US PGA TOUR SAYS THAT DUSTIN
JOHNSON HAS NOT BEEN SUSPENDED
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida - The US PGA Tour issued a statement Friday afternoon regarding Dustin Johnson.
"With regard to media reports that Dustin Johnson has been been
suspended by the US PGA TOUR, this is to clarify that Mr. Johnson has taken
a voluntary leave of absence and is not under a suspension from the PGA
TOUR," the statement read.
The Tour issued the statement in response to
media reports that characterized Johnson's absence as a
suspension.
The US PGA Tour has a policy of not making public any suspensions imposed on players
On Thursday, Johnson issued a statement announcing his intentions to take a break from competing on the US PGA Tour.
"I am taking a leave of absence from professional golf, effective
immediately. I will use this time to seek professional help for personal
challenges I have faced," Johnson said in his statement.
"By committing
the time and resources necessary to improve my mental health, physical
well-being and emotional foundation, I am confident that I will be
better equipped to fulfill my potential and become a consistent
champion.
"I respectfully ask my fans, well-wishers and the media for privacy as I embark upon this mission of self-improvement."
The PGA TOUR, in a statement Thursday said, "We have nothing to add
to Dustin's statement, but we wish him well and look forward to his
return to the PGA TOUR in the future."
David Winkle, president of Hambric Sports Management, which
represents Johnson, told the PGA of America that Johnson will not
participate in next week's PGA Championship nor take part in the Ryder
Cup in late September in Scotland.
REPORT SAYS DUSTIN JOHNSON HAS FAILED
THREE DRUGS TESTS SINCE 2009
FROM GOLF DIGEST WEBSITE
By Matthew Rudy
When I wrote the first national story
about the steroids-in-golf issue for Golf Digest back in 2007, I was
struck most by two pieces of information that came out of the
reporting.
It was fascinating to learn how
easy it would be for a player to find and use a $40 cream that would
give him (or her) 10 percent more clubhead speed and do it with
virtually no long-term health risk.
And
it was illuminating to hear Dr. Charles Yesalis, the Penn State
professor who literally wrote the book on steroids, lay out the
pragmatist's guide to building an anti-doping policy.
"You'd
want to keep control of the testing, so that if a star tested positive,
you could cover it up and deal with it internally,"Yesalis said. "You
want to pick specific drugs that apply to your sport. There are
loopholes, but what we're talking about is the perception, not the
actual ethics or morals of what is happening."
The
US PGA Tour must have been taking good notes, because what Yesalis
described is exactly what has happened over the last six years.
It
took less than a day for Dustin Johnson's announcement that he was
taking a leave from tour golf to work on personal problems to be
followed by reports that the PGA Tour actually suspended Johnson for six
months for his third failed drug test -- once for marijuana in 2009 and
twice for cocaine, in 2012 and 2014.
Johnson was reportedly suspended
before, for the failed 2012 test, but maintained publicly than he missed
time for a back injury (the tour has refuted the published reports by maintaining Johnson has not been suspended).
The
timing of the reports about an official suspension only matters because
the US PGA Tour doesn't disclose player conduct violations or suspensions.
Johnson could be the only player who failed a test since 2009, or he
could be one of 100 who did. The tour is content to stand by its
statement that it forbids the use of (certain) performance enhancing and
recreational drugs, and that it will punish players that violate the
rules.
Commissioner Tim Finchem told me in
2007 that he believed in golf's culture of integrity and rule-following,
and that "the notion that a player would cheat in this sport is an
anathema to the athletes."
If that's really
true, the tour's policy should be complete transparency in its drug
program. If cheating (or recreational drug use) is so rare, the
occasional player who is announced to have been suspended would only
serve as more of a reminder about how dedicated the tour is at
preserving fair play and protecting the health of its members.
If
you're following Vijay Singh's legal dispute against the tour over his
suspension for admitting he tried deer-antler spray -- a substance for
which the tour doesn't even test -- for its performance-enhancing
benefits, it's easy to see why the tour is fighting so hard to keep from
having to reveal what players have tested positive for a banned
substance and what the punishments have been for those violations.
The term "punishment" can be pretty elastic when everything happens in secret.
