There was more than a little confusion when European Tour players gathered this week for a meeting. The confusion surrounded some perceived discrepancies in the drug lists between the PGA and European PGA tours.

Two of the players - Ian Poulter and Paul Casey - questioned why the PGA list contained three permissible drugs to treat erectile dysfunction while the European list allowed only one.



Of course, both players quickly pointed out that neither of them needed such "supplements".

Humor aside, their point raises an interesting issue. If all the golf bodies - the PGA, European PGA, LPGA and R&A, to mention the bulk of them - have agreed to a drug testing policy, you'd think they would have agreed on a uniform list.

Recall that Dick Pound, the out-going head of WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, strongly recommended that the tours adopt WADA's list. PGA commissioner, Tim Finchem rejected the suggestion.

Now we have discrepancies.

American players are permitted under the terms of their drug policy to use asthma medications. European players are not. Why?

According to Michele Verroken, the European Tour's anti-doping advisor, using asthma drugs is accepted on the American tour. Those players would need to bring a "therapeutic use" slip with them when they play in Europe.

In other words, American players get an exemption from at least one drug when they play in Europe.

Here's what's shaping up: the potential for a communications nightmare where players are uncertain about what to take or not take. Mistakes will be made and, perhaps, drug tests failed.

Then we'll hear professional golfers uttering the same words that we've heard so many "amateur" athletes spout: "I have never knowingly taken a performance enhancing drug in my life". But this time, they could be telling the truth.

More than this, the tours have created an uneven playing field where the rules change depending on where you play.

For heaven's sake, if the world tours are going to take this matter seriously, why on earth do they want to create minefields for themselves?

Dick Pound's words keep echoing back.