Fourteen years after his use of a cart in the 1998 US Open helped make him a lightning rod for controversy, Casey Martin will again test his game against golf’s best at The Olympic Club.
Martin, now 40 and the golf coach at the University of Oregon, came through qualifying to book his spot in the second major championship of the year.
Although he rarely plays full rounds of golf nowadays, Martin said the fact that the Open was returning to Olympic’s Lake Course stirred him to attempt to qualify.
“I had a wonderful experience here in ’98 and I thought it would be fun to try to maybe get back,” Martin said. “And here I am.”
Once again, Martin will use a golf cart to negotiate the course, which now plays to 7,170 yards and a par of 70.
He was born with a painful circulatory disorder that affects his right leg, which he could still lose one day to amputation.
“I think I’m going to keep it as long as something drastic doesn’t happen,” Martin said. “That’s always been the fear. It’s still pretty fragile.”
Martin, a onetime Stanford University teammate of 14-time major champion Tiger Woods, made history in 1997 when he filed a federal lawsuit against the US PGA Tour for the right to use a cart in competition.
After a six-day trial the following year, a judge ruled the tour failed to validate its stand that waiving the must-walk rule would fundamentally alter competition.