Should handicapped golf players be able to use golf carts during a Professional Golf Association (PGA) tournament? It is still a mystery to me why physically challenged golfers have to put up such a fight to gain the privilege of a golf cart during professional tournaments. If you don not allow disabled golfers to use golf carts, then they will be at a disadvantage because they cannot walk 16 miles in the course of a weekend. This issue has been taken up all the way to the Supreme Court and has been a problem on the PGA Tour for quite awhile. Handicapped golfers should be allowed to use golf carts during any PGA tournaments. .
Most handicapped golf players cannot achieve their dreams of wining a PGA tournament simply because they cannot endure 72 holes of golf, the standard number of holes for a PGA tournament. The entire field usually competes in two 18-hole rounds on Thursday and Friday. Those who survive the cut compete on Saturday and Sunday and receive prizes and awards for their combined scores for all four rounds. For example, Casey Martin, a former PGA player diagnosed with Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber Syndrome, was using a golf cart during the tournament. Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber Syndrome is a circulatory disease that has left his right leg atrophied and prevents him from walking long distances. So he started using a golf cart. This angered other players because PGA rules state that no players can use a golf cart during the tournament. Casey Martin, on the other hand, felt that using the golf cart during a PGA tournament did not give him any advantage over the field. He simply wanted to compete on the PGA tour and felt he could not do this without the use of a golf cart. Martin won his case against the PGA. I believe the playing field should be equal and as fair as possible because Casey Martin, as well as other golfers, has a disability. .
The counter argument to this is that officials feel Casey Martin, and other handicapped players, are no different from everyone else.