What is golf?
by tag –> Sheldon Richman, tag –> July 2001 So now the courts are writing the rules for professional sports. What s next? Will they soon tell us that sometimes two of a kind beats a full house? On May 29 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the PGA Tour has to let Casey Martin ride in a golf cart despite its walking rule. The real issue at hand is not whether the PGA should voluntarily change its rules so people like Martin, whose degenerative circulatory disease precludes his walking the golf course, may use a golf cart. As a nongolfer, I can find such a change reasonable and decent. I might even agree with Justice John Paul Stevens s statement that a waiver of the walking rule in such cases would not alter the essence of the game; as dissenting Justice Antonin Scalia notes, the rules of all games are arbitrary. Reasonable people may disagree. Reasonable golfers do disagree. Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, who know a thing or two about the game, testified for the PGA at the trial.
The PGA says it’s hitting the ball in the hole, plus walking; disabled golfer Casey Martin says the walking doesn’t matter. The Supreme Court will be asked to decide. – – – – – – – – – – – – By Gary Kaufman July 5, 2000 | The most famous words ever possibly uttered about golf were uttered, or not, by Mark Twain, who may or may not have called it “a good walk spoiled.” You never know with those famous Mark Twain quotes whether he actually said the thing he was supposed to have said. The whole thing is going to the Supreme Court. Print story E-mail story Backflip this article to find it again That is, whether walking is an integral part of golf. The PGA Tour said it would file a motion with the Supreme Court Wednesday, the last day it could do so, asking for a review of the lower-court decision that allows Casey Martin to ride in a golf cart in PGA tournaments. Martin has a rare circulatory disease in his right leg that makes walking difficult. His successful 1998 lawsuit against the PGA
