Lpga new drug ban
The LPGA Tour have disclosed the names of all substances that will be on their banned list when they begin drug testing next year.

The list will include 33 anabolic steroids, 29 stimulants and 20 beta-blockers.
Making the announcement at Superstition Mountain in Arizona where this week's Safeway International is to be staged, Jill Pilgrim of the Tour's general counsel admitted the LPGA's banned substance list was not as comprehensive as that of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) but said this was for good reason.

"The easiest thing would have been to just go ahead and take the WADA list of pro-prohibited substances that the Olympics use," said Pilgrim, who previously held the same position with USA Track & Field.

"We thought about that and decided that in golf in general, and women's golf in particular, there's no sense unless there's a problem per se.

"To me, you have to be responsible about developing a program. You don't just throw everything at the wall and say, 'OK, we're going to ruin your career for testing positive even though we have no proof that it has any impact on your sport.' That wouldn't make sense."

The tour will not test for HGH, which is on WADA's banned list and has become the latest drug of choice among athletes in other sports. Pilgrim explained that this was because "we don't have any evidence that HGH is a problem in women's professional golf.

"It was easier to say, 'Let's leave that off for the first round and let's see where we end up after we start doing some drug testing,"' Pilgrim said.

Tour officials developed the list with the help of the National Center for Drug Free Sport in Kansas City, which handles testing for the NCAA.

"It's not written in stone," Pilgrim said. "We expect that the list will evolve over time."

The names of the banned substances were presented to the players at a special meeting at Superstition Mountain on Tuesday night. Annika Sorenstam, a member of the tour's drug-testing subcommittee, said she hadn't heard of most of the banned substances.

"I'm not very familiar with any of those substances. I don't really much about drugs other than caffeine (which is not banned) and cocaine," she said.

"I have a lot of learning to do. But I think it's an important statement that we're making.

"It's a new era for the LPGA," Sorenstam said. "We're (the players) are standing behind it."
 

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