Associated Press
MILL SPRING ó As the PGA Tour inches closer to random drug tests, golf great Gary Player is proud for whatever role he may have played in the policy.
Player, 72, made worldwide headlines last July at the British Open when he warned of competitors using performance-enhancing drugs.
“Everybody thought I was crazy,” Player said Sunday. “But now they’re beginning to realize that what I said was the truth.”
Player, who won nine major titles in his PGA Tour career, was in the Carolinas this weekend to promote the Bi-Lo Charity Classic, a fundraising tournament that has raised more than $40 million for nonprofit groups during its 25 years.
Player spoke before a round at Brights Creek Golf Club, one of the 14 courses in North and South Carolina that will host the event.
Months after Player’s comments at Carnoustie, Scotland, last summer, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem instituted an anti-doping program. Education for PGA Tour players began last December and was to continue through this month.
Testing was to start “no sooner than July 2008,” according to Finchem’s memo from last November.
Player considers golf the “cleanest of all sports,” but it took time for some pros to understand the threat.