Lance Armstrong says he would never cheat at golf

The world’s most famous sporting cheat says he’d never cheat at golf.

Lance Armstrong has had a lot of time on his hands since he was stripped of his seven Tour de France yellow jerseys – after he finally admitted to doping.

He has spent most of his time playing golf and in a recent article he wrote for Golf Digest, Armstrong talks about the 250 rounds of golf he plays a year, choking and writes that he would never cheat at golf.

Golf is different from the culture of cycling when I was competing, and that’s putting it mildly. Cycling, it was the Wild West. Nobody considered doping cheating. It was an arms race where absolutely anything went, and it was every man for himself.

You might consider me the last guy to have anything to say about cheating, but golf is different. I love adhering to a code of honor that we in cycling didn’t have. If I moved my ball in the rough and got caught, I wouldn’t just regret it, I’d be heartbroken forever. When I think about reform in cycling, I think about golf.

I’m finding it hard to fathom what this means. What does it say about Armstrong? What does it say about cycling? And more importantly, what does it say about golf?

I suppose that if the world’s most famous, sporting cheat says he would never cheat at golf, it’s a good thing for the integrity of the game. But I’ll leave that to you to draw more, if any, conclusions.

Most of us have lost all respect for Armstrong, but if you’re keen to read the piece, it’s here at Golf Digest.

One thought on “Lance Armstrong says he would never cheat at golf

  • It was still his commitment and his hard work and his superior genetics that won him seven yellow jerseys. Doping didn’t give him superhuman powers. I think if a professional athlete is willing to risk his health to help him perform better, then let him. Performance enhancing drugs should be a personal choice. But then you could say that isn’t fair to the athletes who don’t want to take that health risk. Well, riding up mountains for three weeks isn’t healthy either so if they are that concerned about their health, they shouldn’t be athletes.

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