Colin Montgomerie said, "How can performance-enhancing drugs help us? They hurt your touch and all those kinds of things." He had no idea what he was talking about. First of all, (drugs) can give you more energy and therefore you can practice longer and play more tournaments without getting tired and it improves your reflexes. How could he turn around and say something like that? It's absolute nonsense.
Would you feel guilty if one of the players who confessed his drug use goes on to win a tournament?
To be fair, golf has not had a drug policy. So anybody who's taking beta-blockers (or other drugs), I don't think you could say he was cheating. Now that we have a policy, if anybody does it, it's serious.
But would you feel guilty?
No, because after speaking to them, I think they respected what I said about how it could affect their health. I don't think they'll continue (using HGH).
Have you spoken to them since the British Open?
No. I only played eight events (on the Champions Tour) last year. I was on my ranch for five months.
So they are senior players?
I'm not going to mention a single thing! The sad thing is I've been to nine doctors and every one of those doctors recommended that Itake human growth hormones. I went to one doctor in Jacksonville with the golfer Bob Charles and (the doctor) told us we should be getting on (HGH). And we said, "There's noway we should be doing this."
Are performance-enhancing drugs of particular benefit to older golfers, guys who have lost some of their strength and flexibility?
I don't think it applies to seniors or juniors. I think it applies across the board in all sports.
In 2007, you tied Arnold Palmer's record for most Masters starts. How important is it for you to break that record this year?
I'm so pleased to have the record, not because I'll beat Arnold's record, but because young people will be able to say, "Well, here's a guy who's playing at Augusta for the 51st time, and you've got to be in pretty good shape to do that."
The one thing I've always done all my life is I've eaten properly, and I've worked out very, very hard. (Playing the Masters) is just a means of getting my message across that young people need to look after their bodies.
So does this mean you'll play the Masters into your 80s?
No, no, no, no. I'll either play one more or two more, and that'll be it.
In 1978, after your third Masters win, you said: 'I won't do what Sam (Snead) does. I won't play in any golf tournament that I can't win. I'll go to my farm.' Yet here you are 30 years later, playing a tournament you can't win.
Well, you know, Winston Churchill said, "I've never gotten indigestion from saying the wrong thing." He also said, "Change is the price of survival." So we all change and say things at the time that we think are important, and then we (recant) later.
My great dream today, if I can, is to influence at least 100 million young people in the world to eat properly and exercise, because the kids are eating absolute crap. They live on pure crap.
Why are you so passionate about this cause?
Because my son, Wayne, has diabetes. He's a Type 1. I reckon in 40 years time, unless there's a miraculous medical discovery, there will be 100 million Americans with diabetes. It's not a disease anymore — it's an epidemic. I see a great deterioration in children, and it really perturbs me. We've got to look after our young people, got to educate them.
