Will the PGA Tour Begin Testing for HGH with Blood Samples?
by Ryan Ballengee on Jul 24, 2010 10:52 AM EDT
in Pro Golf
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PrintEarlier in the week, Major League Baseball announced that it would immediately begin testing minor league ball players - the group without a union - for human growth hormone (HGH) with blood samples. Prior drug testing had been done exclusively with urine samples.
The revelation led to wondering whether the PGA Tour would add blood testing to catch HGH - otherwise almost undetectable with urine samples. HGH is already a banned substance according to the PGA Tour's Anti-Doping Program Manual.
An email from Waggle Room to the PGA Tour drew a response from the Tour's anti-doping program administrator.
"We are continually monitoring the advancements in testing methods. At this time, the PGA TOUR Anti-Doping Program involves the collection of urine samples only.
"However, as stipulated in our Program Manual, blood sampling may or may not be added at a later date subject to approval by the PGA TOUR Policy Board."
In other words, maybe.
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Tough to vote against fairness, but this could lead to
asterisky business.
Do golfers have a union?
What’s preventing MLB from blood tests is the players union.
"Dodger fans aren’t happy when foul balls get into their section, because it interferes with their playing with the beachball"- Mike Krukow
Golfers don’t. The idea has been bandied about a few times, but the players are technically considered (though not really) “independent contractors.”
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by Ryan Ballengee on Jul 24, 2010 2:35 PM EDT up reply actions
That's what I thought
They’re more like wrestlers.
"Dodger fans aren’t happy when foul balls get into their section, because it interferes with their playing with the beachball"- Mike Krukow
Another similarity: Golf and wrestling are both
non-contact sports, basically.
Testing for HGH means...
…depending on complete luck. Even a blood test for HGH has to be done within 48 hours of when it is injected.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
A few problems no one is talking about...
- Blood testing ‘works’ in Olympic sports and combat sports (Boxing, MMA) because there is a specific event with a predetermined time everyone is shooting for. While pros want their games to peak for the majors, there is an event every week that doesn’t allow them to totally hone in medically on a certain time frame.
I say ‘works’ becasue with all the testing, people are still doping.
- The mechanics of the Olympic style drug testing (athletes must let the drug testing body know their every step, agents can show up while the athlete is on vacation to take a sample, no chance of appeal) go against every fiber of a group that I’m sure leans to the right politically. I lean to the left and I wouldn’t let WADA near any organization I was a part of. A totally clean sport isn’t worth the gestapo tactics.
- Blood testing doesn’t just show doping. If a pro has a preexisting medical condition, it could come up during the testing. NBA
disappointmentplayer Eddy Curry only found out about his heart ailment when his then team the Chicago Bulls did tests. Once they found out he had this condition, the contract they were interested in giving him went up in smoke. While pro golfers don’t have to worry about team contracts, they may have to worry about endorsers shying away from a player whose health has been leaked from the tests.
Totally clean sports is not worth gestapo tactics?
Those are just rules. If you break rules, you are cheating. In Football, or Soccer as it is sometimes known, players are encouraged to bend the rules, by diving for penalties, getting players sent off by faking injury and so on. This cheating ruins the game. If doping is deemed ok, the sport loses it’s respect for ever. That can’t happen in golf.
Gestapo tactics ?? What does that mean ? I don’t know how the Euro Tour works, but if the PGA Tour players don’t like the idea of these guys just showing up out of the blue, they can strike it from the rules.
TN – I’d encourage you to check your political philosophy against the actual people in office. There are dangerous people on both sides of the aisle. Conservative and liberal are both good and necessary, but if someone takes office under one party’s flag, but doesn’t really keep those ideals, he is dishonest and dangerous.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
I concede 'gestapo' is much too strong
I stand by the fact that I wouldn’t want the zealots from WADA (World Anti-Doping Association) anywhere near my sporting association. Their motives may be pure, but their practices stink.
I’m not sure where you are going with your second paragraph. I was not making a statement against conservatism. I do believe it would be hard to get Tom Pernice to sign off on a drug policy where a body that the PGA has no authority over can take a blood sample at any time, 24/7/365. That forces PGA Tour members to make their whereabouts known at all times in case WADA decides to conduct a surprise test. That is what Olympic style drug testing is. Or at least the drug testing that is done for cyclists.
I don’t think the WADA people are doing the testing – the PGA Tour just cose them as their template for what substances to test for. Tour testing is done the week of tournaments on site.
Why did you pick Tom Pernice ? (just curious)
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
You are starting to remind me of McCarthy
Don’t be so paranoid mate. If a Pro golfer wants to play on tour and there are rules to enforce fair play I don’t see how he can protest. That’s not a police state, it’s just rules of a game.
Is that Andrew McCarthy ? A fine actor. :-)
Next time you walk around London or another city bombed during WWII – remind yourself of that sentiment and remember that Nazi Germany also used that philosophy to control its people. It’s why our Constitution is supposed to limit the reach of the government.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
I live in one that was bombed in WWII
Americans haven’t really had that. As 1 % of Americans own 34.6% of wealth,20% own 85% of wealth, leaving 15% of the wealth owned by the remaining 80%. In Total, 1 % of people own 42.7% of the country. I’d say the American people are controlled very well thank you.
Your point ? You’re quoting numbers about public wealth and private property.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
I'm saying control of a population
has many forms. It’s in the interests of the rich to keep the rest down…in Russia, Europe, even in the USA. Until that imbalance is corrected to a degree, the human race will always be in trouble,
You forget that, in most cases, people in this country have freedom and opportunity to improve their station in life. The people who are “under control” as you put it, are under the thumb of the government – mostly on welfare. You assume that the economy of this country is a zero sum game, that the “pie” is only so big – but in a free market economy, there is always room for expansion…unless Uncle Sam decides that taxation is the way to improve society.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Obviously you are worried about Obama
but it’s only 8 years at most. When you talk of ideals and honesty, all elected governments compromise that once they get into power, or they couldn’t function. Where there is money, there is corruption, the two go hand in hand. The elections campaigns themselves, although necessary, cost an obscene amount of money that one imagines could be put to better use.
That’s what they thought about FDR and we’re still fighting his programs. Things just get piled on top of each other. LBJ just about bankrupted this country with his programs.
Geez – I just realized that being a legal packrat must be a part of an elected official’s personality. :-)
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Sample really.
You don’t read these posts closely, do you, Eas?
Absolutely
Even more than steroids.
If HGH does what it is said to do (help with recovery and hold off the aging process), golfers would be able to practice longer and their careers would be lengthened.
so ?
and you can only hold off old age so long – HGH isn’t the fountain of youth.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
With the amount of $ available on the PGA tour...
extending your physical prime a couple of years could net you $10 million.
But if their athletic peak can be extended until 40-42 instead of 35-38, that is where all that moolah is made. Plus if at 48 you have the physical ability of someone 42-43, you can stay on the tour and get some decent results longer.
There is a reason players like Fred Funk and Fred Couples keep one foot in the regular tour after 50; the money is that much better. Not just the purses, but the endorsements are more lucrative than the ones on the Senior Champions Tour.
All the moolah is made from 40-42 ? That’s when most of these guys are fighting to stay in the top 125. Guys like Els and Mickelson and Singh are exceptions to the rule because of their talent level. Even with HGH, you’re not going to see a huge rise in guys over 40 hitting it big on the PGA Tour – the younger guys are still going to be there.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
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