John Daly’s claim that he is a specific target of the PGA Tour’s drug-testing policy is false, a tour spokesperson said on Wednesday.
PGA Tour refutes John Daly’s claim that he is a target of drug testing
The PGA Tour counters John Daly’s assertions that its drug-testing policy is not random, calling the two-time major champion’s claims ‘simply not true.’
Jeff Gross/Getty Images
Joel Schuchmann, the tour’s communications director, also refuted Daly’s charge that tests are not randomly administered.
“While it is not our practice to publicly comment on individual testing matters, we reserve the right to correct factually incorrect statements,” Schuchmann said via an e-mail statement. “Contrary to his assertions, John Daly has never been targeted for testing and his claim that players know when they will be tested is simply not true.”
Following the Valspar Championship pro-am on Wednesday, Daly repeated assertions he made Tuesday on his SiriusXM PGA Tour radio show that the Tour’s testing efforts were “a big joke,” and were systematic rather than indiscriminate. On Hit It Hard with John Daly, the two-time major champion said he expected to be tested as soon as he finished Friday’s second round at Innisbrook.
Daly said on Wednesday that he had been tested five straight years at the Valspar, that the Tour analyzed samples from him up to nine times per year, and that he expected such scrutiny a couple of times later in the season, according to GolfChannel.com’s Rex Hoggard.
Daly also ripped Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and executive VP/chief of operations Andy Pazder on his radio broadcast and expected to be fined for his indiscretion.
“I took one for the team,” Daly told Hoggard.
Finchem’s organization took issue with just about everything Daly had to say.
“While our staff has met with John Daly in the past, including within the past year, to review the details of [its anti-doping] program, it would appear we need to do so again based on his recent comments,” Schuchmann said. “That review included sharing that drug testing on the PGA Tour is both random and selective. We have also shared with him his own individual testing history.”
Schuchmann clarified for SB Nation that, though the tests are random, the tour reserves the right to test players it suspects have issues.
Daly has a second-round tee time of 1:50 p.m. ET tee time so the scoring trailer should be a happening place about 7-ish Friday evening.
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