Drug policy in sports has always been about willful blindness followed by foot-dragging half-steps. Baseball's problems are legendary and ongoing; basketball nearly immolated in the '70s because of drugs. And now, drugs have come to golf ... and with them, yet another stumble in policy enforcement.

The PGA Tour has reported that Doug Barron has been suspended for testing positive for a banned substance; Barron is the first player to be suspended under the PGA's drug policy. Barron is the very definition of a journeyman, having lost his card three years ago after playing eight seasons on Tour. His best finish was a third-place tie at the 2006 Byron Nelson Championship.

Under its policy, the PGA Tour discloses a penalty -- in this case, a one-year suspension -- but does not disclose the substance for which the violator tested positive. It's a way of protecting privacy, but it also leads to more questions than it answers. As the AP's Doug Ferguson notes, Barron is best known in recent years for taking off his shirt to hit a water shot, revealing a rather large spare tire around the midsection. 

That doesn't seem to fit the mold of the performance-enhancing user, of course, which has naturally led to questions about what Barron was using, and whether there could have been some kind of inadvertent tripping of the test. Again, here's where the PGA Tour's secrecy policy causes further problems.

The difficulty is this: there's too much wiggle room for interpretation. Rather than closing the door to questions, a policy of secrecy invites wild speculation and leaves the door wide open to potential legal action, as NASCAR has found with its botched secrecy surrounding suspended driver Jeremy Mayfield.  

In the wake of the news, PGA players expressed concern about Barron and questions about the testing. But Pat Perez probably summed up the feeling of most fans: "It's not like it's a top-20 player who was trying to take steroids to catch Tiger," Perez said. "In a way, it matters. And in a way, it doesn't. He's not really on the PGA Tour." Ouch.

Tempting as it may be to paint the PGA Tour as a drug-filled haven, I tend to think Barron fits the profile of the isolated case trying to gain any edge to get back on Tour. Certainly, performance enhancers can help you blast farther off the tee, but the ability to stay calm when standing over a crucial six-foot putt? That's something that steroids can't help.

Bottom line, if the PGA Tour is going to suspend players, it owes it to those players' reputations and the fans to give full disclosure about what drugs were involved. Doing anything less simply means the PGA Tour isn't holding up its end of its responsibilities.

Doug Barron is 1st to violate PGA Tour drug policy [AP via Yahoo! Sports]