Making His Case

Have you seen Casey Martin’s right leg? Who has seen his right leg?

The court of public opinion rages today about Casey Martin’s request to ride a golf cart on the PGA Tour, yet has the public seen exactly why he’s asking?

Every photo is of Martin in a cart, riding along some lush fairway, having a good old time, another mildly inconvenienced citizen laughing his way through a loophole.

Nobody shows the right leg.

Well, Golf World magazine recently showed the right leg.

It published a rare photo taken several years ago when Martin was at Stanford, playing in shorts.

His right leg is a popsicle stick. It is half the width of his left leg. It is not a leg, it is kindling.

See it, and you no longer wonder why he can’t walk between shots as required by PGA rules.

You wonder, how can he even stand once he gets there? Then, how can he balance himself long enough to swing?

The leg is not a loophole. A cart will not give him an advantage. This is not about special privileges.

This is about a disabled person begging to compete on a field that, no matter what is done, will never be level.

It makes no sense for the golfers who run the tour to say he can’t.

At the first day of the hearing of Martin’s lawsuit against the PGA Tour on Monday in Eugene, Ore., he showed the judge his leg, causing some in the courtroom to cringe.

It was a stunning reminder that the issue is not golf, it is walking.

Is walking a part of the game?

Do golfers in carts have an unfair advantage over golfers who walk?

William Maledon, PGA Tour lawyer, says yes.

“[Walking] is something that is put into the rules of the competition intentionally to add . . . the additional element of being able to prevail under conditions of fatigue and stress brought about by walking the course for four days straight,” he says.

However, through their actions, some of the most notable golfers say no.

In a recent Golf World poll, only 37.5% of tour players would use a cart if it was available.

Now look at the Senior PGA Tour. Although the circuit allows carts, an official confirmed that “most” of the top 31 players choose to walk.

Considering there are millions in available prize money, either these are the 31 dumbest old guys in the country . . . or they don’t think riding in a cart can lower their scores.

Don’t believe that rot about tradition. Most of the geezers are walking not because of tradition. With the exception of an elite few, such as Arnold Palmer, they cannot afford tradition.

Perhaps some are too embarrassed to ride. Maybe some think walking gets them into a rhythm that actually helps them. Others have surely realized it simply doesn’t matter.

Whatever, they obviously don’t think carts offer a considerable advantage or they would be on them.

If money players think like that, who are we duffers to pass judgment?

Some would insist that a golfer in a cart is like an outfielder with a designated runner, or a quarterback with a designated passer.

That sounds like the same logic used to convince spouses that six hours on the course with buddies is healthier than an hour in the backyard with a lawn mower.

I trust those who argue that giving Martin a cart violates golf’s extreme athleticism are making those arguments before downing beers on the back nine.

Golf is about striking a ball into a hole from a stationary position. That you walk from position to position should, for the most part, be secondary.

Obviously, walking with someone like me is different, what with my 10 miles worth of trips from water to woods to rough.

But precisely where does a pro walk anyway?

From the tee. To the middle of the fairway. To the next green. Whew.

Sometimes they get tired. Some of the game’s best images are of weary, sweat-soaked players hobbling up the 18th fairway on Sunday.

Would Casey Martin have an unfair advantage over those players under those conditions?

On hot weekends in Memphis, perhaps . . . if he weren’t hobbling already.

On days like that, his cart is only making things a little more even.

Besides, if golf were really about stamina, why don’t they make those tough guys carry their own bags?

This is not about rules, because in the rules of golf, there is nothing prohibiting carts.

This is not about statistics, because there have been no studies showing the difference between players with carts and players who walk.

This is about--here we go with that word again--tradition.

The PGA Tour does not want to give Casey Martin a cart, not because of Casey Martin, but because of the cart.

It doesn’t want the public to think its young and robust players would ever need help with something as simple as walking.

It lives in a world of shiny woods and contoured greens, a world that cannot tolerate an ungainly kid whose dreams are thicker than his right leg.

The PGA Tour is about bright shirts and pressed slacks, not bulging veins and support hose. And it is willing to drag its members through an ugly courtroom battle to prove it.

If only officials would realize what comes with Casey Martin and his cart: goodwill, hope and inspiration that would last as long as one of those Augusta dogwoods.

If nothing else, the world need only look at one of Casey Martin’s former Stanford teammates.

The PGA once fought to keep out golfers like Tiger Woods too.