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The situation has arisen from the dreams of Casey Martin, a golfer who played with Tiger Woods at Stanford was trying in 1998 to make it as a professional golfer. He has Klippel-Trenaunay-Webber syndrome, a congenital circulatory disorder that causes severe swelling in his right leg and foot and makes it all but impossible for him to walk 18 holes. Martin, at the time 25 years of age, wanted to ride in a cart from shot to shot, as he did in college, but the PGA had strict rules about not doing that. Golfers on the Senior Tour can use carts (not all do), but those on the regular tour and the minor-league Nike Tour shall not use automotive transportation, according to the PGA. The PGA Tour does allow carts in the early rounds at qualifying school. Martin went to court, citing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
If Casey Martin, a disabled professional golfer, gained an advantage over his competitors by using a cart then the PGA would have been correct in not allowing him to use a cart. However, if he did not gain an advantage, the Americans with Disabilities Act would require the PGA Tour to let him use a cart to overcome a painful circulatory disorder that prevents him from walking the course. Martin still faces some formidable obstacles. Professional golf is a grind under the best circumstances, and its not clear yet whether the degenerative condition in Martins leg will allow him to persevere on the Tour even with the aid of a cart. Tour officials argue that by law and on principle on outside agency has no right to interfere with tournament golf.
They also say its a technical issue. Walking is an integral part of the game, and stamina is a perquisite for success. Martin and his attorneys argue that federal law, ADA, requires the Tour to provide equal access for the disabled. To outside players it just seems that if the guy can hit golf shots, he ought to be allowed to hit golf shots, regardless of how he gets from one hole to the next.
Lets take the technical issue first. Casual observers may scoff with Mark Twain that golf is just a good walk spoiled. But anyone who confuses competitive golf with a stroll in the park should remember the last time they walked five or six miles over hills, or the last time they did that for four days in a row under crunching psychological pressure. Traditionalists like Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Tom Watson support the Tours view that walking is an indispensable feature of competitive golf.
For example, they point to Ken Venturis victory in the Open at Congressional in 1964, when he staggered through his second eighteen holes delirious from heat exhaustion. Traditionalists object that by conserving energy Martin gains an advantage when riding in a cart, and they seem to have a point. Some people say that walkers have a clear advantage over riders, because riding disrupts the players rhythm and hinders their intuitive feel for the course. They feel that riding a cart is more tiring than walking a round of golf. And if Ken Venturi had properly hydrated himself, he would not have had to stagger up the last fairway on his way to winning the 1964 U. S.
Open at Congressional Country Club. Charles Dotson, a professor of sports psychology, wrote in Golf week Magazine that they have calculated that a touring pro utilizes approximately 25 % of his maximum energy to walk 18 holes. The report states, that walking enhances fitness and there for allows the professional to gain muscle and to ward off fatigue. Walking allows the touring pro to maintain a more consistent level of energy expenditure. Tour pros who ride experience varying levels of energy expenditure, ranging from a rest state while sitting to an energy elevation required to get out of the cart and hit the next shot. Beyond the walking issue, Tour officials argue that the courts have no right to fool with the rules of the game at all.
Again, they seem to have a point. But the Tour has some unfortunate history working against it here. This is the organization that until 1961 had a Caucasians-only clause. To the public, Martins case probable seem more in common to the struggle of Charlie Sifford, the talented African-American golfer who fought the color line, than it does with trivial rules and regulations disputes. Its the image of golf thats at stake here.
The governors of the game like to project it as a king of genteel, civilized refuge from a rough-and-tumble world, said by Donald Johns. They see it as a sport of honor, where a contestant will penalize himself even when no one else has witnessed the infraction. Unfortunately, its not quite like that. Sometimes top competitors accuse others of cheating. Like other athletes, golfers tend to be egocentric, and some journeymen like the greats Nicklaus, Norman, and Woods. Younger players on the practice greens have been spotted mocking Tom Watsons nerve-wracked putting stroke.
Some pros have mocked the Martin decision and treated him coldly at tournaments. Others, like Tom Lehman, Greg Norman, Payne Stewart and John Cook, have spoken in his favor. Does this leave the door open for men of lesser character than Casey Martin to demand a cart for their trifling injuries? No doubt, we will see a number of such crybabies come forth. The whimpering golf pro is another tradition we now have come to except. But Casey Martin is not among them.
His own plight represents a far more noble step (pun intended) in the games evolution. Standing on tradition, as the PGA Tour did, is always a risky position. Tradition as a concept is ever changing. After all, used to be part of professional golfs traditions (and by-laws) to exclude non-Caucasian golfers from its membership ranks. For years at the Masters, past champions Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus refused to publicly speak up for a long-overdue invite to PGA Tour winner Charlie Sifford. The sight of Palmer and Nicklaus now testifying against Casey Martins request to ride brings many ugly images of the games elitist, private traditions to mind.
Outsiders consider the PGA Tour an elite private club. However in spite of the intense competition, many members consider it an organization that functions as a team. As stated by Mac Anderson, founder of Successories, Teamwork is the ability to work together, toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishment toward organizational objectives.
It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Pga Tour Vs Casey Martin
