Dustin Johnson taking a leave of absence from tour, Suspended for cocaine use

[9iron]

  Ernest Jones said:

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for recreational drug use but I am advocating for personal freedoms without a nanny state telling us what we can and cannot do. Persecution for victimless crimes is total bullshit IMHO.

Google the phrase "Cocaine addicts before and after" and do an image search, then tell everyone that this is a "victimless crime."

https://www.google.com/search?q=cocaine+addicts&client;=firefox-a&hs;=CdF&rls;=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel;=np&source;=lnms&tbm;=isch&sa;=X&ei;=y9rcU5OyIciHyATO6IDQCA&ved;=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw;=1680&bih;=939#channel=np&q;=cocaine+addicts+before+and+after&rls;=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm;=isch&imgdii;=_

[caniac6]

Whatever DJ puts in ihs body, and whoever he choose to have relationships with has absolutelt zero effect on my life. He is a tremendously gifted athlete, and I hope he does not waste his gift. He has never impressed me as the brightest guy, but that is for him to deal with.

[atb5079]

  hacker101 said:

Not sure if this was in any of all this but my son sent it to me. He seems to think you should always give someone the benefit of the doubt. That you cant believe what you read on the internet.

I don't think anyone will ever know the truth unless the PGA or DJ come clean....'no pun intended'.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/02/sports/golf/also-missing-explanation-for-an-absence-.html?_r=1

Good read

[Gunther]

  iacas said:

[URL=http://www.pgatour.com/news/2014/08/01/dustin-johnson-update.html]http://www.pgatour.com/news/2014/08/01/dustin-johnson-update.html[/URL] The PGA Tour could have remained silent. They didn't.

Why would they come out and lie instead of issuing a "no comment" type of statement? I'm pretty confused by this story. Thinking now the Golf.com story wasn't accurate perhaps? Really odd. Maybe it was discovered he was snorting again but he wasn't actually caught in a test. PGA didn't have grounds to suspend but strongly suggested a leave of absence? Dunno, just trying to make sense of it...

[jbishop15]

  Gunther said:

Why would they come out and lie instead of issuing a "no comment" type of statement? I'm pretty confused by this story. Thinking now the Golf.com story wasn't accurate perhaps? Really odd.

Yeah it's strange for them to come out and say, with no reservations, that DJ wasn't suspended.

[David in FL]

  jbishop15 said:

Yeah it's strange for them to come out and say, with no reservations, that DJ wasn't suspended.

I suspect that there may have been an agreement for him to take a proactive leave of absence in exchange for no official suspension. If that's the case, when it comes out, and it will, the PGA Tour will have lost credibility with their statement.....

[Chilli Dipper]

There needs to be more transparency in the PGA Tour's actions toward member discipline; it's that simple. They're allowing this story to get out of their hands, and it does not reflect positively on their management at all.

[Gunther]

  Chilli Dipper said:

There needs to be more transparency in the PGA Tour's actions toward member discipline; it's that simple. They're allowing this story to get out of their hands, and it does not reflect positively on their management at all.

Agreed. Gary Williams made a good point about transparency protecting the field, which makes sense. Of course, the down side is that we'd hear about lots of stuff we'd never know otherwise. Maybe they could announce suspensions but not fines so the more egregious violations would be made public but the random cussing on the course fines would stay quiet.

[newtogolf]

  jbishop15 said:

Yeah it's strange for them to come out and say, with no reservations, that DJ wasn't suspended.

The way I read it, he could have been suspended but he agreed to take time away and avoid any appeal process to the suspension so effectively he wasn't suspended.  Had he appealed the suspension and lost he would have been suspended.   It's legal word play.

  Chilli Dipper said:

There needs to be more transparency in the PGA Tour's actions toward member discipline; it's that simple. They're allowing this story to get out of their hands, and it does not reflect positively on their management at all.

This was the point of my earlier post.  This story is now spinning out of control and it would have likely not had he claimed it was an injury or preferably just told the truth.  His statement was ambiguous and invited speculation from the press and fans to help explain it, which imo was the worst option he could have chosen.   I'm sure reporters are on the hunt for confidential informants that are willing to dish the dirt on DJ and his out of control behavior.

[Abu3baid]

  newtogolf said:

This was the point of my earlier post.  This story is now spinning out of control and it would have likely not had he claimed it was an injury or preferably just told the truth.  His statement was ambiguous and invited speculation from the press and fans to help explain it, which imo was the worst option he could have chosen.   I'm sure reporters are on the hunt for confidential informants that are willing to dish the dirt on DJ and his out of control behavior.

+1 and I don't think this will be that difficult as I read in another news story that DJ was a frequenter of the bars around his home in FL..   People will start coming out of the wood works!

