"I was caught off guard," Jim Furyk said. "I thought everyone was pro-testing. What I drew out of the meeting was that a few guys aren't. Not a few. Let's say more guys had negative opinions."
Lickliter doesn't understand why the tour adopted WADA guidelines for golf, noting that Vick's Vapor Inhaler is prohibited.
"If I use Vick's nasal spray three times, they can kick me off the tour forever," Lickliter said. "Now, do you think Vick's nasal spray is helping me compete out here? Half the stuff they're testing for doesn't help golfers. These so-called experts are not experts in golf."
Furyk told of a player who confided having a disorder that required drug treatment. Requesting a TUE for the drug means letting his secret out.
Tim Herron wonders if Danny Edwards' failed attempt to start a players' union 10 years ago was ahead of its time.
For many, it was the thought of a positive test for something not intended to help them lower their score, even if no one has been able to identify a drug that will do that.
"I don't think anyone on tour is in the business of trying to find something to enhance performance," Jeff Maggert said. "Maybe there is, and I'm naive. There's a bigger chance of someone getting tested positive who has absolutely no intent of trying to break the rules. The downside outweighs the upside by 1,000-to-1. The downside is just terrible."
For all the discussion, there is no getting around the fact that drug testing is coming.
Asked recently about his diet, Woods said he knows exactly what goes into his body. He said 18 months ago that drug testing could start "tomorrow" and believes golf is "heading in the right direction of proving that our sport is clean."
What bothered so many players was golf losing its heritage of an honor system that has guided the game for two centuries. This is the only major sport in which players call penalties on themselves.
"And now they're treating us like criminals," Lickliter said.
Finchem is more sympathetic than autocratic on this topic. He has resisted drug testing for years, demanding to see evidence of a drug that helps golfers at the highest level. But there was no getting around the question of knowing golf was clean without a test to prove it.
"This is so counterintuitive to everything golf is about," he said in a quiet moment.
With apologies to endless PGA Tour hype, this is the new era of golf.
It's just a different cup.
