Singh pulls out of Wells Fargo event

Singh pulls out of Wells Fargo event










The Sports Xchange May 1, 2013 10:20 AMThe SportsXchange



A back injury forced Vijay Singh to withdraw from the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., the PGA Tour announced Wednesday.

Singh, 50, made news on Tuesday when he was cleared by the tour of violating its drug policy for using a deer-antler spray that could contain a banned substance. He said he was unaware when he used the spray that it potentially contained a performance enhancer connected to human growth hormone.

The World Anti-Doping Agency no longer prohibits the use o deer-antler spray and the PGA Tour dropped its case. Singh had appealed the tour's sanctions against him in February.

Singh, a three-time major champion, won the Wells Fargo event in 2005. He joins six others, including Dustin Johnson, who have withrawn this week from the tournament.

Deer antler spray gets a pass, so now what?

Deer antler spray gets a pass, so now what?











Eric Adelson May 1, 2013 8:48 PMYahoo Sports


Oh deer.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the forest, there's breaking news in the deer antler spray saga that began more than two years ago and reached a fever pitch at this year's Super Bowl.

This week, the World Anti-Doping Authority, which provides the list of banned substances that most sports leagues follow, announced that deer antler spray is not in violation of its rules. Deer antler spray, you may remember, was at the center of a media frenzy that engulfed Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis in the week leading up to Super Bowl XLVII. Sparked by a Sports Illustrated story published during Super Bowl week, Lewis found himself at the center of a "controversy" for allegedly using a product that contained a banned growth hormone, IGF-1.






View gallery.

Mitch Ross speaks about The Ultimate Spray at Super Bowl XLVII. (Getty Images)But after determining that "The Ultimate Spray," the deer-antler product Lewis allegedly took, contains only "small amounts" of IGF-1, WADA announced it is not considered prohibited.



The athlete immediately impacted by the determination is golfer Vijay Singh, who had been sanctioned by the PGA Tour after he admitted using the spray in the same Sports Illustrated story. Upon WADA's determination, the PGA retracted its punishment of Singh.

"We're talking about a determination that was made by scientists at WADA that relate to the consumption through deer antler spray of a technically violative substance, IGF -1," PGA commissioner Tim Finchem explained this week. "But in looking at it, the scientists concluded it resulted in infinitesimal amounts actually being taken into the recipient's body."

The bigger question in the wake of WADA's decision is what this means for athletes and use of the spray going forward.

Yes, they can use it in the sense that WADA no longer prohibits it, and those athletes who feel it helps them can proceed. (An unnamed pro golfer told Jason Sobel of The Golf Channel, "I'm going on it as soon as I get home.")

But there remains a risk in that WADA still has IGF-1 on its banned list.

An email to WADA was not immediately returned, however Gary Wadler, former chair of the committee that determines WADA's banned list, told Yahoo! Sports, "Growth factors are a very significant issue in performance enhancement."

So it's sprayer beware. Use of "The Ultimate Spray," a product sold by a former bodybuilder named Mitch Ross, will likely not trigger a positive test, though use of IGF-1 is still not permissible. Much like speeding on the highway, IGF-1 is not permitted … but you can probably get away with it to a point.

"We ban and test for substances, not products," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in an email to Yahoo! Sports. "IGF-1 is on our banned substance list; same as it is on WADAs."

Confusing? Definitely.

The bottom line, though, is that more athletes will likely take their chances with the spray, even though it's still not clear how well it works, or even if it works at all. Athletes are always looking for an edge of any sort, and here's one WADA has cleared. The hard truth is that even if the spray was loaded with IGF-1, there's no widely accepted urine test for it anyway.

"There is only a blood test for IGF-1" Aiello said, "and the [player's] union has refused for two years to begin testing for growth hormone as it agreed to do in the new CBA."

And here's the major problem with both IGF-1 and HGH: We still don't know who's using because we still don't have blood testing in pro leagues like the NFL. On Tuesday, Tyler Dunne of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quoted an anonymous NFL player who said HGH use in the NFL is "like clockwork."

"Not tested and it's easy to get," the player said. "Nowadays, dude? In 2013? (Expletive] yeah. I'm just being real."

Ross has always dreamed of finding an alternative to steroids (hence the name of his company: Sports With Alternatives To Steroids, a.k.a. SWATS). When his spray became the focal point of a controversy leading up to Super Bowl XLVII, Ross flew to New Orleans to hold an impromptu press conference to "clear the air." Now he feels the WADA decision has lifted a cloud that's enshrouded him since the Sports Illustrated story came out and Lewis distanced himself from SWATS in the days thereafter.

