KEY POINTS:
It brings a whole new meaning to the term 'in the cup'. The US PGA, which starts on Thursday, will be the first golf major to inflict drug testing on the players.
This has gone down like a cup of cold - well, you get the picture - with many of the PGA players offended that golf, being a gentleman's game steeped in honesty, which regularly sees players calling penalties on themselves, should be subject to the indignities of drugs testing.
That includes a doping official standing alongside while the golfers produce a sample, checking that they are not switching or interfering with the urine.
However, aside from the rather touching insistence of many golfers that there are no drugs on tour, it is almost certainly just a matter of time before a golfer tests positive - although most are picking it will be only for social or recreational drugs.
Steroids and beta blockers can, in low doses, affect a golfer's recovery and steady the body for precise acts like putting, so the argument that no one would take performance-enhancing drugs because they had little or no effect seems faulty.
"Golf's always been a matter of honour and calling penalties on yourself. I guess that's what the world has come to now. I guess no one can trust anyone else," said South African golfer Tim Clark after being selected at the first PGA tournament for testing last month.
Actually, that's not it. Golf sees the Olympics as the next big thing in terms of growing the game - and pro-testing golfers like Tiger Woods (who has given voluntary samples) plainly fancy adding an Olympic gold medal to the trophy cabinet.
To enter the Olympic stable, golf must get up to speed on drug testing. Olympic golf seems in danger of contracting the malaise of Olympic tennis and football - the Olympic tournaments do not compare to the 'majors' of each sport; they subsequently rarely attract the best players and the medals seem devalued.
The sports seem interested in being an Olympic event only because of the sponsorship and other money-oriented reasons, such as golf's insistence that it can only grow the game by such a step. What they really mean is that they can get Tiger on TV - and that he is pretty much the catalyst for golf's growth.
"We only need to test one player," remarked American golfer Steve Stricker drily when drug testing was introduced, "because none of us can beat him anyway".
PICKING THE first golfer to transgress in drugs is almost as hard as selecting a winner from a Tiger Woods-less field.
Phil Mickelson has been installed as favourite, although he does not have a particularly good record on the Oakland Hills south course (nicknamed 'The Monster'), the US PGA host this year.
The course will be a major factor - it will be another brutal test for the pros, with narrow fairways, punitive rough and famously tricky greens. Paul Azinger once said Oakland Hill's greens were tougher than Augusta (home of the Masters) and the great Jack Nicklaus said they were the toughest in major championship golf.
So, no pressure then. Accuracy off the tee; the ability to scramble well from testing rough; good course management to leave the ball in favourable positions on the treacherous greens; and, of course, good putting - all seem like attributes for any winner of the PGA.
The last time the PGA was played at Oakland Hills was in 1996 when little known (before or since) Steve Jones won, heading off Davis Love III and Tom Lehman. Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Jim Furyk all earned top 10 places then, although only Furyk is playing well at the moment, as Els struggles with swing changes and Singh just struggles.
Oakland Hills was also the site of the 2004 Ryder Cup where Europe defeated the US team and is a happy hunting ground for European players such as Padraig Harrington and Lee Westwood and may mean that the usual US stranglehold may not apply quite as much.
Furyk appeals as a potential winner because his game embraces all those qualities. But maybe players like Mickelson (too wayward for this course) and Sergio Garcia (his putting may not be good enough) don't.
SIX OF THE BEST
Six other golfers who appeal as possible winners include:
Padraig Harrington (Ireland)
Winner of back-to-back British Opens. One major lifts your confidence; winning two swells it. A good prospect in spite of a poor record in US-based majors.
Adam Scott (Australia)
Tends to spray it when the pressure comes on but has been working hard at Oakland, familiarising himself with the course. Not the least of chances.
Stewart Cink (US)
Playing very solidly and game might be right for this course.
Henrik Stenson (Sweden)
He finished well at the Open; has been in poor form but is coming out of it now and a considerable golfer when right, although his putting will have to be on.
Anthony Kim (US)
Knowledgeable judges say he is a major waiting to happen. Baulked when the pressure went on at the Open but may have learned from that.
Lee Westwood (England)
Challenged for some time at the Open and playing well; likes the course.
