Golf and PEDs

I think it's cute that there are still people out there who believe professional athletes don't look for anything that will give them an edge on their competition.

 

I'm sure they do. Question is, at what cost? There are a lot of retired pro athletes limping around and even dying early deaths because of stuff they took in their playing days.

If pro leagues wanted to go to an "anything goes" policy, I guess I'm OK with that. The way it stands now, guys who don't want to use stuff because of potential risks are sometimes put at a disadvantage. And I think that's unfortunate.

 

Really? Then name some examples.

 

Here's where you're wrong: I know a former body-builder who admitted he was on the juice during those days. He quit the racket, stopped taking the roids and took up golf as therapy. Actually became quite good and wins local tournaments. He told me (on the record) about three years ago that:
1. While he's been on steroids and plays golf, but not at the same time, he still feels qualified to say that steroids will not help a golfer, especially at the highest levels, one bit.
2. Whatever distance you gain, he said, will be nullified by a loss of flexibility that enables you to hit the ball straight or work the ball. He said you could roid up and drive it 350 but very few of them will be in the fairway.
3. He said any touch you need on the short game and putting -- the money part of golf -- will be lost.
4. And, he said the roids make you "one mean son of a bitch," not exactly the temperament you need for golf.

 

Well, that proves it.

For 20 years the stock answer was that no hitter would take steroids because it makes you too muscle-bound and stiff. Basketball players used to not lift weights for the same reason. Even today, people believe pitchers would be working against themselves because of the loss of flexibility.

It's all gobbledygook.

 

It's staggering how many allegedly educated people continue to be so bloody naive about what purpose drugs are used for in sports. Holy God.

Guys aren't using this shit to win body building competitions. It's to recover from injury or let them work out longer or increase oxygen or maintain their stamina at age 37.

Every time someone says "Golfers wouldn't do that cause it would hurt your putting" I want to ask why the hell do you thing Andy Pettitte took HgH? To set a Yankee bench press record? These are not the roids East German was pumping into its athletes, folks. The chemistry would be a little more advanced than saying "Muscle up!" Have some of you missed an entire generation of PED reporting?

The idea that Tiger Woods could lie and lie and lie to the people he cared about the most just so he could fuck anything that moved and temporarily silence his crippling nerd insecurity issues from his childhood, but he would tell the absolute truth and be entirely honorable to total strangers when it came to PEDs is so laughable, it should make hondo and Doug Ferguson blush every time they utter it.

 

What a ridiculous argument. It's like saying Jim Thorpe never tested positive for Red Bull. But that doesn't mean Jim Thorpe never used Red Bull.

Never mind Red Bull didn't exist in Thorpe's day. A negative test is a negative test, and a higher standard of proof will always be required.

 

Those gymnasts were sure stiff and not flexible.

 

Christ, Hondo, could you be more of a Tiger/golf apologist?

Your views on PED issues come off as so anachronistic. It's all straight from the "shit people once believed decades ago" collection. Nearly all those old wives tales about what PED and muscle training supposedly "can't" help you with have generally been proven to be bullshit. There was a time when boxers, basketball and baseball players were told to avoid weights because it would supposedly ruin their flexibility, reflex speed and shooting touch. That, of course, has since been proven to be bullshit, and advanced weight training is now an integral part of training for all three sports. There was a time when we were told that roids couldn't help baseball players because it was such an "eye hand coordination" sport, that of course was proven to be bullshit when a bunch of bloated roid hounds seized the sport and made mincemeat of the MLB record books.

And the notion that PEDs won't help golfers will likewise be proven to be bullshit. Because, as noted, PEDs ain't just about bigger muscles. They also help you recover far faster after workouts and injuries; they can help your reaction time and reflex speed; there are PEDs focused entirely on increasing endurance rather than strength; there are these beta blocker meds that help athletes control their heart rate, focus and stress reactions during clutch situations (Is that not just perfect for those putting situations in golf?), etc.. Truth is, there are NO athletic endeavors where performance can't be improved by drugs these days. Hell, I'd bet the farm that there are fricking bowlers using drugs to improve their game right now.

 

There are millions and millions of people (me included) who have prescriptions for drugs banned by lots of sports for perfectly legitimate medical reasons. I take a diuretic to treat high blood pressure. The line between PEDs and medicine is blurred and getting blurrier. What about the Champions Tour? Those guys have reached the age when people have prescriptions to treat stuff as a matter of course.

 

Then explain after five years of random and independent drug testing, why has only one Tour player (Doug Barron) tested postitive?

 

According to Vijay's lawyer, and thus the basis of the thread, quite a few players have, and the Tour has chosen to cover it up.