subject: WHAT'S YOUR HANDICAP? [print this page] Just about everyone I have spoken to about this issue has an opinion. The general consensus is "Good for Casey Martin". I agree, good for Casey Martin. After that, the waters get a little muddy. On the surface, forcing the PGA Tour to change its rules - for any discount golf clubs reason - doesn't seem right. On the surface, one man using a golf cart while everyone else walks doesn't seem right.
Scratch the surface, and you'll find Casey Martin. He is the exception. The PGA Tour should have treated him as one. One simple line buried in the tour's rulebook could have put this issue to rest in 1997. RULE 104257, SECTION XIXV, PARAGRAPH FOUR: If you demonstrate exceptional golfing ability, have the talent and patience to qualify for the PGA Tour AND you suffer from Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber Syndrome, you will have the opportunity to ride a golf cart between shots during tournament play.
I can't see what the PGA Tour hoped to gain by taking this case to the Supreme Court. They had to know that it would be a public relations nightmare. They should have known that setting this kind of precedence was dangerous for golf and all sports.
What's next? Greg Chalmers disqualified himself from the Kemper Open last weekend, and forfeited a $95,000 paycheck. He told a competing player's caddie what club he used after a bad shot. That's against the rules. (FYI, it's also illegal after a good shot).
If you ask me, that rule reeks of Constitutional violations. First Amendment lawyers would have a field day arguing the freedom of speech implications of such a rule. There's a reason why there are no umpires or referees running around the golf course looking for rules infractions. The golfers police themselves. discount golf clubs if Casey Martin thought for a minute that riding a cart gave him an unfair advantage, I have to believe he would disqualify himself.
I've walked golf courses pulling my bag on a handcart. I've walked golf courses using a caddy. And, boy have I walked golf courses driving in a motorized cart. I don't know about your game, but you put two twenty handicappers in a golf cart and there's a good chance even Richard Simmons would be fatigued by the time he reached the eighteenth green.
