By Staff
We applaud the Professional Golf Association Tour for finally getting into the game where it pertains to a drug policy.
Beginning with the 2008 season, the PGA Tour will come into line with the other professional sports with a anti-doping policy.
This announcement, oddly enough, came on the same day that the Associated Press was reporting that Floyd Landis would have to give up his 2006 Tour de France title because he failed a drug test.
It may seem funny to some that the PGA would even need such a policy.
Look at most of the golfers on the tour right now and one's mind doesn't immediately think of performance enhancing drugs.
But just like any other sport, players are willing to dive into the slimy world of performance enhancing drugs to get a leg up on the competition.
There is just too much money to be made for some players to head down that path.
Among the drugs on the PGA "banned" list are anabolic agents, hormones, stimulants, narcotics, beta blockers and masking agents.
Why we are glad to see the PGA finally get with the program, we are disappointed that it stopped short of adopting the much tougher World Anti-Doping Association list.
The reason?
According to the PGA, the added administrative burden would be too much and it does not consider the substances on that list to be performance enhancing in their arena.
The LPGA was a step ahead of its male counterpart as it announced it would begin testing golfers in 2008 last November.
We don't expect the PGA or the LPGA to find too many violators.
But we do expect them to be vigil in their battle to keep the sport clean.