Vijay's Lawyer: Tour Has Made Multiple Drug Policy Exceptions
/Peter Ginsburg, Vijay Singh's attorney in the lawsuit against the tour over Vijay's since-revoked suspension, says he has evidence that the PGA Tour has been exempting players from testing and has chosen not to punish others for positive test results.
Ryan Ballengee reveals what was said in a court hearing last month.
“[O]ne of the elements of bad faith that we are prepared to show in this case, is that the PGA (Tour) has made exception after exception after exception, both with regard to whom it was administering this drug policy, and against whom it was disciplining, violators of the drug policy,” Ginsburg said in an Oct. 24 hearing on the PGA Tour’s motion to dismiss Singh’s lawsuit.
Ginsburg continued, “[F]or some reason, for some reason, for some reason, the PGA (Tour) singled out Mr. Singh and treated him in a way that it has not historically or uniformly treated other PGA (Tour) members.”
Gosh this is going to be so fun. Other than the truth coming out, who do you root for in this one?
**Garry Smits has more from the hearing, including this comedic moment.
Early in the hearing, Mishkin said a characterization in Singh’s lawsuit that Tour players have no input into its rules and policies was wrong. Singh claimed that the Tour players have no “bargaining power,” such as unions in other professional sports.
“The players themselves govern the Tour, control the Tour,” Mishkin said, which is required under the legal definition of a 501 (c) (6) non-profit.
At the heart of the issue is the acceptance of players to comply with the Tour’s Anti-Doping Policy when they sign their annual membership agreement. The policy was approved by the 16-member Players Advisory Council and the nine-member PGA Tour Policy board, which has four player-directors.
My math says, nine directors, four are players. Control? Governing power? I think not.
