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'A dream come true' After courts, Nike Tour, Martin ready for PGA Tour
Posted: Wednesday January 19, 2000 01:02 AM
NEW YORK (AP)-- Casey Martin's rookie season on the PGA Tour begins Wednesday when he powers up his cart for the Bob Hope Classic. How long his dream lasts is anyone's guess. The PGA Tour has appealed a federal court ruling on Martin's landmark lawsuit that allowed him to become the first player to ride a cart in competition. The 9th Circuit Court could return its decision any day. If successful, the Tour says he would not get to ride. That's the least of his worries. Martin has Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber Syndrome, a condition he has had since birth, which restricts circulation in the lower part of his right leg. It makes it virtually impossible for him to walk 18 holes, and it is not getting any better. Amputation is a possibility one day. "It doesn't feel very good at all right now," Martin said. "I've been struggling." He no longer sees a doctor in Chicago for painful injections that he hoped might be a cure. Time spent in treatment is time away from golf, and it might not be much longer before his leg is too weak to stand on, let alone allow him to launch tee shots. "It's amazing what he's been able to do," said his father, King Martin. "Realistically, I would say it's not going to continue. But I would have said the same thing when he was 2 years old, so why should I say it when he's 28?" That Martin makes his debut as a card-carrying, cart-riding member of the PGA Tour already is a minor miracle. His parents noticed something wrong when Martin was an infant and they tried to set him in a walker. The boy snapped his legs up to his chest and squealed in pain. "My mom thought it was my stomach," he said. The diagnosis took about five years, but the pain has always been with Martin. Even so, he played well enough to earn a scholarship to Stanford and compete on a team that included Tiger Woods. Despite a PGA Tour policy against carts, he waged a court battle for the right to ride. He proved he was good enough to win a Nike Tour event before the verdict in February 1998. He played well enough to qualify for the 1998 U.S. Open and finished in a tie for 23rd at The Olympic Club, better that week than Ernie Els and Justin Leonard. And despite not winning last year, he held up long enough to finish 14th on the Nike money list to earn his PGA Tour card for the 2000 season. "When I tee it up, it will be a dream come true," Martin said. "The most stressful thing I deal with is fear of failure. Having this attention, endorsements. ... I don't want to let people down." Martin can't remember the last time he walked 18 holes, and isn't sure whether he could make a full four rounds on his legs. One thing is certain -- without a cart, he wouldn't be where he is today. "There has been a decline in my leg the last five or six years, however, we've noticed that since I've been riding, the deterioration has kind of leveled," he said. "It hasn't gotten any better, but it hasn't gotten any worse, either." Martin's debut will be unlike that of any other rookie. Carts became a divisive issue when the lawsuit was argued two years ago. Among his adversaries in the courtroom were Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. They now become his peers. "I have been opposed to golf carts in competition from the beginning," said Palmer, who will also play in the Bob Hope Classic. "It has nothing to do with Casey Martin. If it works that Casey Martin can play and use a golf cart, what's to prevent anyone who has any physical problem from using a golf cart, or filing a lawsuit to use one?" Nicklaus also remains opposed to carts, but he also holds special admiration for Martin and what he has overcome. Nicklaus suggested recently that if the Tour wins its appeal, it should make a special exception for Martin. "That would be the right thing to do," Nicklaus said. Even Tim Finchem is torn. As commissioner of the PGA Tour, he continues to take a hard stand against carts to protect the integrity of competition. As a fan, he can't help but be impressed by Martin. "He must be admired, and is admired, by everyone in the game for what he's done," Finchem said. Martin will also play the Phoenix Open and Pebble Beach, possibly the Buick Invitational in San Diego. Four weeks in a row is about all his leg can handle. As for what he expects, Martin has never been big on setting goals. "I play the best I can and leave the results in God's hands," he said. His best has taken him down a path no one else in golf has traveled, with or without a cart.
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