AS THE Royal and Ancient prepares to implement drug testing for the first time at the Open in July, at least one professional golfer ranked in the world's top 100 has already been tested out of competition and given the all-clear.
With golfers facing the same round the clock anti-doping regulations which athletes in other sports seem to dislike so much, R&A chief executive Peter Dawson explained how the scheduling of regular tournaments simplified the process for golfers.
"At the moment, we know where the Tour players are pretty much all the time because of the way the schedules run," he said. "Drug testing early in the week of an event is (out] of the competition, so it's much lesser a problem in golf than it is in sports where the players come together only every now and again. Golf has been conducting out-of-competition testing over the last year."
Asked if a top-100 player had been tested, Dawson replied: "The answer to that is yes, but I'm certainly not going to give names, because one doesn't do that in drug testing. But I can say, as far as I know, there have been no problems with drug testing in the game."
Since golf wants to be recognised as an Olympic sport later this year, Dawson conceded it was possible some elite amateur events may also start testing.
"I think the International Golf Federation, which governs amateurs as well as golf's Olympic bid, has to do whatever is necessary to keep the anti-doping policy wide in compliance. So I do think there will be some testing in amateur events, hopefully this year."
As for testing at Turnberry, Dawson said it would be just another week on Tour for the players.
"We'll be using the European Tour anti-doping policies and procedures at the Open, which are now well tried and tested," he said.
"The players on the European Tour and certainly the players on the PGA Tour in America are now well accustomed to drug testing."
