Lack of transparency a dark stain on PGA Tour
Fears of incessantly loud chants of ‘‘U-S-A’’ at the forthcoming Olympics are growing and Dustin Johnson’s win at last week’s US Open has only added to the scaremongering. The Pennsylvanian crowd, showing a previously unsuspected versatility around initial letters, also began hollering ‘‘DJ’’ as the big man sauntered onto the final green.
DJ is listed as Johnson’s nickname. The popular legend in South Carolina is that it is a witty abbreviation of Dustin Johnson, although some believe that it could also stand for drug jockey, a snarky allusion to claims that Johnson has taken leave periods from the PGA Tour due to mishaps with marijuana and cocaine in 2009, 2012 and 2014.
Don’t say he was suspended. Heavens, no. That would mean having a credible drugs policy. Tim Finchem, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, believes that what goes on on tour, stays on tour. He has said: ‘‘One, we don’t feel that people really care that much . . . Two, candidly, we don’t have that much of it and we don’t want to remind people about it.’’
Sorry, what was that, I’ve forgotten already?
Now I don’t know the Russian translation of Commissariat Finchem’s words, but it’s the sort of statement you could imagine coming out of the Moscow headquarters of the Russian Athletic Federation. The Russkis also denied they had a drug problem and also didn’t want external testers coming in to monitor their athletes. Then they got found out and expelled from the Olympic Games.
And that is exactly what should happen to men’s golf. Give them the old leather mashie to the seat of the pants. A credible drugtesting programme was only brought in at the start of last month, and even then only for the golfers who look like going to the Olympics. Plenty of time to get juiced up beforehand.
DJ has said: ‘‘I would like to represent my country. The thing I’m looking forward to most is walking in the opening ceremonies.’’ And there is no doubt that Johnson is a great walker. We blokes all envy that virile lope that seems to cover a furlong in just three strides.
But Johnson’s footprint should be nowhere near the Olympics, although he has denied that his ‘‘voluntary leave of absences’’ had anything to do with recreational drugs. That’s right, he hurt his back lifting a jetski. More significantly the PGA Tour has had very little to say on the subject. The only denial it issued was to the use of the word suspension.
But how does it look to the world when the marquee tour of a sport has no credible drugs policy, is accepted into the Olympics and then stands by as a number of its top players pull out ahead of the Games and ahead of a rigorous testing procedure.
I am not accusing any of the men who have withdrawn of taking drugs. Many of them have given credible reasons, like not wanting to go. In several cases I suspect that the anxiety of their partners over the Zika virus is informing their decision, although if those partners were the ones going for gold, their concerns might suddenly subside. None of the top women golfers have yet pulled out. But the absence from the Games of Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, Louis Oosthuizen, Marc Leishman and Vijay Singh (OK, not Singh) undoubtedly tarnishes golf’s claim to be in the Olympics. It also diminishes Lydia Ko and all the women golfers who are desperate to be a part of the Olympics. The LPGA Tour was the first of golf’s tours to introduce a proper drug-testing procedure, and it needed to because several of its former stars were suspected of having taken performanceenhancing drugs. One look at Lydia should tell you that if she were taking PEDs, then the drugs don’t work. She is not muscled up and she hits her drives around 250 yards. The contrast with Johnson, who has also never been accused of taking PEDs, could scarcely be greater.
Ko is smart, methodical, cleanliving, understated, well-educated and on her learner’s driving licence. DJ probably couldn’t spell methodical. Lovely bloke, good intentions, turning his life around, but as Rick Reilly famously observed: ‘‘Dustin is so dense light bends around him.’’
Johnson got into juvenile trouble after being caught up in a robbery. DJ pawned a couple of the hot items and bought bullets connected to gun that was used when a mate of his brother shot and killed someone. The killer is now serving a life sentence in a psychiatric prison. On and off the course, DJ is a rules infraction waiting to happen. Did I mention he lent US$3 million (NZ$4.6m) to his attorney who walked off with the money, but hey, he’s still a friend.
It takes all sorts, as Descartes famously didn’t say, and Johnson and Ko are worlds apart. But Ko is the figurehead of a tour that has cleaned up its act. Johnson is the figurehead of a tour who thinks everyone shouts ‘‘you the man’’ and has fruit salad for brains. As David Howman, New Zealand’s head of Wada, laconically observed of the PGA Tour: ‘‘There are gaps in the programme.’’
There are gaps in DJ’s programme, but they are nothing like as big as the tour’s. A few years ago 25 per cent of PGA players surveyed said they thought Tiger Woods did PEDs. More recently former tour player Dan Olsen said of Tiger: ‘‘When it’s all said and done, he’s going to surpass Lance Armstrong in infamy.’’
Really? We would like to know. We would like authentic blood testing for things like human growth hormone.
But there’s no chance of that because Finchem doesn’t do drugs. So how great it would be if the IOC decided to discriminate. How great it would be if it celebrated the women golfers, but kicked the men out of the Olympics until they clean up their act.