Double Major winning Mark O’Meara has called for the PGA Tour to act and suspend fellow Masters champion, Vijay Singh after the Fijian admitted to taking a banned substance.
The 49-year old Singh issued a statement confessing to using deer antler spray, which is banned up both PGA and European Tour’s anti-doping policy.
And Singh certainly didn’t help his cause admitting he paid $9,000 for the spray last November and that he uses it every couple of hours.
“I’m looking forward to some change in my body and it’s really hard to feel the difference if you’ve only been doing it for a couple of months,” Singh admitted.
The controversy took another twist overnight when 1963 Open Champion, Bob Charles said he’s used and promoted a banned deer-antler products for more than 20 years but is naturally now surprised to learn it contains a substance that violates golf’s doping protocols.
“I was totally unaware of illegal substances … being in the horn or the antler of the deer and I’ve taken one or two deer velvet capsules daily and have been doing so for virtually 20 years or more,” said Charles.
Singh is set to tee up later today in the Waste Management Phoenix Open in Arizona and competing alongside American Ryan Moore and Sweden’s Carl Pettersson.
On February 22nd Singh will turn 50 making his eligible for the lucrative Champions Tour where he will join O’Meara.
The 56-year old O’Meara is again competing in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and shrugged off any lingering effects of a lower back complaint he endured at the end of last season to shoot a five under par 67.
However O’Meara, who will also join Singh at this year’s Masters, believes the PGA Tour needs to act immediately in dealing with Singh.
“It’s hard to make a solid comment when you don’t know all the facts but I have to say I was surprised when I heard about it yesterday,” he said.
“But do I think that using the substance has made Vijay the player he is, then no.
“Certainly, it’s been an issue in the sport that we either have drug testing or we don’t and I’m fine with that.
“The way I look at it golf is very different and unique compared to other major sports from the standpoint that if you just take good care of yourself physically but then mentally that is something you have to control as no one can help you in that regard and you can’t take any medication.
“So while I don’t see that been a huge impact in the game it is wise to have the testing and while I was a bit surprised to hear what Vijay said I don’t think he’s a guy that would take advantage of anything, and besides I like Vijay.
“I know he turns 50 next month and I had been talking to him last December in the Father and Son outing if he was looking to playing with us on the Champions Tour.
“He wasn’t too sure but I said to him: ‘Don’t be scared. We are going to kick your butt out on the Champions Tour’.
But when O’Meara was quizzed what punishment should be handed out to Singh, O’Meara agreed he should be suspended.
“Probably he should be suspended for a couple of months, and I don’t know what the PGA Tour Commissioner is thinking, but listen people have had to pay the price before and he should be no different,” said O’Meara.
“And if that is the case then the Commissioner of the Tour feels Vijay should be suspended for an ‘x’ amount of time and Vijay’s man enough that he will accept that.
“I also will be surprised if Vijay now goes ahead and plays in Phoenix later today.
“But like I said I feel like Vijay is a friend and I wish the best for him and his family and I wish the best for him but if the penalty for not knowing …sometimes it’s happened in other sports where guys have taken vitamins, but has Vijay tried to bend the rules? No I don’t think that.
“There is much more of a gym culture in the modern game now and the athletes are just bigger and stronger and when you walk onto the range today, and when I came out onto the Tour in 1981 I saw Tom Weiskoff and he was a giant. But then he was just one of a few who sailed past six foot or something like that.
“But then nearly every athlete playing the game is that size today. There’s a lot of dominant players around five foot 10 and 11.
“So to really dominate and be consistent it comes down to power and guys are more physically fit and they are in the gym a lot more, and they are bigger and stronger athletes and the game is ruled by them.”
