Sunday
Sep072008
"He is sending the tour a letter formally requesting the use of a golf cart, as Casey Martin did."
Jim Moriarty in the new Golf World files a must read profile on Erik Compton and his amazing story. Though I was surprised this was buried near the end, because it seems like we're headed for a controversy if the PGA Tour is as stubborn as it was with Casey Martin:
He is even thinking about the first stage of PGA Tour Qualifying School. "I know when I return to golf, it's not going to be the same as it was. People are going to be looking at me like I'm some kind of bionic guy," he says. Now, the first week of September, not even a full year after his near-fatal heart attack, Compton is already practicing, trying to recover his game. He has sent his application for Q school. Fortunately for him, the first stage is in Florida.
"You have to do something good again to get back into the game," he says. "Nobody's going to hand me anything. I'm going to have to go out and work and get good again, get my body in shape, and that's going to take some time, for sure."
At this point Compton doesn't know what his limitations will be. While his golf swing has returned, his stamina hasn't. At the suggestion of his doctors, he is sending the tour a letter formally requesting the use of a golf cart, as Casey Martin did. And, of course, passing one of the tour's new drug tests would be an utter impossibility. So much remains unknowable.
Sunday, September 7, 2008 at 08:26 PM
Reader Comments (13)
...damn guys, have a heart.
ES
I used to feel that riding a cart was a joke, until nerve damage cost me most of the strength in my left leg. Can't play without a cart these days. Gives one a different perspective. I would think twice about being critical of this sort of thing. You are just one ruptured disc away from being permanently cart bound, if you are lucky enough to be able to play at all.
I know it's heartless to argue against changing the game, for the sake of one guy. But the alternative doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
How many additional major championships would Hogan have won in the 1950s if he had been able to use one of those early carts? We'll never know, but would riding at Olympic given him just enough additional energy so that Jack Fleck would still be known only as a good journeyman professional golfer to the demented among us who would know such things 50 years later? Seems reasonable to me. What about that wedge shot at Cherry Hills in 1960 that needed just another foot to have been perfect? So much for that 65 doing Arnie any good on that Saturday afternoon. Not that it would ever have occurred to Hogan to ask for such a dispensation.
Yeah, the object is to get the ball in the hole, but commenters and commentators who think that a cart is not an advantage when the course is hilly, the temperature and humidity are high, and/or the pressure is stifling simply don't know what they are talking about. Golf is a four-dimensional game requiring brains and physical ability in varying ratios, depending on the particulars of the event. This includes the capacity to perform despite the physical and mental fatigue associated with championship golf, or golf at the next level down on the PGA Tour, or at any level for that matter. The game is meant to be played for a championship of any kind on your feet, not sitting on your behind. Only in the USA, where the riding cart is our own peculiar perversion of the game, could this be a topic for discussion. This is not to say that there is no place for carts in recreational golf, however seriously those Saturday morning Nassaus are contested. Which means that walking-only clubs and courses should provide a cart, if you have a doctor's excuse.
The American with Disabilities Act made it mandatory that accommodations be made to allow Casey Martin to attend a professional golf tournament, not play in one. Harsh, yes. But true nevertheless, whatever the odd appeals court says.
So I don't get to ground my club in a hazard although I really need to since I am blind in my left eye and have depth perception issues; but Casey Martin gets to ride because the walking rule is not a rule of the game, but instead a dicta of the sporting organization "employing" Martin.
That's the law of the land. It's the same law that requires employers to build wheelchair access ramps. You may not like its application in this situation, but it isn't inconsistent with the employment laws of our country.
I hope nothing bad ever happens to you guys. I really, really do.
Unpopular and insensitive as it seems, Casey Martin never deserved a cart. However - the PGA Tour screwed that pooch allowing the old farts carts aka The Liberty Mutual Senior Parade of Legends, no the Senior Tour, errrr the Chumpions Tour. Whatever ....talk of "Brand Lady".
It's all about drawing a line and "No carts" is an easy line to draw. Does a player deserve a car for an ingrown toenail? I'm not demeaning anyone, but if we play the game under elite competition conditions we should then have no accommodations. Should a short, weak man be allowed a driver with a COR of 0.998 because he can only generate 98 mph clubhead speed? NO clubs are the same for everyone. It's not about the rules of the game, it's about the "Conditions of the competition". At the elite level until the old farts tour, there was no allowed transportation. Now it's subject to interpretation since ther is not a defined line.
No carts for farts, no Casey Martin, no Erik Compton. Good on Casey for trying (At last I heard he still has two legs) and good on Eric Compton. compelling stories? Absolutely. Deserving of accommodation? Not up to me, but I obviously have an opinion.
p.s. the ADA is a hideously written law. Well-meaning, but hideously written. e.g. Accommodations are mandatory for short people but not for very tall people. Get this: being tall is the only reliable predictor for back problems. Yet, there is no accommodation, go figure.
Good luck Erik Compton, but whether appropriate or not he'll likely get the cart and probably not the card.
And it's completely unnecessary to wish me anything" bad" Mr. CharacterCounts. :-)
It's not about arrogance on anyone's part, it's about a sense of entitlement. Maybe Casey Martin and Erik Compton ought to stump for Universal Health access in the US, the only major industrialized country in the entire world with out it. America's great shame. Since there's Nike and Phil Knight taking care of Casey and whomever for EK, what do they care? They are both very fortunate individuals as they are today. E.G. All but a handful of citizens would even be considered for a second heart.
Hogan would not have won any more with a cart because he wouldn't have taken the cart. true grit, that grizzly old bastard. that's why he is truly worthy of respect.
"Errrr" lost its originality the second time Jim Rome used it, clone.
Your attitude regarding The Champions Tour is repugnant, but typical of the average Degeneration X ape man that passes for the average American male these days. Asian cultures respect the elderly. It's only one of many reasons why they're kicking our butts, and why we're doomed. As for me, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the show.
A cart is an unfair advantage only if the player using it is as healthy as the other players. I'd much rather walk and compete perfectly healthy than to have to use a cart and compete with a bum leg or a second hand heart.
And, I absolutely did not wish anything bad on you or anyone else. Obviously, you wouldn't have the character to handle it.
Repugnant re: the Champions (all about money, d-OH - channeling Bar, YAPCR, BTW) or not, the rules of golf have clearly drawn lines that's why they deserve respect. When an issue is not covered by the rules EQUITY is used, and equity here doesn't mean all things made easier but done in an equitable manner. Equity here would have been use carts, period.
The carts decision was all about money, that's the repugnant part - not my attitude, it opened the door. Doomed? Americans are doomed because they are lazy. That's why their butts are being kicked. The carts for farts (THAT's original :-) as far as I can tell) program was all about lazy money.
Once again: The more clearly a line can be drawn the better line it is. That's the message.