While their comparatively cautious brethren overseas are taking a pass, officials at the PGA of America said Monday that drug testing will nonetheless remain part of the picture when the final major of the year is played in August.
Two weeks ago, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club announced that it would not begin testing players at the British Open in July, even though the PGA Tour and European Tour plan to jointly launch drug screening for the first time earlier that month.
The decision caused a minor stir, since the R&A had been vocally advocating testing for years. Instead, the R&A elected to wait until 2009, after the process is debugged and players from other worldwide tours become more familiar with the plan particulars and the nuances of the banned-substances list.
In a one-sentence statement released Monday, the PGA of America, a separate entity from the PGA Tour, said it intends to proceed with screening as originally planned. Thus, the Aug. 7-10 PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club outside Detroit represents the first major championship to state its intent to screen, if not possibly disqualify, a player for improper drug or supplement use.
“The PGA of America is informing all competitors in the PGA Championship that the joint substance/methods list is in effect and that the potential for random testing does exist at the PGA Championship,” the statement read.
No further elaboration was made, calling into question whether the PGA plans to actually test players or is just rattling its sword to create the illusion of possible screening. The PGA Tour plans to roll out testing for the first time at the John Deere Classic on July 10-13. PGA of America officials previously indicated the organization would adhere to PGA Tour protocols when drug screening was implemented, but it remains unclear which testing agency would be used at Oakland Hills, not to mention how many players would face testing, or how they would be selected.
