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Lance Armstrong loves adhering to a sporting ‘code of honour’ – but only if it’s golf

Likens his finest round of golf to his ‘effortless’ cycling

‘Golf is different from the culture of cycling,’ says Lance Armstrong in a recent interview with Golf Digest. The disgraced cyclist claims that he loves adhering to golf’s code of honour and says that he would be ‘heartbroken’ to be caught moving his ball in the rough.

Last year, Armstrong played 250 rounds of golf and this year he says he’ll manage the same again. “At this stage in my life I'd much rather be teeing it up at Augusta National than riding Mont Ventoux,” he says – which is just as well really.

“Golf is different from the culture of cycling when I was competing, and that's putting it mildly. Cycling, it was the Wild West. Nobody considered doping cheating. It was an arms race where absolutely anything went, and it was every man for himself. You might consider me the last guy to have anything to say about cheating, but golf is different. I love adhering to a code of honour that we in cycling didn't have. If I moved my ball in the rough and got caught, I wouldn't just regret it, I'd be heartbroken forever. When I think about reform in cycling, I think about golf.”

Unsurprisingly, both mainstream media and those on social networks have been quick to leap upon his words. According to The Telegraph, the general reaction can be summed up as ‘irony is dead’.

Armstrong says he doesn’t practise his golf, likening this to riding a stationary bike. “When it's 75 degrees outside, no wind and the sun is shining, I'm going to get out on the road. And I do still ride my bike. Isn't doing the real thing always better?”

But despite all the many hours he puts in on the course, he claims he isn’t well-suited to golf.

“I can cycle, run or swim for as long and far as you want me to go, but those are straight-ahead sports. When you start asking me to rotate, move side to side or incorporate complicated movements, I'm done. I'm less talented at golf than the guy next door.”

Despite this, his handicap is 10. He talks proudly of the one time he broke 80 on a round, when he shot 74 in Hawaii at the start of the year and describes the round as being reminiscent of his ‘effortless’ cycling.

“I was in the zone. I'd felt it before in cycling, many times. That effortless power, the sense you can do nothing wrong. For six or seven years, I got on the bike knowing I was going to win. It was only a matter of going out and implementing the strategy. But then it got hard. When I tried to come back in 2004, it was swimming upstream. I couldn't find the zone again. And just like in golf, when you fall out of the zone, it's impossible to get back in it.”

Armstrong also links golf and cycling when speaking about Chris Froome.

“He’s got a choppy pedal stroke. His arms are sticking out, his head is down, and he's all over the bike. He's the Jim Furyk of cycling, unconventional in every way. Except that it works. And the reason it works is superior cadence. His tempo is amazing. It's paced in a way that gives his unusual mechanics time to fall together. The golf swing can be the same way.”

Armstrong’s comments about Tiger Woods also make for interesting reading, giving some sense of how he perceives the modern nature of sporting celebrity and perhaps betraying some sense of having been harshly treated himself.

“Somewhere between the end of Michael Jordan's career in 2003 and Tiger's scandal in 2009, the media stopped being compliant to athletes and celebrities. They no longer protected them, because they no longer needed them. In the digital world, all that matters is the scoop. The mainstream media is right there with the TMZs and Deadspins, because they can't afford to be beaten. The upshot is that there are no more sacred cows out there, and a lot more harshness.”

Armstrong’s final piece of golfing advice is that the last three holes are what matter. “Take pride in how you get to the finish line,” he says.

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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30 comments

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OnYaBike | 9 years ago
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Come on Lance, you've not changed one bit

"If I moved my ball in the rough and got caught"

So you'd only be heatbroken if you got caught, and why would you be moving your ball in the rough in the first place?!

You doughnut! Any golfer would tell you that if you were accused of moving the ball in the rough and you were a straight down the line honest sports person then you'd be heartbroken because it simply wasn't true, it's more likely in golf that someone penalises themselves when a ball moves because a branch is stood on or a small stone removed, often your playing partners never see it happen, it's up to the honesty of the player, something fundamental Lance is lacking. I wouldn't play a round with this guy even if it meant a round at the Augusta National and that's saying something!

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notfastenough | 9 years ago
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Good lord. It's like listening to the mental drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket.

