Not all drug suspensions are created equally.
PGA Tour journeyman Brad Fritsch has begun serving a three-month suspension due self-reporting that he has been taking a banned substance. Fritsch failed to advance out of the Second Stage of Qualifying School in November 2017 and decided at that time, with two months off, it would be a good time to begin a weight-loss regiment.
Part of his program included a supplement that contained DHEA, which is on the Tour’s Anti-Doping banned list. He self-reported his violation to Andy Levinson, the head of the Tour’s Anti-Doping program and was given a 90-day suspension.
Self reporting a banned substance violation in a diet medication. This is why golf is the greatest sport in the world. Integrity, sportsmanship, and accountability. How many athletes in the NFL, MLB, NHL, or NBA make this same phone call? https://t.co/QlRgYniFAt
— InTheFlesch (@Steve_Flesch) January 9, 2018
GolfChannel.com’s Rex Hoggard had more information.
Brad Fritsch became the second player in less than a month to run afoul of the PGA Tour’s anti-doping policy.
The Tour announced on Monday that Fritsch, who failed to keep his Tour card last season, “self-reported” the violation after learning that an ingredient in a supplement that he was taking was on the prohibited list. He has been suspended for three months.
In a post on Facebook, Fritsch explained that a supplement he was taking to lose weight (BioSom) contained DHEA, an over-the-counter anabolic agent that is the precursor to testosterone production and banned by the Tour.
“I’m just so upset with myself that I didn’t think to question what was in the supplements. But I never did. And in the program rules, it stipulates that a self-report is the same as a positive test,” Fritsch wrote in his Facebook post. “I believe in the program. I’m a proud member of the PGA Tour and I don’t take that lightly.”
Here is Fritsch’s full Facebook post.
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