Members of the media look on as Tiger Woods speaks during a press conference prior to the 2010 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 5, 2010 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Jeff Brooke: Sex sells, I know. So it's not surprising the coverage of Tiger Woods over the past five months has focused on his tawdry personal life. The mistresses. The chexting. The rumoured hush money.
That's all fine for tabloid readers. But as a follower of golf, the sport, I've been far more intrigued by the questions of whether Woods has used performance-enhancing drugs. Questions surfaced after he was linked to Canadian doctor Anthony Galea, who's under investigation by Canadian and U.S. authorities.
The drug spectre hasn't received as much attention as his sex life -- surprise, surprise -- but it's actually far more important to the game. Specifically, the integrity of the game.
Earlier this year, Woods categorically denied using performance enhancers. At his press conference Monday, he again reiterated he's clean as he explained his association with Galea.
"He did come to my house," Woods said, referring to Galea. "He never gave me HGH [human growth hormone]or any PEDs. I've never taken that my entire life. I've never taken any illegal drug, ever, for that matter."
Woods went on to recount the treatment Galea gave him and, in so doing, shed some more light on the lower-body injuries he's had over the past couple of years, including an Achilles heel tear I don't think he had revealed before.
"I had PRP, platelet-enriched plasma treatments, and basically what that is that that they draw blood from your arm, spin it in a centrifuge and spin the plasma into the entries," Woods said Monday. "As you all know, in 2008 I blew out my ACL and part of my reconstruction with my LCL ... wasn't reacting properly, it was a little bit stuck. And so I had the PRP injection into my LCL.
"And then in December, I started to train, start running again and I tore my Achilles in my right leg. I then had PRP injections throughout the year [2009] I kept retearing it throughout the year and throughout the summer. I used tape most of the year to play and ... I also went to hyperbaric chambers after the injections. ... It does help you heal faster and [I]did everything I possibly could to heal faster so I could get ... on the golf course."
This full airing of his recent medical history should put the question of performance-enhancing drugs to rest. Unless evidence to the contrary surfaces, of course.