The various golf organizations are looking at Tuesday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Casey Martin case and how it affects their operations.
The women golfers in town for the 2001 U.S. Women’s Open Championship tend to look at it through the eyes of Martin.
The LPGA released a statement that echoed the one issued by the PGA Tour Inc., the organization that lost its appeal to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of Martin, saying that the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act requires the pro golf tour to allow Martin to ride a cart in between shots during PGA tour events.
“I think everyone agrees that Casey Martin is a courageous young man, a talented competitor and good for golf, but this case involves issues far greater than Casey’s situation,” said Ty M. Votaw, commissioner of the LPGA, in the statement. “The LPGA supported the PGA Tour’s position that an association’s rules and regulations for competition must be the same for all competitors.
“In the coming weeks, the LPGA will give the court’s decision a thorough review to determine how the decision and its applicable ADA requirements may affect the LPGA Tour’s regulations and rules of competition.”
The USGA issued no statement.
When asked during a press conference about the Martin decision, Annika Sorestam said, “I heard the announcement just before I got in here. I’m happy for Casey.”
That seemed to be the consensus among the women golfers asked about the case during press conferences.
Karrie Webb said that she had seen the issue from both sides during the four-year process and that “ultimately I think it would be pretty hard to disallow someone that’s been born with a disability and obviously has overcome that throughout his life to be quite an established golfer.
“And just because he can’t walk 18 holes, I think it would be pretty tough not to allow him to participate on the PGA Tour, the Buy.com Tour, whichever tour he’s on … I think it’s good for him. I’m sure it’s a big weight off his shoulders.”
Martin sued the PGA Tour in 1997, saying the ADA gave him the right to use a cart. He suffers from a circulatory disorder in his right leg that makes it painful for him to walk long distances.
A lower court agreed, saying the tour had to allow him to use a cart and on Jan. 19, 2000, he became the first PGA Tour member to use a cart in competition. He lost his PGA Tour exempt status, but has full-status on the Buy.Com Tour.
Kris Tschetter, who missed almost eight months of golf because of a bad hip, said she believes walking is part of the game and that over the course of a season walking provides a fatigue factor to Tour golf.
“I do think that by not walking, it definitely gives you an advantage, at the end of the week, at the end of two weeks, at the end of the year. There’s some wear and tear. That was what kept me from coming back earlier this year — I knew I could not walk 18 holes of play.
“Do I think he’s taking advantage? No. I think he’s got such a weird problem that I don’t think he gets an advantage from being in the cart. But I think most people not having to walk would definitely — you’d have more energy at the end of the day.”
She had surgery on her hip to correct the problem, and she sits in a chair between shots on the LPGA Tour. She said a cart for her use is a non-issue, because her situation is not “severe enough. I would gain an advantage over some people.”
The lower court ruling, delivered by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco in March 2000 and upheld by the Supreme Court Tuesday, said using a cart would not give Martin an unfair advantage over his competitors.
The PGA Tour statement said, in part, “we have believed from the beginning of the situation, however, that the issues involved go well beyond considerations involving an individual player.
“Through the lawsuit … the courts were asked to examine the issue of whether the Tour should be forced to abandon its long-standing requirement that the rules of competition be applied equally to all competitors.”
