Compton wins PGA approval to use golf cart

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So the PGA Tour finally got it right. The Tour has said it’s all right for Erik Compton to use a golf cart during qualifying school. Compton asked for approval to use a cart following a heart transplant in May.

Even people with short attention spans should remember Casey Martin, the disabled golfer who had to take the PGA Tour to the U.S. Supreme Court to win the right to use a golf cart while he played.

Martin sued the PGA Tour under the Amercians With Disabilities Act in 1997, and the Tour balked, saying Martin would have a competitive advantage. How a player on basically one leg had any kind of advantage playing professional golf against far fitter peers was of course at the center of the dispute.

Maybe the PGA Tour learned its lesson with Martin, and Compton is the beneficiary of that change in thinking. If you’ve got a heart condition or a congenital infirmity, the message always should have been: Come on in. Anybody who gets this far and is good enough to compete at the PGA Tour level, we’re welcoming you, not turning you away.

-- Thomas Bonk

Casey Martin watches from his golf cart during the Bob Hope Classic at Indian Wells Country Club on Jan. 22, 2000. Credit: Donald Miralle/Allsport