Martin’s Year Might End in a Half Swing

No one knows what the U.S. Supreme Court will say about him, but Casey Martin is certain of at least one thing. He knows what he will do if the PGA Tour wins its appeal and he can no longer ride a cart to play pro golf.

“I’ll take the rest of the year off,” Martin said. “That’s if things don’t come down the way I want and if the tour doesn’t give me a waiver to play with a cart.

“I would seek out medical options. I wouldn’t start walking to finish the year out. Maybe I’d try to walk next year. I haven’t played that great, that’s for sure, so I don’t see any reason to try to grind it out this summer.

“I’m not saying I’m hanging my sticks up for good, but I’m not risking my leg.”

It hasn’t been a particularly rewarding year for Martin, 28, as he waits for the Supreme Court’s decision on the PGA Tour’s appeal of a 1998 lower court ruling that permitted Martin to use a cart during play.

A decision by the Supreme Court is expected before the end of June.

Martin has made four cuts in eight Buy.com tournaments this year and earned $6,433. He also has played in two PGA Tour events, at Tucson and Pebble Beach, missing the cut both times.

It hasn’t been a total washout for Martin, though. He met the 10-tournament minimum to satisfy his contractual arrangements with his major sponsors, Nike and Hartford, so his endorsement income kicks in.

“That’s been the only good side to waiting,” said King Martin, Casey’s father.

King Martin said he isn’t about to advise Casey what to do with his career after the ruling.

“But my wish is that he wouldn’t continue to play,” the elder Martin said. “My wish is that he would just take a rest, go see the physicians and then see what happens. I’m not sure what he would do. But I don’t know if he’ll do anything besides pack his bags.”

King Martin said even if Casey walked and managed to win, he probably wouldn’t be able to play the next week because of his right leg. The younger Martin was born with Klippel-Trenaunay-Webber Syndrome, a rare and painful circulatory disorder that causes blood to pool in his lower leg and has made his tibia brittle.

“Even if Casey won walking, there are limits to what he can do,” King Martin said.

Casey is at home in Eugene, Ore., this week and isn’t likely to rejoin the Buy.com Tour until June 14 in Cleveland, depending on the Supreme Court decision.

“I’m just playing the waiting game,” he said. “There’s a little more angst, maybe, but there’s nothing I can do except wait, just like everyone else.”

Bad Boy Makes Good

So the European Tour announces at its tournament in Heidelberg, Germany, that it’s fining Sergio Garcia $7,500 for criticizing a rules official at a tournament in Australia in February.

And four days later, Garcia earns his first PGA Tour victory at the Colonial in Fort Worth and makes $720,000.

Do you think he has learned his lesson?

Was Tommy Bolt There?

The Laureus Challenge, a celebrity event Monday in Monte Carlo, was shortened because of lightning. There were a number of close calls, one involving South African journalist Kevin McCallum, whose umbrella was struck by lightning.

Dawn Fraser, a former Australian swimming star, had a narrow escape from lightning on the 18th green and Seve Ballesteros was scared silly when lightning struck a cable about 15 feet away just as he started his backswing.

Ballesteros, the host of the event, was his usually plucky self afterward.

Said Ballesteros: “The golf course was in perfect shape and apart from the lightning, everybody had a great time.”

Uh, apart from the lightning?

Unless It’s Friendly

The quote of the week is from Karrie Webb, an Australian, on the “Survivor” television series that she doubts was really taped in the outback of Australia.

Said Webb: “Even in the bush, no one just camps on the side of the river unless you want to wake up next to a crocodile.”

That Would Be Bad

News item: The USGA says it will have a 652-yard par five, a 491-yard par four and is adding 20 yards to make a 465-yard par four 18th at Southern Hills for the U.S. Open, presumably in reaction to Tiger Woods’ 12-under score that won the Open last year at Pebble Beach.

Reaction: This is downright hilarious. Who, exactly, is going to have the most trouble with greater distance--the short hitters or the long hitters?

Unless they make Tiger the only one who has to hit from the back tees, they haven’t done anything except play right into his hands.

And, in case you’ve forgotten, when he arrives at Southern Hills, Woods will be trying to win his fifth consecutive major and his seventh overall.

Pet Peeve

From the Associated Press story on Woods’ victory in Germany: “The victory was Woods’ first since the historic Masters.”

If that sounds like a long time ago, it’s not. The fact is Woods has played in only one other tournament since the Masters, finishing third at the Byron Nelson.

Pet Peeve II

From the LPGA’s weekly news release on Wendy Doolan’s five-hole playoff victory in Ohio: “It was the longest sudden-death playoff on the LPGA Tour since July 1999.”

Remarkable. You mean it’s the longest in almost two whole years?

Say Cheese

News item: Colin Montgomerie asks a photographer to take his picture with Woods and Darren Clarke on the fifth tee during the tournament in Germany.

