Martin Breaks Down On Stand
Casey Martin broke down in tears Wednesday as he testified about the intense pain he feels when he walks the golf course.
"If I could trade my leg and a cart for their good leg, I would do it anytime, anywhere," said Martin, who has sued the PGA Tour for the right to ride a cart.
Under gentle questioning from his lawyer, Martin gave a detailed description of the rare circulatory condition he has lived with since birth.
Instead of a vein along the bone of his lower right leg, he said he has a jumble of varicose veins. The valves that normally keep blood from flowing backward don't work, so blood tends to pool in his lower leg whenever he stands, causing painful swelling.
"It feels like my leg is going to blow up," he said. ``Every time I step, there's a sharp pain in my shin."
His face tightened as he described a match he played while at Stanford, and the intense pain that came after carrying his clubs over 36 holes. He said the opposing coach from Arizona State saw the pain he was experiencing and told him: "Man, you've got to take a cart."
With that, Martin bowed his head and cried. U.S. Magistrate Thomas Coffin called a five-minute recess.
Martin has invoked the Americans with Disabilities Act in his lawsuit that seeks to ride instead of walk at professional events.
PGA Tour lawyers contend allowing Martin a cart would give him an unfair advantage. They maintain walking offers a test of stamina that adds to the competition and is an integral part of tournament golf.
Earlier Wednesday, a PGA Tour executive testified carts are allowed at senior events because it's a money-driven "nostalgia" tour, far less competitive than the top circuit where Martin seeks to ride.
"It's an economic factor," said Richard Ferris, chairman of the PGA Tour policy board. "If Arnold Palmer has an arthritic hip and can't walk 18 holes ... he's an economic draw. That's why we allow them to use carts."
"The Nike Tour and the PGA Tour are golf at its highest level," he said. "The senior tour is not competition at its highest level. The Senior Tour is a nostalgia tour."
Ferris said Palmer led a movement in 1986 that succeeded in requiring players to walk on the Senior Tour. That rule was dropped after a couple of tournaments when players complained some couldn't walk all 18 holes.
"They said we're going to lose the Julios Boroses - let's reverse ourselves," Ferris said, adding the major attraction was the chance for people to pay $3,000 or $4,000 to play pro-am rounds with their heroes.
Under cross examination by Martin lawyer Martha Walters, Ferris denied that the image of tournaments on television was a factor in the decisions to make players walk on the senior tour in 1986 and in the PGA Tour qualifying tournament in 1997.
Walters pointed out that both decisions came one year after major television agreements.
The magistrate, who is hearing th case without a jury, has given Martin the chance to ride a cart on the Nike Tour pending the outcome of this trial. Last month, the 25-year-old golfer won the tour's event in Lakeland, Fla., generating an outpouring of public support.
Nike signed Martin to an endorsement contract, making him the latest spokesman for its new slogan: "I Can."
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