Professional Golf’s Dirty Little Doping Secret?
NPR : A Broadcaster’s View of the Derby
OK, so I like professional golf and all and I am a big Tiger fan, but this interview with Kentucky Derby Announcer Tom Durkin has always bothered me ever since I heard it. Now, what does the Kentucky Derby have to do with professional golf? Nothing, you are correct. However, I want you to listen closely to Mr. Durkin’s offhand comment that he makes at the 2:53 mark into the interview, when asked what he does about nerves (errors in transcription are mine):
“…I take a drug called Inderal… and I understand professional golfers take it as well, to keep their hands steady”
Now, I don’t know if this is a true statement or not, but just the way Mr. Durkin said it, it is just so matter of fact, like duh, everyone knows this. Now, I don’t know about you, but a professional golfer taking a drug to keep his hands steady is DEFINITELY a performance enhancing drug. Is that what makes them so calm when it comes to sinking the $5 million dollar putt on the 18th hole at Augusta? Am I crazy here? Is it just me? Or is this not news? Doing some searching yields a page by Geoff Shackelford on such a topic. So clearly, I am not the only one. Yet, still you don’t hear about any investigations by former Senators into one of America’s greatest sports. You don’t hear any Congressional uproar over it.
Does the PGA Tour have a drug policy concerning performance enhancing drugs? What would you think if you found out that previous champions have been taking these drugs to calm their nerves?
I don’t know why I thought of this again today, but I guess I just did. Like I said, the interview was a while ago, but it has always stuck in the back of my head.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
[...] Any drug that calms a golfer down should also be considered performance enhancing. See my post from a few weeks ago for some things that are also curious about the possibility of golfers and [...]
July 29th, 2008 at 9:30 am
This reminds me of baseball players! Any drug taken by an athlete is indeed to help improve their performance. In other words, any golfer who takes such drug should be suspended.
I can’t believe people will do anything to win! Besides, do you really need to take a drug to win in a game of golf?