Lance Armstrong, who was accused of being the ringleader of the most sophisticated doping programme cycling had ever seen, has revealed he would be left heartbroken if he ever cheated at golf.

A keen golfer with a handicap of 10, Armstrong admits to playing 250 rounds a year but whereas not playing by the rules in cycling led to him being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, the thought of doing so on the golf course does not bear thinking about.

In an interview with Golf Digest, Armstrong said: “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.”