suggests WADA bans cannabis for political rather than scientific reasons.

"The problem is the elite athletes should be seen as role models for young kids, and so they ban cannabis because they don't want to have the image of gold medallists smoking joints," said one British-based sports scientist who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.