In 2012, when Johnson returned from an 11-week absence that he ascribed to injuries incurred in a Jet Ski accident, he stammered when asked how exactly the injury had happened and gave an answer that was strangely short on details. Was he vague because he had not actually been injured and was instead serving a suspension for a failed drug test?

The tour’s nontransparency on disciplinary matters casts everyone in a dark light. Every prolonged absence from competition raises eyebrows and invites speculation. While Every didn’t try to hide his suspension, it was not by choice.

“When I got in trouble, it was in the papers, so people knew when I was suspended what it was for,” Every said Friday after finishing his round of two-under-par 68 at Firestone. “It’s not like I could hide that as easily as someone else who fails a test or two and no one’s ever heard of it.”

Referring to the tour policy, Every added, “If they decide not to make things public, why wouldn’t you hide the reason you’re not playing? Who’s going to voluntarily say, ‘Hey, I got busted for this?’ ”

The tour’s policy protects the players from the public shame endured by the likes of Gordon and Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, who received a two-game suspension from the N.F.L. after being accused of assaulting the woman who is now his wife. Whether that is a good thing depends on whether you believe, as some addiction therapy specialists do, that being forced to drive around with license plates that indicate you have arrests for drunken driving is strong motivation to stop drinking, or whether you side with those who believe that humiliation is not the road to behavior modification.

“I think it definitely helps protect our image,” Every said, “because there might be a household name out here, and I’m not saying this is true, but if there is and everyone thinks, ‘Oh, this guy’s a great guy,’ but he failed one test for marijuana or whatever and the public finds out, his image totally changes. Is that really that big of a deal?”

He added: “If it’s steroids, I think we should know. That’s different.”

The tour’s antidoping policy includes out-of-competition testing, but Tiger Woods, who began the year ranked No. 1 in the world, said in June that he had not been tested in 2014. Next year, when the golfers come under the Olympic umbrella in advance of their 2016 Summer Games debut, they will have to provide the World Anti-Doping Agency with a daily one-hour window of availability, listing when and where drug testers can find them.

On Friday, N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell could be found a half-hour’s drive from here, in Canton, defending the league’s decision to discipline Rice much less harshly for hurting a woman than what Gordon faces for hurting no one but possibly himself. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem remained quiet, and his silence was deafening.