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felixcat replied to notfastenough | 9 years ago
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notfastenough wrote:

Good lord. It's like listening to the mental drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket.

Mental is right. He needs medical help with his psycho-sexual problems.

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notfastenough | 9 years ago
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Let's see some blood testing introduced prior to Golf being at the Rio olympics before saying how honourable they all are...

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don simon fbpe | 9 years ago
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Roid rage?

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manmachine | 9 years ago
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It's funny, but really pathetic to read all the holier-than-though hacks, whores and wanna-bee's frame their comments, with the statist-mentality rhetoric...of cheating, doping, ruining careers etc.  41 Little panty-wearing boys who are still crying over Lance...  21

Hence, they're nothing more than has-bins and hacks who don't have the talent or the fortitude to take the leap into human engineering. But will instead cry and wail like little vaginas from the sidelines...

Announcing to the world how fucking morally superior they must be. Which is nothing more than sheer arrogance and no doubt a bold face lie. Saintly hypocrites...me thinks. Know, me knows.

The old, tired, played out 'Armstrong took performance enhancing drugs'...to seemingly validate the sad sock-puppets who have had their 'bicycling dreams' shattered...oh boo hoo Mary your one time hero let you down! So sad...so tragic...

Too fucking funny. What a bunch pussies. Perhaps they should check their shorts...to make sure they have a cock or is it a vagina? I suspect it's a vagina. Un-fucking believable. The amount of energy these vaginas spend crying and wailing about ped usage and supposed cheats is astounding!  24

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truffy | 9 years ago
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I'd imagine that golfers dope themselves up with caffeine and other stimulants to keep the tedium at bay.

As for LA's "effortless" cycling, I guess it was more effortless than that of the poor guys who were competing without the benefit of 'pharmaceutical assistance'.  29

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dafyddp | 9 years ago
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Guess golf's the new cycling, then...

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Simmo72 | 9 years ago
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At least 2 pga golfers have been done for doping - or at least caught taking a banned substance - in the last 5 years. This is from urine tests, no blood testing takes place. Today Golfers are more athletic - for golfers anyway - power is becoming more important so its fair to assume it is not a clean sport. Where there is a will and a loop hole, there is a way.

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Kadinkski replied to Simmo72 | 9 years ago
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Simmo72 wrote:

At least 2 pga golfers have been done for doping - or at least caught taking a banned substance - in the last 5 years. This is from urine tests, no blood testing takes place. Today Golfers are more athletic - for golfers anyway - power is becoming more important so its fair to assume it is not a clean sport. Where there is a will and a loop hole, there is a way.

You do realise he's comparing the act of cheating in cycling to golf, yeah? He's saying that there is an honour system in golf that is lacking in cycling.

If you're trying to disprove what he's saying, 2 cases (I'll take your word for it) of golfers taking a banned substance over the last 5 years and a stupid assumption is a pretty poor effort. In fact it corroborates what he is saying. How many cases of cheating have there been within just one cycling team in the last 5 weeks, let alone years?

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andyp | 9 years ago
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'I suspect a young LA recovering from cancer watching what he had fought for dreamt of and not to mention his lively hood slip away being turned down by teams when wanting to return, while seeing let's face it large numbers of riders with less talent than him doping and keeping there jobs. I think many people would be tempted to join the majority of pros and use drugs?'

That almost sounds as though you think he wasn't doping before then. Which is top comedy.

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Simon_MacMichael | 9 years ago
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This made me laugh: "[Chris Froome is] the Jim Furyk of cycling, unconventional in every way."

For those of you who don't follow golf, Furyk's swing was once memorably described as being similar to "an octopus falling out of a tree."

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Kadinkski replied to Simon_MacMichael | 9 years ago
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Simon_MacMichael wrote:

This made me laugh: "[Chris Froome is] the Jim Furyk of cycling, unconventional in every way."

For those of you who don't follow golf, Furyk's swing was once memorably described as being similar to "an octopus falling out of a tree."

My god, its an ugly swing... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7jePVzL47E

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Beefy | 9 years ago
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I suspect a young LA recovering from cancer watching what he had fought for dreamt of and not to mention his lively hood slip away being turned down by teams when wanting to return, while seeing let's face it large numbers of riders with less talent than him doping and keeping there jobs. I think many people would be tempted to join the majority of pros and use drugs? Add to that the culture of cycling at the time and I feel really petered by him being portrayed as a monster. I suspect he was simply being human and as all humans do he made bad decisions. The problem is that the better he performed the bigger the lie became and it got out of control.

