IOC President Thomas Bach "urged the PGA Tour to fully comply" with the World Anti-Doping Agency code before golf’s return to the Olympics next year, according to James Riach of the London GUARDIAN. The PGA Tour, which runs the professional game in America, has its own anti-doping program "but many argue it is not as stringent as the world code." Thirteen weeks before the 2016 Games in Rio, participating Olympic players "will automatically be required to comply with the world code." It "means players will need to provide their whereabouts around the clock and will be blood-tested, while any positive samples would be made public." At the Open in St. Andrews, Bach said, "They will have the same conditions like all the athletes. There will be random testing. There will be target testing. With regard to the anti-doping program, it is clear that the athletes will have to accept the Olympic standards during the next year prior to the Games, and of course during the Games." WADA Dir General David Howman "has previously criticised the lack of transparency in the PGA Tour’s anti-doping policy, stating that the European Tour has more stringent testing" (GUARDIAN, 7/19). In London, Andrew Longmore wrote "a confrontation over drug-testing policy could further damage the credibility of the Olympic golf tournament." Golf, "which last featured in the Games in 1904, has been slow to fall into line with global developments in drug testing." The PGA Tour’s policy was instituted in '08, "followed shortly by the European Tour." In terms of blood testing and full disclosure of results, "both fall short of Wada compliance." Transparency "is the biggest sticking point." The PGA Tour "releases the player’s name and the length of any ban -- two players have been banned since 2008 -- for positive tests for performance-enhancing drugs and nothing at all for recreational drug use." WADA President Craig Reedie said, "The PGA can change their rules quickly. They are not 100 percent compliant but we are working with them constantly in the hope that they will be" (SUNDAY TIMES, 7/19).
