Ernesto Nunez
Last week there was an article in the Readers’ Forum about Casey Martin’s desire to play in the PGA. In this article there was a hypothetical story about a football player with a bad knee. This story went on to say that he could still be a running back, just throw him in a cart and give him the ball.
I think there is something wrong with this hypothetical story. Golf and football are completely different sports. Football requires enormous amounts of physical activity. To play, you have to be in excellent physical condition. If they gave you a cart to do the running for you, how do you get tackled? Do they knock you out of the cart? You wouldn’t even have to be in good physical condition to play. In fact, the more obese you are, the harder it would be to knock you out of the cart.
Golf doesn’t have the same physical requirements as football. Of course you do have to be in good shape if you want to compete in the PGA, but the main point of golf is hitting the golf ball and getting the ball to the hole with as few strokes as possible. If you are given a cart, the only thing you could use it for is to get from where the ball was to where the ball landed. Being in a cart would not take away from the point of the game.
Casey Martin being in a cart is not the focus of the PGA. The focus is to see professional golfers compete against each other. Casey Martin is good enough to be there, so I think they should overlook his handicap and let him play.
