Steroid testing in golf? Why not, By: Terry Pluto

AKRON, Ohio - If any sport can survive without steroid testing, it's professional golf.

But there still is reason to consider doing it, just to make sure.

First, let's consider what makes golf special.

It's a game where players call fouls on themselves. Compare that to most other sports where the motto is: What can I get away with?

The Cavaliers' LeBron James has yet to think he committed a foul, which puts him in the same company as about half of the NBA.

In baseball, you won't see a batter taking what should have been a strike down the middle, but the umpire calls it a ball - and the batter says, "Excuse me, that was a strike; you missed it."

In football, there is offensive holding on virtually every play, but you won't find a lineman throwing a penalty flag on himself.

Then there's golf, and what Darren Clarke did at this year's Irish Open.

Clarke had a 2-stroke lead on the final day when play was suspended because of rain. His ball was deep in the rough on No. 9. He left the ball at the spot overnight.

When he returned to the ball the next day, Clarke discovered the grass was flat. He went to bed knowing he'd need to get the ball back on the fairway. He also knew he could be the first Irish winner in this tournament in 24 years, a big deal to him and his family.

A day later, he saw he could take a shot at the green. A referee told Clarke he could play the ball under the current conditions.

Clarke answered to a higher code.

If he had played the ball before play was suspended, the green was out of the question.

The next day, he acted as if nothing had changed. He dumped the ball back on the fairway. He ended up taking a bogey-5.

He finished in third place, 2 strokes back. He might not have won the tournament even if he had ignored his conscience and fired at the green. But he played the game the right way, just as he left the tour to help his wife through her final days of cancer this year.

Not every golfer belongs on a church window, but most of them would have made the same decision as Clarke.

David Toms pulled himself out of the 2005 British Open when he couldn't decide if his ball was moving when he hit it. No one else noticed. Even he wasn't positive that he violated the rule of striking a ball that might have wriggled.

It was enough for Toms to take himself out of the tournament, and cost himself thousands of dollars.

So, golf is different.

Does that make it immune from the temptation of steroids?

"In other sports, part of the game is really to hope you can do something and the referee doesn't see it," said PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem. "In this sport, there is a reliance on the individual to call the rules on himself, and that's what happens."

The players also police each other.

At the 1995 World Series of Golf in Akron, Greg Norman said Mark McCumber took some grass off his ball. McCumber said he was dealing with a bug. He took the penalty.

A few years ago, there were some questions about the driver Tiger Woods was using. It was checked and found to be legal.

In another tournament, Jeff Sluman discovered he was using some marked golf balls. There was nothing wrong with them except the markings.

No one else saw it.

Sluman turned himself in and withdrew from the tournament.

There are more examples, but even the most casual golf fan knows that this game has its own extraordinary code of conduct.

And the game's premier player believes the time is right.

"I think we should be proactive instead of reactive," Woods said. "I just think that we should be ahead of it and keep our sport as pure as can be. This is a great sport and it's always been clean."

Would that prevent a golfer from trying steroids or human growth hormones to add another 20 yards to his drive? Or perhaps recover faster from an injury?

Right now, no one would know because the PGA has no steroid testing program.

"We've put a lot more energy behind telling players what the do's and don't's are with respect to illegal drugs," said Finchem.

"We don't have a list of performance-enhancing drugs in golf at this point, but utilizing a performance-enhancing (drug) is the same as kicking your ball out of the rough."

Finchem might be right, but it also makes sense for golf to publicize a list of drugs that it considers illegal. If for no other reason, it sends a message to the young golfers in the amateur ranks who might be tempted to find a quick way to add distance to their drives.

In 2005, the NCAA discovered that 1.3 percent of college golfers tested used some type of steroid. No sport is entirely clean.

Finchem said he's against testing because it would give the appearance the PGA thought there was a steroid problem - while Finchem and the players don't seem to believe it.

The golfers certainly don't look bulked up.

Finchem believes he would hear from other players if someone were suspected of using steroids. He might be right.

His position as commissioner is strong, and he can (and has) suspended players. It's often done in secret. No one is sure why a guy misses a tournament unless the player reveals himself.

Finchem has control of his game. Nonetheless, making a strong statement about steroids and insisting on occasional, random testing would tell the golf world that the sport is clean - and that it intends to stay that way.