I'm not sure if you heard about it, but some years back, baseball's top table dismissed talk of performance-enhancing drugs as irrelevant. In what is essentially a game of skill, they argued, no substance invented could better a player. If anything, bulking up would detract from a hitter's natural swing and slow-down a pitcher's wind-up.
It was, as it turns out, a misjudgment of George Bush proportions. In 2003, a survey of 568 major league players found 79% believed steroids played in a role in the glut of broken records which defined the game's most prolific decade. Steroids weren't quite an epidemic (7% tested positive that year), but in the hands of beefed-up sluggers Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds, they had already left an indelible mark of the soul of baseball. The game's overlords had either been oblivious or complicit.
Five years after MLB belatedly brought drugs testing to its ballparks, golf is finally following suit. In 2008, the European and U.S. tours will be carrying out random tests and placing their pristine reputations under the microscope for the first time. Quite why the decision has taken so long is baffling. Like baseball, golf is a game of sticks and balls. Fact: sticks hit the ball a lot further when wielded by steroid-enhanced torsos.
At this year's Open Championship, nine-time major winner Gary Player claimed at least 10 players on the Tour were taking performance-enhancing drugs. "One guy told me — and I took an oath prior to him telling me — but he told me what he did and I could see this massive change in him," he said. "And somebody else told me something I also promised I wouldn't tell, that verified others had done it."
Player talked specifically about the use of Human Growth Hormone, or HGH, as being the major problem. "Every doctor I go to, without fail, says 'Gary, you must take HGH.' He said it will make you stronger, your skin will be thicker because your skin starts to get scaly, your hair is stronger, your complexion will be better, you'll be more supple. He said you'll start hitting the ball 20 to 30 yards further."
In response, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were among those to brush aside speculation and assure golf fans that drugs were not a problem in professional golf. Retief Goosen, angered by Player's comments, demanded the 72-year-old name names. He then echoed a familiar theme. "I believe golf is clean," he said. "I don't think taking any kind of drugs will make you play better."
Goosen has evidently not read Howard Bryant's "Juicing the Game," nor does he fully understand the implications of performance-enhancing drugs. As long as drugs can make you practice harder, stay focused longer and keep you from feeling tired on the back nine of a tournament, they will be an issue for golf. Quite how much of an issue is yet to be seen, but golf should heed the lessons of baseball. Complacency is very dangerous.
Baseball, like an addled drunk, admitted it had a problem far too late to stop irreparable damage. It will be some time before we trust the sport again. If golf is to avoid similar embarrassment, one can only hope for swift and harsh punishment for the inevitable casualties during the first year of drugs testing. And that Tiger Woods tests negative.
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