He was wrong! 100% I accept that but was he any worse than the other riders doing the same? May be he was because he won more. But if the majority used drugs does that mean that he had more talent than the other dopers in the peloton. I just think it is wrong that so many past dopers are worshiped as heros but he is seen as evil? Is it because he over came illness? Is it because he gave millions hope? My sister was dieing from lukemia during his peak and he gave her so much hope it was invaluable in helping her fight the illness as long as she could. Drugged or not he did some good to with live strong and inspired many ill people.
I'm not saying he was a saint far from it but some of the hatred I read is IMO is not ok unless all dopers are handed out the same treatment

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crazy-legs | 9 years ago
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The code of honour thing is fair enough - cycling has a very well defined code of honour (Lance never pushed Jan Ullrich into a ditch, he beat him "fair and square") it's just that "fair and square" involved doping. Basically you can cheat but you don't set out to disadvantage your opponent. Same with golf - you'd never kick your opponent's ball into the rough but if you could kick your own ball out of the rough... Or in the case of one well known golfer, fake your own scorecard...

The long-running comments about "destroyed careers" is getting boring now. Lance did it slightly more publically, through the courts. But every single rider who went out to France/Belgium with their dreams of riding for a pro-team - they were all bullied, cajoled, bribed, persuaded by their DS, by the team doctors and by the other riders. You must support the team, you must give good return to the sponsors = you must dope. If you don't, you're off the team.

Teams would bin off any rider who didn't toe the line. Riders returning home, dreams in tatters. It wasn't Lance, it was the whole culture. Lance didn't destroy Greg Lemond, Trek had a fair hand in that too. Lance didn't destroy Christophe Bassons, he's on record as saying it was the whole peloton and culture.

Focussing on Lance isn't helping matters. His comments about golf are quite interesting but all they do is focus the talk once again on Lance. I bet Astana are loving that little bit of leeway!

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Comrade | 9 years ago
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Does that mean if he would regret moving his ball in the rough, only if he got caught?

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Cyclist | 9 years ago
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Golfers use beta-blockers...

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alotronic | 9 years ago
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Regardless of the merits or not of golf, isn't this an astonishingly arrogant to say that - and blaming 'the culture'? Read 'Not my fault, not really'. Just like to remind you this man ruined many lives (and now companies).

I want the man feck the feck off. Golf can have him. Boxing would be better.

A comment-bait article and I have bitten, now I feel dirty.

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noether | 9 years ago
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What is the point of Manmachine?
Crazy-legs is right, the level of use of doping techniques in any sport is probably proportional to the thoroughness of inspections (and the financial stakes?).
Finally, cycling has historcially indeed an incestuous relationship with doping due to its almost "inhumane" challenges - especially in the early days of unpaved roads, leaky tires and absence of derailleurs - and the heroic (and unashamed because of the prevailing Zeitgeist) response of the Champions, Coppi's famous cocktails come to mind.

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Kadinkski replied to noether | 9 years ago
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noether wrote:

Crazy-legs is right, the level of use of doping techniques in any sport is probably proportional to the thoroughness of inspections (and the financial stakes?)

Sorry, but I think i'd be more inclined to listen to the informed opinion of the guy who cheated his way to 7 TDFs, and plays 250 rounds of golf a year about comparitive cheating in the two sports, than some unproven, sweeping opinions from a couple of random people on the internet.

noether wrote:

Finally, cycling has historcially indeed an incestuous relationship with doping due to its almost "inhumane" challenges - especially in the early days of unpaved roads, leaky tires and absence of derailleurs - and the heroic (and unashamed because of the prevailing Zeitgeist) response of the Champions, Coppi's famous cocktails come to mind.

Yeah. That's already been said. Culturally and historically, cheating is more inherent within cycling.

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manmachine | 9 years ago
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Never ceases to amaze me, the Statist Mentality...of the muppet crowd.  29

Doping, as the dopey muppets like to refer to it as... in the vernacular narrative... perpetuating the word dope as slang for a completely illicit type of drug. An amphetamine, a barbiturate, narcotics or a hallucinogenics.

