Dave3498
Q-School Graduate
There has been much discussion lately about whether professional golfers should be subject to routine testing for performance enhancing drugs, which begs the question, is there a drug which will enhance the performance of top golfers?
There are drugs that will enable better muscle accumulation when taken with a workout session, but will extra muscle give anything but more distance? Is there a drug that will give a golfer the necessary beef and also allow him or her to inject the special nuances required for the subtle fade or the high draw. Tiger has now shown us all, (as if we didn’t already know) that the positioning of the ball on the fairway is much more important than distance off the tee. He has won his most recent two Majors by doing just that.
There are drugs that will give a golfer calmness under pressure, but will they really help him to work out exactly where to land the ball when faced with that delicate chip over a bunker? Will they help him to line up the snaking 30 footer on the slippery modern greens? Will there be a down side in that he will get a couldn’t-care-less attitude, instead of the intense concentration needed on the 72nd green of a Major?
I don’t think Golf falls into the same category of say Athletics or Weightlifting et al. We golfers already police ourselves and it is frequently seen that top professionals and journeymen call penalty shots on themselves when only they know that they have infringed the rules. Are such people really likely to cheat in other ways to gain an advantage? I think not. Moreover, what are to be the sanctions? Imagine the scenario where Tiger or Ernie or Phil is found with traces of a banned substance in his sample, which he claims is from a hay-fever remedy. Is he going to be banned for 2 years? Are the sponsers still going to be as interested in coming up with the prize money for the big tournaments without these people playing? Are the TV Networks going to give the same amount of coverage if some of the top performers are banned? Not likely.
Testing for performance enhancing drugs in golf is not necessary, because they don’t exist.
There are drugs that will enable better muscle accumulation when taken with a workout session, but will extra muscle give anything but more distance? Is there a drug that will give a golfer the necessary beef and also allow him or her to inject the special nuances required for the subtle fade or the high draw. Tiger has now shown us all, (as if we didn’t already know) that the positioning of the ball on the fairway is much more important than distance off the tee. He has won his most recent two Majors by doing just that.
There are drugs that will give a golfer calmness under pressure, but will they really help him to work out exactly where to land the ball when faced with that delicate chip over a bunker? Will they help him to line up the snaking 30 footer on the slippery modern greens? Will there be a down side in that he will get a couldn’t-care-less attitude, instead of the intense concentration needed on the 72nd green of a Major?
I don’t think Golf falls into the same category of say Athletics or Weightlifting et al. We golfers already police ourselves and it is frequently seen that top professionals and journeymen call penalty shots on themselves when only they know that they have infringed the rules. Are such people really likely to cheat in other ways to gain an advantage? I think not. Moreover, what are to be the sanctions? Imagine the scenario where Tiger or Ernie or Phil is found with traces of a banned substance in his sample, which he claims is from a hay-fever remedy. Is he going to be banned for 2 years? Are the sponsers still going to be as interested in coming up with the prize money for the big tournaments without these people playing? Are the TV Networks going to give the same amount of coverage if some of the top performers are banned? Not likely.
Testing for performance enhancing drugs in golf is not necessary, because they don’t exist.