LPGA Tour Declares Banned Substances

The LPGA Tour released the list of substances it will ban when it begins drug testing next year.

The tour said yesterday that it will test for 33 anabolic steroids, 29 stimulants and 20 beta-blockers, among other substances. The list is not as comprehensive as the World Anti-Doping Agency's prohibited list, but LPGA Tour general counsel Jill Pilgrim said the tour wanted to target drugs that would enhance golf performance.

"The easiest thing would have been to just go ahead and take the WADA list of prohibited substances that the Olympics use," Pilgrim said. "We thought about that and decided that in golf in general, and women's golf in particular, there's no sense that there's a problem per se."

The tour will not test for human growth hormone, which is on WADA's banned list and has become the latest drug of choice among athletes in other sports. Pilgrim said the tour did not ban HGH because "we don't have any evidence that HGH is a problem in women's professional golf."

Tour officials developed the list after consulting with the National Center for Drug Free Sport in Kansas City, Mo., which handles testing for the NCAA.

Officials presented the list to players at a meeting Tuesday. Annika Sorenstam, a member of the tour's drug testing subcommittee, said: "It's a new era for the LPGA. We're standing behind it."

-- From News Services