Steroids? How Real A Threat

It's easy to peg the explosive distance gains in professional golf to a familiar set of theories: supercharged modern equipment, improved agronomy and sophisticated workouts by dedicated athletes. No one in the preservation-of-the-game versus unfettered-technology debate disputes these factors. But could golfers also be getting an assist from something else?

The recent assault on baseball's power records exposed the widespread use of a controversial tool in the ambitious athlete's toolbox: anabolic steroids. Doctors and trainers say steroid use is epidemic at the elite level—a high-tech arms race in virtually every professional and Olympic sport, from bicycle racing to wrestling. The level of sophistication in combining training methods with performance-enhancing drugs—and the ability to minimize health risks and dodge testing programs designed to keep them out of sports—has increased exponentially.

Besides, the conventional wisdom that steroids wouldn't be particularly useful in golf, where it doesn't pay to be muscle-bound in a pharmaceutically induced frenzy when standing over an important five-footer, may not apply anymore. "Endurance runners have been taking steroids for 40 or 50 years to increase the amount of training they can do," says Dr. Charles Yesalis, a professor of health policy and administration at Penn State and one of the foremost experts on anabolic steroids. "Do they look like muscle-bound freaks? And it's ridiculous to think that steroid use would somehow make a golfer too aggressive or unable to concentrate well enough to play effectively. Are you telling me that a major league baseball player doesn't have to concentrate as much to hit a 95 mile-per-hour fastball?"

After six months of research, Golf World has not turned up a documented case of steroid abuse on golf's major tours. Still, the rampant use of steroids in other sports and the insistence of medical experts that steroids can enhance performance lead some to believe steroids will inevitably encroach upon pro golf, probably first among young amateurs and developmental pros. Those concerned about the matter suggested that golf's governing bodies address such a possibility by enacting more clear rules and drug testing now.

Currently no major professional tour or golf organization has specific rules in place banning the use of performance-enhancing drugs, much less random drug testing to back up those rules. According to Yesalis, who testified twice before Congress in 2005 in conjunction with the ongoing Major League Baseball steroid investigation, that could be a serious mistake. (Australasian PGA Tour chief executive Andrew Georgiou, frustrated that his organization does not have a testing policy, told The Age of Australia this week that the situation is "an accident waiting to happen.")

"The notion that there aren't any steroids in golf is incredibly naive," Yesalis says. "Steroids work. There's too much money in the sport, and you can manage the steroids the right way, without serious side effects. You can certainly make the argument that the benefits outweigh the risks. What reasonable person thinks that athletes in any sport—golf included—aren't doing it?"

For their part, some golfers are skeptical of Yesalis' claim. "Could there be steroids out here? I guess it's possible," says Champions Tour player Peter Jacobsen. "But if I were a star player, I'd be very leery of putting anything in my body today that might impact my career or my ability to play 10 years from now or 20 years from now. Baseball players or football players get paid for what they did before or for what they might do in the future. If I don't play well, I don't get paid."

Harrison Frazar, who has played on the PGA Tour since 1998, says there would be more chatter if drug use was prevalent. "I don't think it's fair to say it's widespread," says Frazar. "It wouldn't surprise me if a few guys were doing it, but I think it'd be talked about more in the locker room and among players if it was more widespread."