This Jury Is Still Divided on Letting Martin Ride

Hooray to the courts for letting the kid play. To me the most intriguing part of the Casey Martin, Golf-Cart, Bum-Wheel, Integrity-of-the-Game brouhaha has been the logic of those who want to keep him off the links.

Start with the sanctimonious Cro-Magnons of the PGA Tour who line up on the side of purity--you know, the golf-must-preserve-its-traditions crowd. Aren’t these the same defenders of the status quo who’ve presided over the change from a stick and a rock into space-age polymers and metallurgy not normally found in nature?

Then there are the Knights of the Keyboard, sportswriters who couldn’t walk from here to the bar without oxygen, claiming golf’s fine athletic tradition must be preserved. Make the bum walk, they argue, basing their logic on the time they personally overcame the agony of a 10-margarita hangover to pound out 500 fresh words on deadline. And without no stinking golf cart, neither.

Let a good guy pursue his dreams.

JOHN H. CORCORAN JR.

Calabasas

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Let us set up two professional golf tours. The first will be the existing pro tour and the second will be a tour composed of professionals who agree that the rules can be anything the competing golfers want them to be (Casey Martin’s tour).

Then let us allow the marketplace to determine which of the tours will survive.

TOM WITMAN

Redondo Beach

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As a young man, I was a pretty fair athlete. In high school I lettered in cross-country, football, track and baseball. I also started playing golf at age 13 and became a single-digit handicap player. When people asked me what was the most demanding sport, my answer was always golf. I have never felt as drained, physically and mentally, in any other competitive sport. Now, as a 53-year-old man, I often ride in a cart, because it is easier. Any questions?

KEN CHURCH

Los Angeles

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No amount of name-calling by Mike Downey and the PGA Tour can stand up to the right of everyone to fair and equal treatment whether in the workplace or the playing field.

I hope Casey Martin can take comfort in the fact that the hours of media bashing and ridicule he faces may help prevent others less fortunate, by circumstance or nature, from accepting the automatic “No, you can’t play” without at least asking, “Why not?”

JULIE T. BYERS

Temple City

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Casey Martin’s lawyer said that allowing Martin a golf cart “levels the playing field” for all competitors. Funny, but I used to think that the only way to level the playing field in sports was to have every competitor play by the same rules.

DAVID GADELHA

Marina del Rey

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In light of Casey Martin’s winning his lawsuit, I’m thinking about changing careers. I’d like to play in the NBA, but I have a congenital height defect. Can I run around the court pushing one of those rolling staircases the guys at Price Club use to get things off the higher shelves? I think I could dunk from the fourth step.

ROB OSBORNE

Redondo Beach

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Tiger Woods remarked that what he misses most about college life is sitting around with the guys talking about Descartes for several hours. On the PGA Tour, Descartes is what Casey Martin gets to ride.

RALPH S. BRAX

Lancaster