Peter Williams: If we're going to drug test, let's do it properly

Golf takes its first tentative step towards the real world of sport when drug testing is carried out at the World Amateur Team Championships (Eisenhower and Espirito Santo Trophies) in October in South Africa.

But the testing will be only for substances on the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) banned list. That list does not include, for golf, the drug which many people believe is the game's most effective performance enhancer - the beta blocker. The most common type of this class is propranolol. It's an anti-anxiety drug which slows your heart rate and has virtually no side effects.

A golfing anaesthetist, who's been a scratch player, told me that beta blockers are great for golfers who suffer from nerves in pressure situations - and that surely includes everybody who's ever played at a competitive level. He reckons that you become calm and relaxed over important shots and therefore have a better chance of making a smooth swing. He's in no doubt propranolol is a far more effective performance enhancer for golf than any kind of strength-building steroid.

The WADA list does ban beta blockers from competition in 18 sports. Golf is not one of them. Other pursuits requiring nerves under pressure - like shooting, archery and diving - are included.

Golf's absence from that list is surely an oversight which WADA must fix now that the International Golf Federation (IGF), which runs the Eisenhower and Espirito Santo, are getting serious about drug testing. The IGF is controlled by the Royal and Ancient and the United States Golf Association. But apart from their respective Open championships, they do not run any professional events - and therein lies a problem.

Former NZ Open champion Craig Parry made headlines in Australia when he said he knew three players "who have won majors in the last decade who have been on beta blockers." He didn't name them but Nick Price, who won three majors in the 1990s, admits to taking the drugs "for his health".

However, it's obvious nobody in the professional game wants to address the issue. USPGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem reckons his Tour doesn't have a problem so they're not going to start testing.

Most top players take the attitude, publicly anyway, that because golf requires more than just brute strength, taking steroids isn't going to help a player score better. While that's true, steroids also speed up recovery from training, therefore allowing more time in the gym or at practice.

Golf's attitude to drugs historically has been one of "we don't see it, therefore it's not happening." That's how the cancer spreads through countless other sports.

Yet an IOC report which came out last year showed that golf had the highest percentage of anti-doping violations in 2003.

The IGF is to be commended for what they're doing in South Africa. The PGA Tour needs to get real.