Say it isn’t so
I feel like I got sucker-punched in the stomach. Ryan Braun testing positive for PEDs? C’mon, he’s too pure, too smart to cheat. Right?
Ryan Braun is to baseball in Wisconsin what Steve Stricker is to golf. One of the good guys. A role model and hero. Among the state’s most beloved. This is about as easy for me to digest as it would be if it were Stricker. It just doesn’t seem plausible.
But maybe that’s comparing apples to oranges because of their respective sports. Golf was a reluctant entry into the world of drug-testing in July of 2008 because so many deemed the testing unnecessary. There was no evidence of any players using PEDs. Why would they? Pure strength doesn’t exactly lower scores, or get the ball in the hole. But fair is fair, and with the pressure of PED scandals in other sports, it had to be done.
In the three years since the policy was instituted, Doug Barron is the first and only PGA Tour player suspended for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs – he received a one-year suspension. It is a clean sport – as far as we know.
Although we will wait and see how the Braun saga all plays out, it opens up old wounds of an era we thought was behind us. Sure, stories surface every now and then of athletes failing drug tests. But athletes doping up to gain advantage seems so 2005.
So maybe the Braun-Stricker comparison isn't fair. Regardless, this isn’t just another athlete being called into question. This is one of our own. And this one hurts.
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Erin Eagan, Executive Editor at Killarney Golf Media, has been playing and following golf for over 20 years. She is an accomplished multimedia and communications professional with extensive experience in publishing, writing, editing, marketing and web development. Erin has published over 100 articles for leading publications, websites and select clients. Email her at 
