Casey Martin is running out of time. Popping balls at the morning
sun on the practice range at the Nike Carolina Classic last
Saturday, Martin has only half an hour before his tee time.
"That's O.K.," he says. "I used to practice more when my leg
felt better, but these days a round of golf is about all I can
handle. The leg's getting worse. I don't think it's going to
last much longer."
Almost three months have passed since federal magistrate Tom
Coffin ruled that Martin could ride a cart during tournaments,
and Caseymania has died down. In relative seclusion he finished
12 strokes behind winner Brian Bateman at the Carolina Classic
and stands seventh on the money list with $53,643. Martin is in
position to win his PGA Tour card by ending the season among the
top 15 Nike players, but his game's vital signs are fading fast.
He has not had a top 10 finish since winning the season-opening
Lakeland Classic in January.
Martin's woes continued at the Nike Carolina Classic,
where he finished 32nd.
(Craig Jones)
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"Maybe I'm trying too hard," he says. "I really want to deal
with the pressure and do well, but it's hard when you feel the
whole world watching." Media scrutiny may have diminished, but
the Tour watches Martin's every move. Its Casey Martin rules,
issued in April, specify almost everything but which hand he
should steer with. Thou shalt not use the cart to carry
equipment. Thou shalt not give thy caddie a lift. Thou shalt not
have a windshield on thy cart. At Raleigh Country Club it
appeared that his eponymous rules applied to Martin alone.
During Wednesday's pro-am, several players and caddies rode
carts between the 18th green and the 1st tee. But when Martin
asked a rules official if he could give his caddie, Steve
Burdick, a ride, the answer was no.
On Saturday, Martin stood on his cart in the 8th fairway to see
if the group ahead had left the green. Legal? Tournament
director Jim Duncan said yes. Still, Martin often wonders
whether his next step will break a commandment or two. He's also
irked by the lack of support other players have for his cause.
It hurt when Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer testified against
him at the trial. It stung when PGA Tour players blasted
Coffin's ruling. On the Nike tour, his supporters are in the
minority. "Casey's a great guy, but they shouldn't make a rule
for one guy," says a leading Nike player, who asks not to be
identified. "Wait until it gets hot and humid and Casey's in the
cart keeping cool while we're all out in the fairway. Hell, yes,
I think it's an advantage."
Even Eric Johnson, one of Martin's best friends on the tour,
criticized a recent appearance he made at 3Com Park in San
Francisco, where he drove a cart to the mound and threw out the
first pitch before a Giants game. "That looked like putting the
three-footed man on display at the carnival," Johnson said last
week. "It trivialized what he's done."
Martin, fighting a nagging cough, has not slowed down. Before
arriving in Raleigh, he had a Monday outing in Durham, N.C., for
Hartford Life. He also has a book deal in the works, plus
endorsement obligations to Nike, Ping and Naya water, and he
recently agreed to be a contributing editor of WE, a lifestyle
magazine for people with disabilities. Martin gets little rest
in the best of times. His disease, Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber
syndrome, causes him to wake frequently during the night with
leg pain, and friends worry that his schedule is adding to the
toll. "I've told him to tone it down," says Notah Begay, a Nike
tour player who was a Stanford teammate of Martin's. "The people
demanding so much of his time don't realize how much pain he
endures." Adds Martin's brother, Cam, "Casey's never been one to
slow down for his own good."
Martin says his legal bills of "well over $100,000" are part of
what keeps him on the run. More pressing is his belief that his
playing days are numbered. "My leg actually feels better than it
did six months ago because I've been riding so much, but there's
definitely a downward trend," he says. "I doubt if I'll have the
leg much longer, and I don't know how a prosthesis will affect
my game, so I want to take advantage of the opportunities I have
now."
Though he has not accepted any sponsors' exemptions offered by
PGA Tour event officials, Martin hinted last week that he will,
if asked, say yes to the July 2-5 Canon Greater Hartford Open.
Meanwhile he will play the Nike tour, striving to be a normal
pro like hundreds of others. "His life will never be normal,"
Begay says. "No matter how many tournaments he wins, he'll
always be the guy with the cart."
All Martin wants, of course, is to be the guy with the card.
Issue date: May 18, 1998
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