The headline went around the world - "European Tour golfer fails drug test".
Frenchman Marc Farry was the player in question, 2003 was the year and, even though he was later exonerated because the traces of a banned steroid was in a drug prescribed by a doctor to combat a wrist injury, it was a traumatic time.
"It really hurt me inside because it was weeks between the result and being cleared," said Farry, one of six players tested by France's Sports Ministry.
"It was on the internet and I got phone calls from all over the world. I had to keep explaining and it bothered me - it was really tough for myself and my family."
So that was what it was like for someone who did not knowingly do wrong and consequently received no punishment.
Now, as player education continues at this week's Italian Open before regular testing starts soon, the seriousness of the situation is being realised.
Life bans, five-year bans, one-year bans, disqualifications, loss of prize money, fines of up to Ј250,000. Make no mistake, when golf enters its new drug-testing era from the start of July, the sport will never be the same again.
The message being delivered to the players is loud and clear - know exactly what is going in your body, make sure it does not contain any banned substance or get clearance to use it. Otherwise face the consequences.
Earlier this year American Frank Lickliter said: "If anyone comes to my house to test me they're going to get a bullet in the (backside) while they're on my property."
There is no need for a European Tour member to take the same extreme stance as that, though, because it has been decided that testing will only be done at tournaments.
David Garland, the Tour's director of operations, said: "I'm not at liberty to say which events will have testing, but there's no off-season in golf and so we're going to do it all in competition."
The exact number of players to be tested is not yet known either, but he stated that it will be "a smallish number to start with".
With each test costing between Ј320-Ј400 it is easy to understand why an entire 156-strong field will not be asked to provide samples.
"It's new to us as administrators and it's new for the players. We want to come into it sensibly and properly - walk before we jog before we run," added Garland.
Some differences between the European and US Tour banned lists have been highlighted by players and a spokesman for the World Anti-Doping Agency said last week: "It would be helpful for all golfers if each of the tours had the same rules, the same prohibited list and the same education activities.
"We expect the players themselves will see the sense in such harmony and look forward to its development."
Garland commented: "Differences between us and America are very slight. We are following the WADA list, whereas they have decided that players can get therapeutic use exemptions for classes of drugs known as Glucocorticosteroids and Beta-2 Agonists.
"For our members it means that if you abide by our list you are not going to have a problem in the States. We need a system that travels internationally."
Gary Player's talk at the Open last summer of at least 10 players in the game taking illegal drugs - "might be a helluva lot more," he said - is seriously questioned by players.
The major debate in the locker room appears to be not whether people will be caught cheating, but how easy it might be to take something unwittingly that will result in a positive test result.
A particular warning has been given about dietary or nutritional supplements, homeopathic and herbal preparations or energy drinks.
"These may contain prohibited substances," says the information booklet given to all players.
"The manufacturing or labelling of supplements is not subject to the same strict regulation which applies to licensed medicines.
"A significant number of positive test results in other sports have been attributed to the use of inadequately labelled or contaminated supplements.
"If you are unsure of the product's ingredients you should not take that product. Inadvertently taking a prohibited substance is not a defence, you should exercise extreme caution."
Garland says that he and the Tour's anti-doping programme administrator Michele Verroken and chief medical officer Dr Roger Hawkes have not met the same level of resistance that has come from some players on the US Tour.
"We've had testing on the continent and it's been much more in the public domain. Ninety tests were carried out in golf in Spain last year, 81 in Portugal, 68 in Italy and 27 in France."
They were not on the main Tour, but in national events and there was one positive test for Italian Alessandro Pissilli for the banned diuretic Finasteride, which works as a masking agent.
His local club defended him, saying that he had informed authorities at the time of the test that he had taken the drug for almost two years to treat a prostate problem.
The story even appeared in a magazine called "Hair Loss News" because the drug can also be used to treat that condition - and that just underlines the dangers ahead for the world's top golfers, whether they are going bald or not.
NO TESTS FOR DRUGS AT OPEN
Report: Steroids dealer sold PEDs to lineman Lehr
PGA CHIEF KEEN ON OLYMPIC GOLF
