If people still think of golf as the gentlemanly, lily-white sport it once was, and that its professionals couldn’t possibly stain the sport by using steroids, as other sports have done, they may be profoundly wrong.

As the sport increasingly favors power-hitters, many in the game are saying it’s time to start drug tests.

“We market the guys who hit it 300 yards,” Tour player Joe Ogilvie told the New York Times. “If that’s your message, and people see that beginning at the high school level, I think as a tour it is very naive to think that somebody down the line won’t cheat.”

In fact, it’s already happening in the game.

The Royal and Ancient said countries competing in the World Amateur Championships in South Africa in October would be given drug tests, and the LPGA said it is considering a policy that would test players.

What a spectacle that would be. The last bastion of civility in sports being dragged down by a steroid scandal. Let’s hope it never comes to that, and the best way to prevent it would be by having a testing policy now or in the near future.

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