Rubenstein: What’s up with golf these days?

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The PGA Tour announced on Tuesday that it isn't going to penalize Vijay Singh for using deer antler spray, a product that has IGF-1, a growth factor that was then a banned substance. PGA Tour commissioner made the announcement during a news conference at Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C. He said that the World Anti-Doping Agency has since said deer antler spray not on its list of prohibited substances, and so informed the PGA Tour on April 30th. Are you dazed and confused yet?

Here's the transcript of Finchem's remarks. Drink plenty of coffee or one of those energy drinks. You'll need caffeine and energy to get through the transcript. And to watch him make his comments, well, it's clear he's not exactly feeling sure of himself. As for Singh, he was entered in the Wells Fargo but withdrew Wednesday morning. PGA Tour officials said he cited a back injury. As Global Golf Post's Brian Hewitt tweeted: "Deer in the headlights?"

Anyway, what's up with golf these days? Yes, golf. You know, the game that consists of whacking a ball from point A to point B, with, one hopes, not too many side trips along the way. Rory McIlroy describes himself on his Twitter account in this way: "I hit a little white ball around a field sometimes! Everywhere!!."

That's a good enough description of the game as one needs. Maybe McIlroy will decide to get rid of the double exclamation points if he starts to win again. He's playing the Wells Fargo this week. The tournament was called the Quail Hollow Championship for the course where it's played, when McIlroy won it in 2006; that was his first PGA Tour victory, and he has gone on to win five more, including the 2011 U.S. Open and the 2012 PGA Championship.

It seems a very long time ago when golf talk was mostly about players winning tournaments. This week on the air, especially on Golf Channel, and in social media, the talk has been all about Singh's comment to Sports Illustrated last January that he used deer antler spray, and Finchem's remarks on Tuesday. Last month a little tournament called the Masters was played, and the talk was all about the slow-play penalty that officials handed out to 14-year-old Tianlang Guan.

Well, that was the talk until the talk turned to whether or not Tiger Woods should have been disqualified. He had taken an illegal drop on the 15th hole during the second round. Woods was later penalized two strokes, but should he have been disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard; that is, he signed for a score on the 15th hole lower than he had made–given the penalty. More confusion.

The rules committee handed down the penalty after Woods had already signed his scorecard. The discussion continues. Why, the R&A and the USGA felt compelled to issue a joint statement about the ruling on Wednesday, nearly three weeks after the event.

These matters are important, but they've also diverted so much attention from the act of hitting a little white ball around a field that one might be driven to despair. Golf is being played. Really, it is. Tournaments are going on. Really, they are. Four of the five Canadians who have full-time jobs on the PGA Tour are in this week's tournament at Quail Hollow. Only Graham DeLaet, the leading Canadian on the PGA Tour, is taking a week off. Stephen Ames, Brad Fritsch, David Hearn, and Mike Weir are on the job.

I consider it my duty to remind readers, and myself, that deer antler spray, IGF-1, slow play, and wrong drops aren't the only subjects on the recent and current golf docket. If you're looking for star power, McIlroy, as I've mentioned, is playing this week. Phil Mickelson is making his return to competition since finishing 18 – count 'em, 18 – shots behind Adam Scott and Angel Cabrera at the Masters. Scott, of course, won the playoff. Cabrera, a fast player who tees it high and lets it fly, as the saying goes, is in Charlotte this week.

Scott isn't in the field, but he's expected to tee it up next week at the PLAYERS in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Scott won the big tournament in 2004, and now that he's won his first major it will be interesting to see how he does from here. Then there's the ever-intriguing Padraig Harrington. Harrington won the 2007 and 2008 Open Championships and the 2008 PGA Championship. But he's not won since. He's a major swing fiddler. For sheer golf-watching pleasure, catch his work sometime during practice rounds or on the range.

Let the Wells Fargo start. Let the golfers hit the little white ball around the field. Let's have some golf, rather than golf talk, and golf talk, and golf talk – and all about sidebar stories. Here comes the first round of a tournament. What a relief. (And I can hardly wait to see what sidebars come up; no, wait, I can't wait. Enough is enough).

RELATED LINK: More blogs from Lorne Rubenstein

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Lorne Rubenstein has written a golf column for The Globe and Mail since 1980. He has played golf since the early 1960s and was the Royal Canadian Golf Association's first curator of its museum and library at the Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario and the first editor of Score, Canada's Golf Magazine, where he continues to write a column and features. He has won four first-place awards from the Golf Writers Association of America, one National Magazine Award in Canada, and he won the award for the best feature in 2009 from the Golf Journalists Association of Canada. Lorne has written 12 books, including Mike Weir: The Road to the Masters (2003); A Disorderly Compendium of Golf, with Jeff Neuman (2006); This Round's on Me (2009); and the latest Moe & Me: Encounters with Moe Norman, Golf's Mysterious Genius (2012). He is a member of the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame and the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. Lorne can be reached at lornerubenstein@me.com. You can now follow him on Twitter @lornerubenstein