Greg Norman wants blood testing in golf

Greg Norman calls for better drug testing in golf.

Will Swanton at The Australian reports that Greg Norman is advocating for better drug testing in golf by calling for blood testing.

“We know that because Vijay Singh got caught. How deep it is, I have no idea because we only do urine analysis instead of blood testing. If you really want to be serious about it and find about what’s really going on, we need to do blood testing. I think it’s disgraceful, to tell you the truth. The golf associations have to get together and step it up.”

“You have to have blood testing, simple as that. It’s a pin prick for a player, and you find out what’s going on. If you’re the head of golf or any sport, if you’re the commissioner for a sport, it’s your responsibility to make sure your sport is clean. That should be your No 1 priority.”

He has a point. It really wouldn’t be that difficult to get this program going across the world golf tours but given the already tenuous relationship between Norman and the US PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, I wonder whether Fimchem will take much notice.

We’ve have mentioned before that the deer antler spray that Vijay Singh has admitted to using would not show up in blood testing anyway, because it just doesn’t work! But you do wonder why the US PGA Tour haven’t implemented a tougher drug testing regime before now.

I’d be very surprised if there was much performance enhancing drug use going on in professional golf but at the very least it would portray a clean image when other sports such as cycling, AFL and NRL have already been tainted.