Bumpy Ride

Friday was one of those Oregon welcome-to-fall days, sunshine giving way to gray clouds that opened up and poured rain colder than a double bogey.

Actually, the weather wasn’t much different than it was that big day in late February, although it’s a totally different climate for the city’s most celebrated golfer.

When Casey Martin was here in his hometown seven months ago, he was an unbridled winner. He had won his court case against the PGA Tour, allowing him to use a golf cart, he already had won the first Nike Tour event of the year, he had won the favor of Capitol Hill in his fight to have the Americans With Disabilities Act recognized in sports, and he had won over enough corporate sponsors to make him financially secure.

But with a month to go in his landmark cart-riding, headline-grabbing first year as a pro, the sun no longer is shining on Martin.

His chance to avoid PGA Tour qualifying school is disappearing, he’s had only two top-10 finishes since he won the Lakeland Classic in January, he’s dropped to No. 26 on the Nike Tour money list and his perpetually peppy disposition is fraying around the edges.

“When I play bad, I just want to hide,” Martin said.

Maybe, but there was no place for him to go this week at the Nike Oregon Classic at Shadow Hills Country Club, which Martin used to play when he was just that Martin kid with the bad leg and not a lightning rod for controversy or causes.

The gallery numbered about 1,500 each day Thursday and Friday and most in it were following Martin. There were as many Martins around the place as trees. Martin’s parents, brother and sister-in-law, his paternal grandparents, aunt and uncle--not to mention college friends--trudged along with him for 36 holes. And watched him struggle.

Martin managed to make the cut--something he didn’t do last week at Boise--when he turned in a soggy second-round 69, but that was much better than his three-over-par 73 on Thursday, when his brother noticed he was way too quick on his take-away.

“Do you get extra points for getting from here to here the fastest?” Cameron Martin asked.

Well, no, but Martin clearly could use some extra points these days.

What’s most at stake is whether he can finish in the top 15 on the Nike Tour money list and thus earn his PGA Tour card for 1999. But he has fallen steadily and is now 11 places away with $77,776. Still, if Martin winds up in the top 25 he is exempt into the final of the PGA Tour qualifying school.

It’s been a difficult road for Martin. His only purse of more than $5,127 since January was the $11,250 he won at the Ozarks Open. He isn’t in the top 10 in any statistical category except birdies.

He’s not preoccupied about it or anything, though.

“Well, sure, I think about it--a lot,” Martin said. “I know where I’ve got to be on the money list. But I’m not out there standing over a putt and thinking ‘money list!’

“I do know I’ve got to get down to business, because time is running out. I’ve just got to learn to suck it up.”

Martin is in the third of five consecutive weeks of tournament play, assuming that his troubled right leg holds up.

By now, Martin’s physical problem is as recognizable as the swoosh on his cap. He was born with Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber syndrome, a painful circulatory disorder allowing blood to pool in his lower leg. There is no cure and Martin’s leg is so brittle, he faces eventual amputation.

Martin won the right to use a cart to play tournament golf when he sued, citing provisions in the ADA, and immediately became known as “the guy in the cart.”

And the cart issue just won’t go away. Indications are, he’s getting a tad testy. At a tournament last month, Martin asked reporters if anyone was missing so he wouldn’t have to answer the same question twice.

“It’s gotten old, way old,” Martin said. “It’s definitely been hard. It’s just that every day, I get asked the same old questions. And you know, I’m sick of talking about [his disability]. It’s been a challenge that way.”

If Martin is about anything, though, it’s about taking on challenges. Only last month, the PGA Tour filed a brief in its appeal of the court decision allowing Martin to use a cart. That was expected, but the United States Golf Assn. sided with the PGA Tour, a move that Martin didn’t see coming and clearly didn’t appreciate.

Martin’s feeling was that the USGA’s position was inconsistent with the treatment he received at the U.S. Open, where he was permitted a cart without question.

“I was more than just hurt,” he said. “I got a cart without having to push any buttons and then I get this brief . . . well, fine, that’s just fine.”

The PGA Tour has no official position regarding Martin as a player and the legal process concerning his cart suit is following its anticipated two-year pace toward conclusion. By that time, considering the condition of Martin’s leg, his career could be over. Dave Lancer of the PGA Tour said there are no bad feelings about Martin.

“He’s being treated as he has been all year,” Lancer said. “Nobody roots against anybody in this sport. If he finishes in the top 15, then good for him. If he doesn’t and he has to go to qualifying school, then good luck.”

Martin probably could use a little good luck. He’s missed three cuts in his last six events, he shot 16 under par at the Ozarks Open and still finished tied for fourth, he’s still not completely sold on his swing, and he’s losing his sense of humor.

“I try to be funny, but . . . it’s hard to be funny when you play badly,” he said. “I hope it’s not changing my personality, but it’s been a difficult year, to say the least.”

Martin said he still can turn it around. He is assured of making the field for the $300,000 Nike Tour Championship, but the players ahead of him on the money list are going to be there too. He said he’s not resigned to going to qualifying school, but he already has paid his entry fee.

“I’m going to do everything I can to avoid qualifying school,” he said.

Playing better certainly would help, even when he gets the same questions and gives the same answers every week. Maybe it will all be different next year, when the cart issue is a year old and the focus can be on his golf instead of his leg.

He already has made some changes. Martin is moving into a new house in his hometown next month. He is leaving his management firm, but keeping his agent. He is finding more time for his Bible-study group. He is staying positive, despite results that could have shaken his resolve.

All through the court suit and the cart controversy and all the attention and all the questions, Martin said he still loves to play golf, and what could be better than rediscovering that?

“I know I can play out here, that I belong,” he said. “I came out here to chase my dream. I don’t know what’s going to happen, qualifying school or whatever, but I’m still going to be chasing that dream.”

He had just birdied the 18th hole to go one under for the day. He signed his scorecard, then signed his autograph for a dozen or so fans. One of them was a young woman in a wheelchair who had followed him all day, braving the rain.

“You’re a real trouper,” Martin told her.

“So are you,” she answered.