Another Tiger Tale

By Michael Vogt

Tiger Woods philandering is between him and his wife and quite frankly I don’t believe it should be as much as an issue as it is.

But Woods’ potentially cheating on the game of golf is definitively between him, golf fans, fellow competitors, and Mr. Finchem.

Perhaps Tiger Woods is the Barry Bonds of golf — and Jack Nicklaus is Hank Aaron, anyone up for some “JUICE”?

The latest turmoil in Tiger’s buried lie from the bush came Tuesday when a story surfaced about one of Tiger’s doctors being arrested for providing performance enhancing drugs to elite athletes. It is said that the FBI is investigating Dr. Anthony Galea, who was found with human growth hormone in his bag at the U.S.-Canada border earlier this year.

The PGA Tour needs be proactive on an issue involving performance-enhancing drugs. Commissioner Tim Finchem should immediately announce a full-scale investigation into Tiger’s relationship with doctor Galea. I am not a particular Nicklaus fan but like Hank Aaron, Jack should not have his monumental milestone (18 major victories) surpassed by a juiced-up hormone using cheater.

When top athletes in nearly every other sport (baseball, football, track, swimming, cycling, etc., etc.) have been found guilty of using performance-enhancers we owe to the sport to discover if Tiger is a dope using golfer.

Golf is an honorable sport that competitors should never cheat the game, yea, right. Remember last year when under tremendous pressure Finchem finally succumbed to begin a drug testing policy for PGA competitors.

Obviously, golf has had its head buried in a sand bunker for far too long. If you can gain a competitive edge by taking a drug, you better believe somebody is taking that drug.

The incredible torque of golf swings and high speed pitching baseball windups, when done over and over again; place an enormous amount of strain on all of those moving body parts. Human growth hormones and designer drugs increase the body’s recovery process.

Remember Rodger Clemens, when large money is involved and elite sports figures are near to sports immortality the integrity of the game they once revered is forgotten. While on performance enhancing drugs Rodger Clemens:

• Won the Cy Young Award, honoring the best pitcher in the league, a record seven times
• Spent his first 13 seasons with the Red Sox, and won 24 games when the Red Sox won the American League pennant in 1986.
• Became the first player to strike out 20 batters in a game (April 29, 1986, vs. Seattle) he's the only pitcher to strike out 20 batters twice (Sept. 18, 1996 vs. Detroit.)
• Is second on the all-time strikeouts list, with 4,672 strikeouts, he only trails Nolan Ryan (5,714)
• On June 13, 2003, pitching for the Yankees, Clemens won his 300th game and recorded his 4,000th strikeout.

Let’s hope we don’t have to reflect on Tiger’s career as we do with Rodger’s.