MELBOURNE, Aus. – March 19, 2005 – The first round of the 100th Australian Amateur Championship (17 Mar - 23 Mar 2005) at Royal Melbourne and Woodlands Golf Clubs marked an important milestone for golf in Australia. This was the first occasion that in-competition drug testing has ever been undertaken at a golf tournament in Australia.

A total of four players were tested at Royal Melbourne by officials from the Australian Sports Drug Agency for substances and methods banned by the AGU's Anti-Doping Policy. The AGU's Policy has recently been upgraded and approved by ASDA and the Australian Sports Commission and is now World Anti-Doping Agency compliant. This effectively means the AGU's Policy is consistent with those of Olympic and other major sports.

The AGU has had an approved anti-doping policy for over 12 years and during this time a number of out-of-competition tests have occurred with no positive results. In-competition testing has now been introduced and testing will randomly occur at a number of national level tournaments in the future. Results from the first four tests will take approximately 4 weeks to analyze.

Source: AGU