Greg Norman has called on golf’s authorities to bring about a significant change in the game’s policing on prevention of doping, calling the current systems “disgraceful”.

Norman was speaking about the case of Vijay Singh, who was caught for the use of deer antler spray – which contains the muscle building hormone IGF-1 – only because he spoke about it in a magazine interview, not due to any sort of anti-doping procedure. Norman told The Australian newspaper that event laid bare how behind the sport of golf is in terms of its anti-doping stance.

“We know that because Vijay Singh got caught. How deep it is, I have no idea because we only do urine analysis instead of blood testing. If you really want to be serious about it and find about what's really going on, we need to do blood testing. I think it's disgraceful, to tell you the truth. The golf associations have to get together and step it up.”

"You have to have blood testing, simple as that. It's a pin prick for a player, and you find out what's going on. If you're the head of golf or any sport, if you're the commissioner for a sport, it's your responsibility to make sure your sport is clean. That should be your No 1 priority."

"Any sportsman or sportswoman who uses an outside agency to improve their skills is cheating," Norman said.

Norman insisted what golf needs is a system of blood tests, rather than urine tests which are easier for doping athletes to deceive.

"It sickens me. They're putting a black eye on their sport. Look what Lance Armstrong has done to cycling. Rugby league is the same deal now. AFL has become tainted. It's rampant, across the world. If a sport gets itself clean, the corporate dollars will always be there because people will know it's a sport they can trust. The rest will take care of itself.

"There are always great athletes coming through. There's always another great rugby player, a great AFL player, a great golfer, a great this or that. Make sure they really are great."