PGA Tour close to agreement on global drugs policy

BOSTON, June 21 (Reuters) The PGA Tour expects to formulate an anti-doping policy by the end of this year following lengthy consultation with its counterparts around the world.

Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who has repeatedly claimed golf has no problem with performance-enhancing drugs, said yesterday the issue had become a reality.

''We don't have a rule on performance-enhancing drugs, we never have had,'' Finchem told a news conference before the opening round of the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut.

''We're getting close on that. I suspect we'll be done with that certainly this year.

''It's unfortunate that these realities are with us, but they are. We have to deal with them and I think it's important that golf deal with them collectively,'' he added.

David Garland, the European Tour's director of operations, said last month that testing was likely to start next year after the major international circuits had agreed on a list of banned substances.

Finchem concurred.

GLOBAL BASIS ''I feel strongly that golf in this area needs to move together on a global basis ... move forward together with respect to what a rule is, and then beyond that in terms of the execution of the rule,'' he said.

''But it's a complicated subject so it's taken a little bit of time. We've put a lot of energy into it and we have for the last two years.

''I think when we're completed fans will be able to look at it and be comfortable with the direction that we're going.'' The LPGA Tour left the game's other major tours lagging behind when it announced plans in November to start drug testing players in 2008.

Although golf appears to be unaffected by performance-enhancing drugs, there have been widespread calls for the governing bodies to put testing policies in place.

''I think it certainly can be (a problem) in the future and I think we should be proactive instead of reactive,'' world number one Tiger Woods said last year.

The Royal&Ancient, which governs golf in all countries except the U.S. and Mexico, introduced drugs testing for the first time at last year's world amateur team championship in Cape Town, South Africa.

REUTERS BJR PM1305