Illicit and hard-core drugs of this nature do not serve as a performance enhancement compound to the elite level athlete.

Anabolics are an excellent means of achieving peak performance in the human body, much like putting a frame in the wind tunnel to fine tune it. Much like refining any machine, anabolics refine the human body. Anabolics benefit the body in ways the aforementioned drugs cannot. But the average idiot just can't grasp that.

Mainly because they have done zero fucking research (and if they have it's from unreliable sources) and instead have listened and taken the word of hypocritical governments and governing bodies and much of the corrupted medical community. Most of these statist-type thinkers will never get it, Their ignorance is palpable.

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Gasman Jim | 9 years ago
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If they are taking anything in golf I would guess it would be B-blockers to steady their nerves and hands.

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Beefy | 9 years ago
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I think taking performance enhancing drugs have been a culture in cycling since the very early days of racing. I was reading that the original Tour de France races were so severe that competitors would consume anything just to finish. Not saying it's right and I think the culture is changing as the prospect of being found out has increased over recent years. Though many appear to continue.
I think today's dopers are even worse than lance! IMO he rode during a time when it was rife, today's riders don't have that excuse.

As for golf, I know a few golfers who have a tot of booze to relax before a round, is that cheering? Are they tested at pro/am level like cycling or athletics?

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Kadinkski replied to Beefy | 9 years ago
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Beefy wrote:

I think taking performance enhancing drugs have been a culture in cycling since the very early days of racing. I was reading that the original Tour de France races were so severe that competitors would consume anything just to finish. Not saying it's right and I think the culture is changing as the prospect of being found out has increased over recent years. Though many appear to continue.
I think today's dopers are even worse than lance! IMO he rode during a time when it was rife, today's riders don't have that excuse.

As for golf, I know a few golfers who have a tot of booze to relax before a round, is that cheering? Are they tested at pro/am level like cycling or athletics?

Yeah, fair point. Its almost like the TDF was so hard that the riders had to dope just to finish it! That was right from the start, so I guess within the culture of cycling it has always played a greater role than it has within golf.

There are a lot more ways someone could potentially cheat in golf though - especially when you're not playing in a major with cameras everywhere....just kick the ball over a couple of inches to a better lay or whatever. But the thought of that is abhorrent. I think the point is that honour and honesty are an inherent part of the game.

I don't see why having a drink before a round would be cheating. They have a glass of champagne during the final stage of the TDF don't forget!

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crazy-legs | 9 years ago
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Quote:

Although having said that, I honestly believe that if there was a particular drug or doping method in golf that improved a golfer's overall game by a significant amount, they still wouldn't cheat - they wouldn't cross that line.

Cough/bollocks/cough

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/golf/8339267.stm

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/apr/29/golf-doping-disgraceful-gre...

There's little adverse publicity around doping in golf because the testing is so woefully lacking. What Lance did happens to a greater or lesser degree in every other sport.

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Kadinkski | 9 years ago
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Although having said that, I honestly believe that if there was a particular drug or doping method in golf that improved a golfer's overall game by a significant amount, they still wouldn't cheat - they wouldn't cross that line.

I wonder what it is about cycling/cyclists that makes cheating so prevalent...

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don simon fbpe | 9 years ago
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Quote:

“I was in the zone. I'd felt it before in cycling, many times. That effortless power, the sense you can do nothing wrong. For six or seven years, I got on the bike knowing I was going to win.

Was it almost like that sensation one gets from doping Lance?

Story not really relevant on a cycling forum/magazine. He's a non-pro-cyclist not and ex-cyclist.

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Kadinkski | 9 years ago
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Its an interesting observation. I golf and cycle too and he's right - in golf there is much more honour, you just wouldn't cheat.

On the other hand cycling is rife with cheats.

I wonder why. I guess if you choose to dope in cycling the comparative performance gains are greater? Dunno really.

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Accessibility f... | 9 years ago
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Why are people reporting on this cheat? Forget about him, let him fade into obscurity.

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Cyclist | 9 years ago
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They have jumped on his words... Hmmm think they should be aiming for Astana etc.... LA is yesterday's chip paper FFs.

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