Professional golfer Ahn Byung-hoon suspended for three months for doping with cough medicine
sportstotomen
Eighth player caught doping on PGA Tour.
"Admitted to not being careful" and could return Dec. 1
South Korean golfer Ahn Byung-hoon, who plays on the U.S. Professional Golf (PGA) Tour, has been suspended for three months for violating the anti-doping policy.
"Ahn Byung-hoon has been disciplined for testing positive for an anti-doping rule violation after consuming a cough medicine in South Korea," the PGA Tour said on Wednesday (April 12).
"The cough medicine contained a substance prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)," the organization added.
Ahn, who took the cough medicine in August, will be suspended retroactively from competition from Aug. 31 to Nov. 30.
This is the eighth positive test in the PGA's doping program, which has been in place since 2008. It is also the first in four years since Matt Everly (USA) in 2019.
Ahn played in 31 events on the PGA Tour in the 2022-2023 season, finishing tied for second at the Wyndham Championship in August.
Ranked 53rd in the world in men's golf, he has not competed since the BMW Championship, which concluded in August.
The suspension will keep him out of the PGA Tour's Fall Series, but he is still eligible to play on the PGA Tour next year.
"I caught a cold in Korea last August," Ahn wrote on his social networking site, "and my coughing symptoms got worse, so I took some medicine, but I didn't check the ingredients of the medicine properly," he said.
"I used the medicine for no other purpose than to relieve the symptoms of my cold," he wrote, adding, "I admit that I was not careful and would like to take responsibility for my actions." 스포츠토토맨