[Dave2512]

Does anyone think it would less juicy if they disclosed every detail? Dream on, it would be worse. The only people spinning it out of control are the same people that rubber-neck at accidents and buy the National Enquirer. This is one of those things it is what you make of it. People use recreational drugs all the time and it's not news. It's not like DJ is LeBron James outside of golf nobody even cares about this.

[FarawayFairways]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chilli Dipper

There needs to be more transparency in the PGA Tour's actions toward member discipline; it's that simple. They're allowing this story to get out of their hands, and it does not reflect positively on their management at all.

Spot on

How many corporations do you routinely see get themselves into a PR quagmire through lack of transperancy and failure to come clean? One lie leads to another etc

This is perfectly clear to me to be honest.

Dustin Johnson presents himself, and is also presetned by his sponsors, to the public, as being one type of regular role model kind of money making guy with fine upstanding personal values. Everyone is happy. However, Dustin ain't this kind of guy at all. The wheels fall off. The PGA doesn't want to admit that they're complicit in covering this up so have to say something, but as has been said already, it's nearer to the type of plea bargain associated with resign or be sacked

If Dustin really hasn't been suspended, why has his name been removed from the Ryder Cup standings? According to the PGA he's decided to take a break. Well he might feel better next week. What happens then if he turns round and says actually I've spoken to a few folk and they say the best thing I can do is throw myself into my golf 100% and I now want to take up my position on the Ryder Cup team as I'm entitled to by dint of having qualified. In other words, I'm reversing my own decision not to play.

There was a lovely quote in that article that someone linked which pretty well summed it up. It's all about managing an image, regardless of whether or not that image is phoney. I'm reminded of the words of Richard Nixon  though.

Golf needn't be damaged by Dustin being a philandering drug addict. Hell, history is full of creative and colourful people with drug addictions (admittedly not that many in sport).

Good guy versus bad guy is a staple for drumming up interest in any sport. Boxing's traded off it for decades. The biggest period of interest in tennis coincided with bad guys with behavioural issues (who Nastase apart, were all American incidentally). It's not as if America can be that averse to the 'black hat'. I'm again half reminded of some comment John McEnroe is supposed to have made to Chris Evert

Anyone know who Amatole Montsho is incidentally? That's our lead sport story today. Dustin Johnson = No recognition

[RightEdge]

  golfbarefoot said:

I'm thinking because Dustin Johnson failed a drug test, again...and then said he is voluntarily taking personal leave, which seems untrue. Failing a drug test should be a suspension so I'm confused by the statement... I'm thinking the PGA Tour litigation team probably instructed them to make a statement.. essentially helping him by sending him away to get better. Hope he does get better, he's a great talent and hate to see anyone struggle with a drug addiction. Sad really.

So is this what VJ was so pissed about?  Giving other players who were exposed as using some sort of drugs a chance (and even an out, dare we say) but feeding him to the wolves without a thought and without properly researching it? I'm just guessing that's why he was so mad.

[Chilli Dipper]

  Dave2512 said:

Does anyone think it would less juicy if they disclosed every detail? Dream on, it would be worse. The only people spinning it out of control are the same people that rubber-neck at accidents and buy the National Enquirer. This is one of those things it is what you make of it. People use recreational drugs all the time and it's not news. It's not like DJ is LeBron James outside of golf nobody even cares about this.

I'm not arguing in favor of dirt-digging; I'm arguing that treating player misconduct in the way the PGA Tour does (by not saying anything on the record and categorically denying everything despite the evidence) creates an unnecessary and unwanted distraction from the product it delivers to its fans and sponsors. If Tim Finchem stepped to the podium on Wednesday and announced that Dustin has been suspended for violating the tour's substance-abuse policy, there would be nothing left for media and the blogosphere to speculate. We could be talking about Sergio Garcia playing one of the best rounds I've ever seen at an A-list tournament right now, and not whose wife DJ was allegedly sleeping with (which is completely irrelevant to what we all believe is at the crux of this issue).

[Dave2512]

Nothing is stopping you from talking about Sergio. If you are spending time discussing DJ you've chosen to.

[mvmac]

  newtogolf said:

The way I read it, he could have been suspended but he agreed to take time away and avoid any appeal process to the suspension so effectively he wasn't suspended.  Had he appealed the suspension and lost he would have been suspended.   It's legal word play.

That's how I read it as well, similar to someone resigning instead of getting fired.

[RFKFREAK]

  Dave2512 said:

Nothing is stopping you from talking about Sergio. If you are spending time discussing DJ you've chosen to.

Of course not but I think we as a public want to know the truth and when something is shrouded in secrecy or vague, people are going to take more of an interest in it.

[pabird]

Popular in the UK although it will never happen you have to hope the he will be allowed time and (own) space and return to the game he was adding to so well