The First One

Filed in archive Golf News on August 2, 2007

Alessandro Pissilli: A Guilty Golfer?

Could Gary Player be right? Are there players who are taking steroids and cheating the game?

An Italian golfer, Alessandro Pissilli, has been suspended by the Italian Golf Federation after failing a drug test.

He is the first ever golfer to test positive.

Italy is fanatical about testing to the point where accusations are often made by Italian authorities before all the facts are known.

However, in the case of Pissilli, there is a failed drug test for something known as Finasteride.

Finasteride is used in the treatment of hair loss but it's also a known masking agent for steroids.

Pissilli's local club in Florence has come out in his defense, saying he informed them that he had been using Finasteride to deal with a prostate problem for several years.

Pissilli has been suspended by the Italian Golf Federation and could face the obligatory two year ban if he's found guilty of a flagrant doping violation.

I say "flagrant" because there is always the possibility that he's right - he does have a prostate problem and he uses Finasteride to alleviate the issue.

Unlike other sports where the use of drugs is, alas, frequent (can you say "Tour de France", for example?) and participants know what's on the banned list and what isn't, golfers are new to the world of doping.

So it's entirely possible that Pissilli, who plays on the Italian Tour, is innocent of trying to cheat and ignorant of what products are allowed.

I really don't know how a golfer could gain from using steroids, blood doping agents or human growth hormone.

What can these ingredients contribute to the golf swing? We know the swing is all about mechanics, timing and rhythm.

We know that clubhead speed is derived from the lower body, specifically turning the hips, so what's to gain? Stamina? Endurance?

Maybe we should be testing the caddies.