Doctor who treated Woods charged

One of Tiger Woods' off-the-course distractions made news yesterday when Dr. Anthony Galea was charged with unlawful distribution of drugs, including human growth hormone (HGH), to NFL players.

Federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint at the U.S. District Court in Buffalo charging Galea with making false statements to federal officials, smuggling, unlawful distribution of HGH, introducing an unapproved drug (Actovegin) into interstate commerce and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Galea, the Canadian doctor who treated Woods after the golfer had surgery on his left knee in 2008, faces as many as 28 years in prison for the charges and millions in potential fines. The crux of the complaint involves Galea's treatment of three NFL players who are not identified.

According to prosecutors, Galea repeatedly entered the United States to treat numerous professional athletes from 2007 to September 2009, including athletes from the NFL, Major League Baseball and the PGA Tour. According to a witness cooperating with prosecutors, Galea is not a licensed doctor in the U.S. and he understood that treating patients inside the U.S. was unlawful.

"The medical procedures described by the cooperating witness that Dr. Galea performed in the U.S. included but were not limited to a plasma rich platelet (PRP) injections, injection of drug mixtures or 'cocktails' into athletes' knees; IV drips; and ultrasounds and injections of drug mixtures into the sites of muscle tears," the complaint said. "The PRP procedure involved withdrawing blood from a patient, spinning it in a centrifuge, and re-injecting the plasma into the patient's body at the site of an injury."

Several reports identify the cooperating witness as Galea's former assistant Mary Ann Catalano. According to ESPN, Catalano identified 23 athletes during interviews with U.S. and Canadian authorities whom she said Galea treated in the United States.

At the Masters, Woods said that federal investigators had contacted his agent, Mark Steinberg, about the Galea probe, but had not asked to interview him. During that same media conference, Woods unequivocally denied taking any performance-enhancing drugs and said that Galea was treating his left leg after knee surgery in 2008.

"(Galea) never gave me HGH or any PEDs. I've never taken that my entire life. I've never taken any illegal drug, ever, for that matter," Woods said, going on to explain that Galea had given him "platelet-enriched plasma treatments," a blood-spinning technique described in the complaint.

In a recent interview with The Golf Channel, Woods's ex-coach Hank Haney said he witnessed Galea treating Woods' knee.

"I was there and watched the whole procedure," Haney said. "There was never anything that went into Tiger Woods' body that didn't come out of his body. They take blood out, they spin it, they inject the plasma back in. I totally believe that Tiger Woods has never taken any performance-enhancing drugs."

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SINGH COULD MISS U.S. OPEN: Vijay Singh picked a bad time to drop from the world golf rankings' top 50. For the first time in nearly 18 years, he lost that status by slipping to No. 51 in the world rankings published Monday after he failed to make the cut at the Texas Open. It marked the fifth straight tournament in which he earned no ranking points.

Singh, the only other player besides Woods to be No. 1 in the world during the last decade, has one week to get back into the top 50 or he will have to qualify for the U.S. Open. He has played 63 consecutive majors, the longest active streak, and began the year at No. 26 in the world. He has been dealing with a back injury for the past two months but is expected to play this week in the Byron Nelson Classic.

Information from Golf.com, ESPN.com, Golf Channel, the Associated Press and PGATOUR.com contributed to this post.