Columnist Victoria Sun: Las Vegas tour stop would give Martin a ‘serious’ look

Victoria Sun

Wednesday, May 30, 2001 | 11:14 a.m.

Victoria Sun's golf column appears Wednesday. Reach her at 259-4078 or victoria@lasvegassun.com.

Charlie Baron had nothing but positive things to say about golfer Casey Martin.

As tournament manager for the Invensys Classic, Las Vegas' PGA Tour stop, Baron remembered the polite Stanford graduate, who played in the tournament last fall.

"He was great in terms of meeting the media and sponsors," Baron said. "He helped us out with a social function one night, (and) he was very accommodating. He is a nice young man."

And a good golfer as well.

But whether Martin, who carded a 64 in the first round and wound up in a tie for 40th last fall, will return to play in the Invensys Classic this October is something Baron does not know.

"I think the first step is, is he has to request an exemption," Baron said. "We don't have a barrel full of them.

"We've got well over 30 requests in right now. And I think we have seven left to give. Those seven fall under different categories such as veteran players, Q-school players and players at large. If he requests an exemption, the tournament committee will certainly give his request serious consideration."

The Supreme Court voted 7-2 in favor of Martin on Tuesday, allowing him to ride a golf cart in PGA Tour competition. He has Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber-Syndrome, a rare circulatory disease that affects his right leg and makes it nearly impossible for him to walk all 18 holes.

The ruling ended Martin's three-year battle against the PGA Tour, which sought to ban him from using a cart because of tour rules that state golfers must walk.

"He does have a very serious handicap," Baron said. "To do what he has done, you just have to marvel at it, playing at such a high level with his disability.

"You've got to root for the young man and wish him well. He can play the game at a very high level. For those of us who haven't lived through the experiences he's lived through, it's quite an accomplishment what he has done."

Even though Martin has won the right to ride, he will be the first to acknowledge that there is no guarantee he will be an instant success or that he will continue to play for a long period of time.

Martin made the cut in 14 of 29 PGA Tour events last year, but lost his tour card when he finished 179th on the money list.

He has struggled so far on the Buy.com Tour. Martin has missed the cut in four of eight events, and is ranked 115th on the money list at $6,433.

Still, he did not blame the legal distractions for his poor play.

"It has been my one wish that once I got this behind me, I could play the way I'm capable," Martin said. "But I don't think my recent struggles have been related to this.

"Certainly, golf is a complex game and you have issues, but I just struggled to hit the kinds of shots I wanted to hit. When I'm over a shot, I'm not thinking about the court decision."

Now that the ordeal is finally over, Martin plans to take three weeks off before heading back to the Buy.com tour.

If his leg and game hold up, he would one day like to return to the PGA Tour and be able to play 20 or so events on flat courses.

But just how long he'll remain in the game is another question.

"I think about it," Martin said. "I don't have an answer for it. Just because I won doesn't mean I will play golf for 25 years. I still have a lot of things to overcome. Certainly there are other hurdles to be able to compete, and physically, I still have issues.

"This lifestyle has been trying."