I’ve never imagined that in my lifetime I would read under the sports headlines about golf players using steroids. Yet that is where I find myself today. Sure enough right there in the headlines of ESPN reads “Player says he knows of at least one golfer who has used ‘roids”. In the article golf great Gary Player discusses of at least one person that he knows for sure that has used steroids. You can just about bet that with the steroid controversy across the spectrum of sports over the last couple years and now especially with this statement from Player, that professional golf will be moving toward strict drug tests and policies.

This raises an interesting question. Do performance enhancers really help golfers perform better? Well to answer this question, let’s crunch some numbers. In 2006, Jim Furyk was second only to Tiger Woods on the money list and in the Official World Golf Rankings. In driving distance Jim Furyk was tied for 159th place. He was tied with Michael Connell (Following stats were taken from http://majors.golfweb.com/stats/leaders/r/2006/101). You know Michael Connell right? Right, I don’t know him either. Listen, I’ve lifted weights for a grand total of about 8 months throughout my whole life. If you put the right club in my hand I can give it a good whacking right down the middle of the fairway, often further than guys who are better and stronger than me. Now you put that sand wedge and putter in my hand and it’s a totally different ball game. Drives don’t win tournaments, chips and putts do. If you want to take steroids, you might as well just tour the world competing in driving distance contests. Then you’ll really have made it to the big time. But you better hurry, before they start testing too!