Doug Barron: The Face Of Performancing Enhancing Drugs in Golf

Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, Shawne Merriman, and Barry Bonds are names commonly associated with steroids in professional sports.

Doug Barron is not.

At 40-years-old, Baron is slightly overweight, has a heart condition, was diagnosed with an unusually low testosterone level back in 2005 and has never won a PGA Tour event in his 17 years as a professional golfer.

Heck, Doug Barron is a walking billboard for those people who still think that golf is not a sport and professional golfers are not athletes.

But in an almost comical chain of events, Doug Barron has now become the face of performance-enhancing drugs in golf.  

He is the first man to be officially suspended by the PGA Tour for testing positive for banned substances.

Less than two weeks ago, The PGA Tour announced that Barron would be suspended for one year after testing positive for testosterone and propranolol (a drug that could be used to steady nerves) at the St. Jude Classic.

“You could give me a list of 500 tour players and I would not pick Doug Barron’s name off the list to be first,” Brad Faxon said on the Golf Channel.

Barron has been plagued with so many physical ailments over the years that his lawyer is arguing that he is “a disabled individual” as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

When the PGA Tour issued its list of banned substances in July of 2008, Barron immediately asked for an exemption based on his his physical condition, but was denied by the PGA Tour.

The PGA Tour has stated that Barron’s “blatant and intentional use of two different prohibited substances despite the denial of his T.U.E. applications” was the cause of his suspension.

Barron released a statement on November 2nd saying the following: “I would like to apologize for any negative perception of the tour or its players resulting from my suspension. I want my fellow tour members and the fans to know that I did not intend to gain an unfair competitive advantage or enhance my performance while on tour.”

Gain an unfair advantage?

It seems as if this guy required these medications in order to simply stand upon two legs for the duration of 18 holes.

"He was using these drugs for medical reasons, not to enhance performance,” said Barron’s Lawyer, Jeffrey Rosenblum.

Barron is currently awaiting a decision by the Federal Magistrate in Memphis, Tennessee to see if his suspension will be overturned and whether or not he will be allowed to attend the second stage of the PGA Tour’s qualifying school.

There’s nothing funny about performance enhancing drugs in sports.

However, it’s difficult to look at the new poster boy for the PGA Tour’s anti-doping policy and not at least chuckle.