Drug Testing and Cheating

Interesting piece today in the NY Times on cheating in golf - from the amateur ranks to professionals. Here are some very candid statistics about how often amateurs cheat:

In a recent online poll of more than 7,000 golfers, 70 percent said they cheated on the course. A 2002 survey of 400 top business executives reported that 82 percent admitted to cheating at golf.

But this about professionals was more stunning:

Around the same time, PGA Tour caddies were questioned about cheating, and 26 percent said they had seen players cheat on tour.

This flies in the face of the argument that many players have made about drug testing on Tour. They say that golf is a game of integrity and that people police themselves - therefore, why would they be compelled to cheat off of the course?

Well, if the stat is true and 26% of PGA Tour players have cheated at some point - on course, in plain view of thousands of spectators, fellow players, and television cameras - then what is to stop the same or higher percentage from taking substances that are difficult to detect?

Dr. Wayne Glad is a clinical psychologist out of Illinois that deals with many PGA Tour players.

Glad said, the PGA Tour players he deals with are aware of colleagues who cheat.
“They’ll talk to each other about certain guys,” Glad said. “They’ll say, ‘You ever notice how often so-and-so coughs in your backswing?’ ”

Then, it begs the question, how are players doing in policing themselves?