Golf: Disabled competitor wins 'right to ride'

NEW YORK - Professional golfer Casey Martin was celebrating yesterday after he won the right to use a golf cart between shots through a ruling by the United States Supreme Court.

It will allow him to continue to pursue his grandest quest - to show that he can compete successfully at the highest level of his sport despite a congenital circulatory condition in his right leg that makes walking an excruciating exercise.

"My reaction was obviously relief," Martin said in his home town of Eugene, Oregon. "It's a great feeling."

He learned of the ruling in a phone call from Professional Golfers' Association Tour commissioner Tim Finchem.

Tour rules stipulate that a player "must" walk the golf course.

Martin had qualified for the PGA Tour last season after finishing among the top 15 money-winners on the Buy. Com Tour in 1999. But he failed to earn enough money to retain his card and is back on the Buy.Com Tour.

Martin had been allowed to use a cart on the Buy. Com Tour, which is governed by PGA Tour rules, pending the Supreme Court decision.

He would also have been allowed to use one, pending the ruling, on the PGA Tour, had he qualified.

"I don't know if I feel like a winner. It's just kind of a relief that I can get it behind me," said Martin, who will turn 29 on Sunday.

By a 7-2 vote, the Supreme Court ended a 3 1/2 year legal struggle.

Justice John Paul Stevens said the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibited the PGA from denying Martin equal access to its tours on the basis of his disability.

He said allowing Martin to use a golf cart, despite the PGA's walking requirement, would not alter the nature of its tournaments.

Martin felt vindicated by the ruling, and now knows that the "right to ride" will not be taken away from him.

Still, the long-hitting former Stanford University team-mate of PGA star Tiger Woods knows that he must prove himself on the golf course.

"There's no guarantee that golf will be in my future forever," Martin said.

He could face amputation of his leg if his condition continues to deteriorate.

"But I can always look back and know that I prevailed through this and that means a lot. It really does."

Martin, who has struggled this season, with a tie for 34th his best result in eight events on the Buy. Com Tour, said he was taking time off to work on his game before returning to the circuit in two weeks in Cleveland.

"Lord willing, I would like to get back on the PGA Tour."

He plans to attempt to qualify for the regular tour at a school this year should he fail to automatically win his card by finishing in the top 15 on this year's Buy. Com money list.

Martin said the last few months had been hard on him, but he did not blame his poor form on distractions or on his condition.

"I don't believe my physical condition has eroded my golf game. I haven't played particularly well and I don't blame that on the leg. I take full responsibility for my struggles."

Martin said the hardest part of his legal tussle with the Tour was "just the waiting game, the uncertainty, waiting to find out. Fortunately, that's come to an end.

"The other hard part has been being scrutinised, everybody having an opinion on you. It's been hard. In the back of your mind, you always wonder what has this guy said, how does he feel about you. It's always been a little bit awkward.

"I think I'll always have to deal with that because there's going to be people that don't agree with the decision."

Martin said he did not think the decision would "open the floodgates" of disabled people competing in professional sports, but "I think in future it might open some doors for people."

Despite his victory, Martin knows his battle is not over.

"This is one big hurdle that is over," he said. "There are still others to go through as far as my golf game is concerned - being able to compete consistently out there even with the golf cart.

"Needless to say this is a big win for me, but I've still got to be hanging in there, working hard."

The PGA had argued that changing its rules for one player's physical condition would fundamentally alter the competition.

In the court's first ruling on the relationship between disability law and professional sports, Stevens, an avid golfer, said the walking rule was neither an essential attribute of the game itself nor an indispensable feature of tournament golf.

"There is nothing in the rules of golf that either forbids the use of carts or penalises a player for using a cart. That set of rules ... is widely accepted in both the amateur and professional golf world as the rules of the game," he said.

"From early on, the essence of the game has been shot-making - using clubs to cause a ball to progress from the teeing ground to a hole some distance away with as few strokes as possible."

Stevens rejected the PGA Tour's view that the walking requirement could affect the outcome because fatigue may hurt performance.

He said a judge in the case found that Martin endured greater fatigue with a cart than his able-bodied competitors did by walking.

Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented.

Scalia said the court's opinion "exercises a benevolent compassion that the law does not place it within our power to impose."

He said the judgment "distorts" the text and structure of the law and distorted "common sense."

Scalia said the ruling would lead to numerous future cases "and a rich source of lucrative litigation."

"One can envision the parents of a Little League player with attention deficit disorder trying to convince a judge that their son's disability makes it at least 25 per cent more difficult to hit a pitched ball," Scalia said, predicting a ruling to give the child four strikes at bat.

- REUTERS