On Wednesday, Ross said he felt "vindicated." He also said he's working with two new clients: Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson. His website has videos of both boxing legends talking about the benefits of SWATS products, including the deer antler spray.

"If it didn't work," Ross said of his spray, "wouldn't it just go away?"

Blood Brothers: Greg Norman Has It Right on Drug Testing

Blood Brothers: Greg Norman Has It Right on Drug Testing











Ryan Ballengee May 2, 2013 1:04 PM


COMMENTARY | Drug testing in golf is a joke.



No, not the notion of it. That's completely kosher. However, the PGA Tour's drug-testing policy -- adopted and enacted five years ago this July -- does not go far enough to test for performance-enhanc
ing drugs.





Greg Norman suggested the same thing this week, saying the PGA Tour must go further to ensure its players are indeed good because of their raw talent, not thanks to a needle injected here and there.



"You only have to look at what happened to Vijay Singh just recently to know the drugs issue is there," Norman told The Australian newspaper.



Singh, for his part, admitted to Sports Illustrated in a Jan. 28 piece that he had taken a substance known as deer-antler spray, which purportedly contains a growth hormone, called IGF-1, banned under the PGA Tour's anti-doping program. For three months, no decision came from the PGA Tour on what punishment Singh should suffer for a tacit admission of breaking the rules.



Could it be a suspension? A fine?



On Tuesday, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem laid down the law on Singh. Well, he was supposed to anyway. Instead, Singh was determined to not have violated the anti-doping program, allowing the 50-year-old Fijian to keep on playing as though nothing happened.



How could this be? After consulting with the World Anti-Doping Agency, whose guidelines served as the basis for the PGA Tour's policy, it was determined Singh's admission to using the deer-antler spray was not enough alone to sanction him.



WADA told the PGA Tour it does not consider deer-antler spray a banned substance and that only a positive (blood) test for IGF-1 should result in penalties. Ingesting any form of IGF-1 orally would not produce a positive test anyhow; it needs to be injected.



To summarize: Singh admitted to breaking the rules, but the rules were then retroactively changed to allow the three-time major winner to escape penalty because the PGA Tour does not conduct the kind of testing required to prove if Singh really did break the rules.



QED, Norman had it right.



If the PGA Tour did conduct blood tests on its players, rather than the urine samples it currently does (predominantly at tournament site), there is a better chance Singh would have been caught. Maybe he is suspended. Then again, under the policy the commissioner can choose to not suspend a player who has violated the policy. It's the performance-enhancing-drugs equivalent of Tiger Woods and Rule 33-7 from the Masters.



The PGA Tour must do several things in the wake of this protracted incident.



First, it has to take up Norman's suggestion that blood testing be the standard for its anti-doping program. What difference in discomfort is there in drawing blood than collecting urine? If it means the PGA Tour can actually test for all of the substances it says are banned, very little.



Second, it must test more often, away from tournament site, when players are not competing. In a February 2013 New York Times piece, Woods said he has never been tested off-site by the PGA Tour. The same claim was made by the likes of Rory McIlroy and former world No. 1 Luke Donald. With top stars taking lengthy breaks during the season to recharge for important stretches, an occasional knock at the door from a drug tester would improve the program's perceived credibility.



Finally, it has to appoint an independent arbiter to manage the program -- including doling out penalties -- and remove commissioner Finchem from the role. Golf's anti-doping program deserves an ombudsman (no pun intended) that is not working for the players, but rather to uphold the game's noble reputation.



In almost five years, the PGA Tour's anti-doping program has identified a single player, Doug Barron, with a positive test and followed through with an announced suspension. Ultimately, Barron's case was adjudicated to his satisfaction outside of the program's guise.



Basically, the anti-doping scorecard reads: five years, no positive tests. That means one of two things: (1) golfers are pristine and have no temptation to take a banned substance, or (2) some cheaters have been allowed to slide. It's likely the latter, even if somewhat unwittingly.



Heck, if Tiger Woods -- who said "rules are rules" -- can't remember the regulations around a simple drop, how likely is it that Vijay Singh isn't the only player to accidentally ingest a substance that might help him make a few more bucks every week?



Ryan Ballengee is a Washington, D.C.-based golf writer. His work has appeared on multiple digital outlets, including NBC Sports and Golf Channel.