The Eyes of Texas on Casey Martin

Casey Martin rode to his Tuesday afternoon news conference in a golf cart, walked into a large white tent filled with 170 reporters sitting in rows of folding chairs neatly marked with each reporter’s name, stared into the lenses of 21 television cameras pointed directly at his face and said the only thing he could:

“It’s a zoo.”

Well, yes, it is. If Martin thought taking a couple of weeks off after winning his landmark disability suit, which allows him to use a cart to play pro golf, would make everybody forget about him, he was quite mistaken.

It’s probably not going to make the PGA Tour very happy, but the focus of the golf world right now is not the regular tour event at Doral in Miami, but on the Nike Tour’s Greater Austin Open, out here in the Texas hill country about 20 minutes west of the state capital.

Martin is here to play his first tournament since winning his case in court and you would have to say the interest level in this tournament is way up.

That is a welcome change here, where the most popular players during tournament weeks are the ones with the guitars at the parties, like Willie Nelson and Jerry Jeff Walker.

Martin’s entrance Tuesday was pure Hollywood. It had everything except his making footprints in concrete.

A phalanx of cameras taped his arrival, the shooters standing shoulder to shoulder, stretching 20 yards. Then they taped the 30-minute news conference.

Afterward, tape still rolling, the cameras kept track of Martin even as he strode toward a portable toilet.

“You guys going to follow me in here?” Martin joked.

Everybody seems to be following Martin these days, including sponsors. He has had Nike for a few weeks, wearing the swoosh shirts, pants and shoes. But he introduced a few more Tuesday: Ping clubs, Spalding balls and Hartford Life, whose logo was stitched on his heavy Ping bag.

A full-page ad scheduled for Friday’s Wall Street Journal breaks in Martin’s part of a new campaign called “Bring It On.”

Let’s hope Martin is ready. Because, brother, it’s already here. Just this week, Martin has done “The Today Show,” taped something for “Dateline,” played a celebrity exhibition, posed for a photo shoot for the new ESPN Magazine, taped a swing analysis segment for the Golf Channel and tried to remember if there’s anything else on his calendar.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve got a golf tournament Thursday,” he said.

The tournament at the Hills of Lakeway has attracted a strong field, including former touring pros Sean Murphy, Brian Claar, Woody Austin, Robin Freeman, Emlyn Aubrey, Keith Fergus and David Berganio. Prize money for the event is $225,000, which is about $150,000 less than the winner’s share last week at the PGA Tour’s Nissan Open.

Martin makes it a big-time event, at least in the terms of media coverage. Last year, tournament organizers credentialed 25 reporters.

Eric Johnson, who won the last Nike Tour event, said he’s glad Martin is around, even with the crush of cameras and reporters.

“I looked around and started wondering if Tiger was playing this week,” Johnson said.

As for Martin, he isn’t sure how his game is going to hold up after his time off. He already has one Nike Tour victory this year, but that was before he went to trial in his hometown of Eugene, Ore., citing the Americans with Disabilities Act in his suit against the PGA Tour.

Martin has Klippel-Trenauney-Weber syndrome, a circulatory ailment affecting his lower right leg. The 25-year-old former Stanford teammate of Tiger Woods challenged and defeated the PGA Tour’s stance not to allow him to use a cart.

Martin said he has received some criticism but that most reaction has been positive.

“I’m standing for something far greater than myself,” Martin said.

Then there is the issue of media attention.

“I have to admit it, it’s a bit overwhelming. I could never have dreamed it would be like this.”

Meanwhile, the pressure mounts, not only from the new sponsors, but from the golf world, which probably wants to know if Martin is worth all the fuss or merely a disabled golfer getting his 15 minutes of fame.

Martin said he does, indeed, feel pressure.

“I admit the world is kind of watching me . . . to find out if I’m any good,” he said. “I’m dealing with the kind of media only select players in the world get. And I’m not a select player yet. I’m exhausted by it sometimes, because it’s nonstop.”

For the time being, Martin will concentrate on the Nike Tour. He has received advice from Woods, Peter Jacobsen and others urging him to avoid accepting sponsors’ invitations to play the PGA Tour, hoping to avoid any animosity from regular tour players.

Martin agrees for now, but he is considering offers to play the PGA Tour’s Quad City Classic in Coal Valley, Ill., and the CVS Charity Classic in Sutton, Mass., in July.

His agreement with Nike is a two-year arrangement, but the rest of Martin’s deals are for one year. He does not want to be viewed as cashing in on his disability, only as doing the right thing in his situation.

“I don’t want to reject outright anything before me,” he said. “I might not be playing five years from now.”

Johnson said that as far as he is concerned, the Nike Tour is a tight fraternity and no one he knows begrudges Martin anything.

“Obviously there are going to be some mixed feelings, but we’re all out here just trying to get to the next level,” he said. “Because Casey’s such a nice guy, I don’t believe there’s any animosity.”

As Casey goes to bat in the first round Thursday, he will limp slightly, as he always does. He always will, probably. Experts say there’s a chance he will need to have his right leg amputated sometime. Next week, he will visit a Klippel-Trenauney-Weber syndrome specialist in Chicago.

“Obviously, there’s small hope,” said Chris Murray, Martin’s agent. “If this were Chapter 1 of a 10-chapter book, you would hope that research could’ve developed to help Casey’s situation.”

Casey’s situation right now is hitting balls on the driving range. He said driving is the weakest part of his game. Some people laughed. Driving a golf ball, he explained.

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Greater Austin Open

* Site: Austin, Texas.

* When: Thursday-Sunday.

* Course: The Hills Country Club (6,954 yards, par 72).

* Purse: $225,000.

* Winner’s share: $40,500.

* TV: The Golf Channel