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In the light of the drug testing policies that the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour announced this week, it's worth reflecting on what Mike Weir said about the matter immediately after he'd finished the British Open in July. Weir was asked whether he thought any players would test positive once a policy were in place.

"I might be naive, but I would think no, I would think not one guy would turn up positive," Weir said as the championship that Padraig Harrington won wound down nearby.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem seems to agree with Weir. He implied as much when the PGA Tour announced its testing program after a board meeting last Monday.

"But for the problems in other sports, I doubt we would be at this point," Finchem said. "We are where we are, given the way of the world."

Finchem appeared for some time to be reluctant about developing a testing program, but he and his associates came to realize it's necessary in today's sports culture. Who's to say that a PGA Tour player or an aspiring young golfer who wants to get there wouldn't take a performance-enhancing substance if there were a chance that doing so would increase, to cite one possible benefit, his power? Tour golf is more and more about power.

Meanwhile, the LPGA Tour revealed its own testing protocol on Wednesday at the ADT Championship in West Palm Beach, Fla. Neither the PGA Tour nor the LPGA Tour could have known that baseball's career home-run leader, Barry Bonds, would be indicted on Thursday for perjury and obstruction of justice when he testified before a federal grand jury in 2003 that he'd never used steroids or human growth hormone. The timing was remarkable, if nearly coincidental.

The PGA and Nationwide Tours will begin testing no earlier than July of 2008 and will be preceded by what Finchem referred to as "player education and outreach," starting next month. Testing on the Champions Tour, for golfers 50 and above, will include a similar advance program, with testing to start in the middle of next season. The PGA Tour has informed its players it has the right to test any player anywhere or any time.

"The tour's primary objective is to have a credible program that will aggressively deter the use of any prohibited substance," Finchem said, adding exemptions will be provided for therapeutic use. The list of banned substances is essentially the same as mandated by the World Anti-Doping Agency and includes, among others, steroids, human growth hormone, marijuana and beta-blockers. Penalties differ for players taking steroids to improve their performance, against others who choose to smoke marijuana for recreational purposes.

As for the LPGA Tour, Jill Pilgrim, its general counsel and testing administrator, said on Wednesday at the ADT that testing can begin as early as the first tournament next year. Players will be tested at random after a tournament round. The LPGA's protocol is the same as the PGA Tour's.

"Initially, we will be conducting only in-competition drug testing," said Pilgrim, who has long been involved in Olympic testing. "What in-competition drug testing means in the context of sport drug testing is that you take the player or the athlete immediately after they leave the field of play and you drug test them as close to the time they competed as possible."

Unlike the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour will penalize a player taking steroids, for instance, the same as a player using marijuana for recreational use. Finchem can impose a variety of penalties, including disqualification or a one-year suspension for a first violation, as much as five years for a second violation and a lifetime suspension for a third violation, as well as fines up to $500,000. Finchem can demand that a player using recreational drugs undergo a course of treatment and rehabilitation.

The LPGA Tour's sanctions give its commissioner, Carolyn Bivens, no leeway regarding sanctions. A first violation will result in a one-year suspension and a second violation a two-year suspension, and a player who commits a third violation would face a lifetime suspension.

Pilgrim said the LPGA's policy "is all about competitive equity." Finchem said the PGA Tour's anti-doping program is meant to "aggressively and effectively deter the use of any prohibited substance."

By taking action, the professional tours have taken a significant step to ensuring that talent and nothing else will win tournaments. They took their time, but in this case, they've done what's in the long-term interest of the sport.

rube@sympatico.ca