How
would it look if a journeyman like Doug Barron got suspended for a year
for elevated testosterone and a star player received a different
punishment for the same violation? Or if one player got fined for a
positive test, while another got some secret time off or received no
punishment at all?
It would mean the tour's primary concern is a player's marketing value, not enforcing basic fairness.
Say it isn't so.
Nobody
believes Finchem and the tour will adopt Olympic-level openness about
anti-doping. In a couple of years, we'll see if it matters.
US PGA Tour
players will go to Rio for the 2016 Summer Olympics -- where they'll get
the same random drug tests as the swimmers and track stars, and be held
to standards that make the tour's drug policy look like a junior high
science project.
If the winner loses his gold
medal because he used testosterone cream or smoked a joint, I'll bet we
hear about it. And I bet they won't give it back if he promises not to
do it again.
By Matthew Rudy
When I wrote the
first national story
about the steroids-in-golf issue for Golf Digest back in 2007, I was
struck most by two pieces of information that came out of the
reporting.
It was fascinating to learn how
easy it would be for a player to find and use a $40 cream that would
give him (or her) 10 percent more clubhead speed and do it with
virtually no long-term health risk.
And
it was illuminating to hear Dr. Charles Yesalis, the Penn State
professor who literally wrote the book on steroids, lay out the
pragmatist's guide to building an anti-doping policy.
"You'd
want to keep control of the testing, so that if a star tested positive,
you could cover it up and deal with it internally,"Yesalis said. "You
want to pick specific drugs that apply to your sport. There are
loopholes, but what we're talking about is the perception, not the
actual ethics or morals of what is happening."
The
PGA Tour must have been taking good notes, because what Yesalis
described is exactly what has happened over the last six years.
It
took less than a day for Dustin Johnson's announcement that he was
taking a leave from tour golf to work on personal problems to be
followed by reports that the PGA Tour actually suspended Johnson for six
months for his third failed drug test -- once for marijuana in 2009 and
twice for cocaine, in 2012 and 2014. Johnson was reportedly suspended
before, for the failed 2012 test, but maintained publicly than he missed
time for a back injury (the tour has
refuted the published reports by maintaining Johnson has not been suspended).
The
timing of the reports about an official suspension only matters because
the PGA Tour doesn't disclose player conduct violations or suspensions.
Johnson could be the only player who failed a test since 2009, or he
could be one of 100 who did. The tour is content to stand by its
statement that it forbids the use of (certain) performance enhancing and
recreational drugs, and that it will punish players that violate the
rules.
Commissioner Tim Finchem told me in
2007 that he believed in golf's culture of integrity and rule-following,
and that "the notion that a player would cheat in this sport is an
anathema to the athletes."
If that's really
true, the tour's policy should be complete transparency in its drug
program. If cheating (or recreational drug use) is so rare, the
occasional player who is announced to have been suspended would only
serve as more of a reminder about how dedicated the tour is at
preserving fair play and protecting the health of its members.
If
you're following Vijay Singh's legal dispute against the tour over his
suspension for admitting he tried deer-antler spray -- a substance for
which the tour doesn't even test -- for its performance-enhancing
benefits, it's easy to see why the tour is fighting so hard to keep from
having to reveal what players have tested positive for a banned
substance and what the punishments have been for those violations.
The term "punishment" can be pretty elastic when everything happens in secret.
How
would it look if a journeyman like Doug Barron got suspended for a year
for elevated testosterone and a star player received a different
punishment for the same violation? Or if one player got fined for a
positive test, while another got some secret time off or received no
punishment at all?
It would mean the tour's primary concern is a player's marketing value, not enforcing basic fairness.
Say it isn't so.
Nobody
believes Finchem and the tour will adopt Olympic-level openness about
anti-doping. In a couple of years, we'll see if it matters. PGA Tour
players will go to Rio for the 2016 Summer Olympics -- where they'll get
the same random drug tests as the swimmers and track stars, and be held
to standards that make the tour's drug policy look like a junior high
science project.
If the winner loses his gold
medal because he used testosterone cream or smoked a joint, I'll bet we
hear about it. And I bet they won't give it back if he promises not to
do it again.
Labels: US PGA TOUR