Reaction: What do you think this is, Monty, a pro-am?

Oh, Yes, It Is

The projected date for a proposed Woods-Annika Sorenstam vs. David Duval-Webb made-for-TV event in the desert is July 30--three days before the Women’s British Open in England.

Said Sorenstam: “It’s not the best way to start the week of a major championship.”

Sorenstam also said, correctly, that it’s not something you can turn down. Besides, what else has she got to do? Practice? Sleep? Hey, for the money and the exposure for women’s golf, you can do them both on the plane.

The Name Game

Augusta means Augusta National and the Masters, but now the LPGA is staging a September event in North Augusta, S.C., the $1.2-million Asahi Ryokuken International Championship Tournament, which is apparently trying to outdo the Masters in length of name.

Something else the Asahi Ryokuken (you know the rest) is trying to do: out-premium the Masters, basically with a $1,000 special VIP pavilion badge that permits access to the player hospitality area.

Now, if you could buy a Masters ticket, which you can’t, it would cost $125. And chances of Masters ticket-holders entering the player hospitality area are about as likely as the tournament ever being known as the Asahi Ryokuken Masters.

Don’t Say He Can’t

Now it can be told: Woods played the last round in Germany with a driver he borrowed from Adam Scott after snapping the steel shaft of his own driver on the range after Saturday’s round.

Because he closed with a 66 using a borrowed driver, could Tiger have won swinging a marshal’s sign?

Impress Your Friends

Trivia time: What colors were the Maseratis that Woods and his caddie, Steve Williams, were given by the tournament promoters last week in Germany?

Answer: silver for Tiger, blue for Williams.

But Many Others Do

Tiger has one more tournament--the Memorial--before the U.S. Open, by which time maybe everyone will have forgotten (or maybe not) about his last-round eagle from 175 yards on the 13th at the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open with a seven-iron, when he dunked the ball on the fly.

Even Woods said he was surprised.

Said Tiger: “I hit a lot of golf balls, trust me, and not many of them go in.”

Money News

You can’t include superstar product pitcher Arnold Palmer in any group that is jealous of the endorsement money being hurled around these days. Neither Michael Jordan nor Woods owe him anything for blazing an endorsement trail, Palmer said in an interview on CBNC.

Said Palmer: “They’ll do their own thing . . . you know, they probably owe that to TV more than anything. The fact that I was there was my good fortune.”

More Money News

For what it’s worth, Sorenstam’s $19,876 paycheck at last week’s LPGA event in Ohio pushed her over $1 million in earnings ($1,013,890), making her the fastest to get there--10 events. Webb had been the fastest, needing 13 events.

It Pays to Play

The purse for Woods’ Williams World Challenge is increasing $300,000 to $3.8 million for the 16-player special event that’s scheduled Dec. 13-16 at Sherwood Country Club. Davis Love III is the defending champion. The winner receives $1 million.

No Wonder He Plays

Corey Pavin’s tie for eighth last week at the Colonial was worth $116,000--his largest check since 1996, when he won the Colonial.

Charlie Coe: 1923-2001

Charlie Coe, who died last week at his home in Oklahoma City at 77, was one of the more intriguing amateurs that golf has seen. He won the U.S. Amateur twice, in 1949 and 1958, but could have won three times if he hadn’t been beaten by a teenager named Jack Nicklaus in 1959.

The 19-year-old Nicklaus birdied the last two holes of his 36-hole final with the 35-year-old Coe at the Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs to win, 1-up.

Coe, a member of Augusta National, tied for second with Palmer in the 1961 Masters, one shot behind Gary Player. It is the best finish by an amateur in Masters history.

He missed a 25-foot on the last hole that would have forced Player into a playoff.

Coe was a seven-time Walker Cup member, the low amateur in the Masters three times and the low amateur in the 1958 U.S. Open. He never considered turning pro.

“That’s the spirit of the game, just to enjoy it,” Coe said in a 1990 interview. “It’s a gentlemen’s game and it should be played that way.”

Standing Ove-ation

What’s the deal with the Swedes? Because of Henrik Stenson’s victory two weeks ago in the Benson & Hedges International, there are three in the top 15 on the European Tour’s Order of Merit--the money list, which is the way the players make the Ryder Cup team.

Leading money winner Pierre Fulke and Robert Karlsson are the other two Swedes. Spain, with Jose Maria Olazabal, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Garcia, is the only other country with as many players in the top 15 on the Order of Merit.

Stenson, who turned 25 three weeks ago, won at the Belfry, going wire to wire to nail down his first European Tour victory.

The first Swede to win a European Tour event was Ove Sellberg in 1986.

Almost a Twosome

Brenda Corrie Kuehn, 36, of Fletcher, N.C., qualified for next week’s U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles, despite being 7 1/2 months pregnant. She is seeing a doctor today to get final clearance to play.