The president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, has urged the PGA Tour to fully comply with the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code before golf’s return to the Olympics next year.
The PGA Tour, which runs the professional game in America, has its own anti-doping programme but many argue it is not as stringent as the world code. Thirteen weeks before the 2016 Games in Rio, participating Olympic players will automatically be required to comply with the world code because the tournament in Brazil – the first Olympic golf competition since 1904 – will operate under the International Golf Federation’s (IGF) anti-doping policy, which is Wada compliant.
It means players will need to provide their whereabouts around the clock and will be blood-tested, while any positive samples would be made public. The PGA Tour’s current policy is to not disclose details of any known banned substances and the decision-making following drug infringements, unless the discrepancy in question is regarded as performance-enhancing. Bans for recreational drug use are not made public and only three Tour players have been sanctioned for use of performance-enhancing drugs since 2008.
Bach, speaking on Saturday morning at the Open in St Andrews, said: “They will have the same conditions like all the athletes. There will be random testing. There will be target testing. With regard to the anti-doping programme, it is clear that the athletes will have to accept the Olympic standards during the next year prior to the Games, and of course during the Games. That means, for instance, that during the Games the first five [placed players] will be tested on top of the random testing and the targeted testing during the Olympic period. They all have to accept it.
“Prior to the Games and from now on, I can only encourage the PGA Tour to follow the Wada code, and finally to accept the Wada code and to be compliant with this so that you have a harmonised anti-doping regime for all the golf players and that you have an equal level of playing field.
“If Wada tell us that the non-compliant test procedures of PGA would have a negative impact on the Olympic requirements, then of course we’d have to take this into consideration, again, to have a level playing field for all the players and for all the athletes.”
The Wada director general, David Howman, has previously criticised the lack of transparency in the PGA Tour’s anti-doping policy, stating that the European Tour has more stringent testing.
However, Tim Finchem, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, has defended the organisation’s programme, saying: “The doping programme we have is the best in our sport globally.”
An IGF statement read: “Olympic golf will operate under the International Golf Federation’s anti-doping policy, which is Wada compliant. This will come into effect 13 weeks out from the Olympic Games in Rio. From 6 May 2016 through to the conclusion of the Olympic Games there will be a registered testing pool, created and managed by the IGF, and male and female golfing athletes will be subject to both urine and blood tests for substances on the Wada prohibited list.”
Peter Dawson, the outgoing chief executive of the R&A, said earlier in the week that golf could not be complacent regarding anti-doping but refused to reveal how many tests would be taking place at this year’s Open.
“I would certainly urge that golf moves towards being Wada compliant at all times and right across the world, and I think the game of golf is working towards that,” said Dawson. “That said, it’s still my belief that we don’t have a major drug problem of any kind in the game of golf, but we certainly can’t afford to be complacent.”
