Casey Martin
had in his hands a ticket to the PGA Tour.
He took his place in line with 14 other players from the Nike Tour who earned
a promotion to the big leagues today, staring down at his new tour card, flipping
it over to examine the back side.
Martin was quietly overwhelmed by a most incredible journey.
"I'm
relieved and grateful," he said. "I admit that I'm a little bit shocked to have
done it, but it feels really good."
Equally satisfying was the handshake and pat on the back he received moments earlier
from PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, the man who tried to keep carts out of
golf, a move that effectively would have ended Martin's dream.
"I
didn't say a word to him," Martin said. "I'm too exhausted, too drained to really
say or do anything."
Martin's achievement overshadowed the victory of Bob Heintz, who beat Marco Dawson
in a one-hole playoff to win the Nike Tour Championship, as well as the 14 others
who also earned their cards.
Heintz made a 12-foot birdie putt on the final hole of regulation and then birdied
the same hole in a playoff to beat Dawson.
Heintz, who held at least a share of the lead after each of the four rounds at
the par-72 Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, moved into the top 15 on the season
money list and thus earned his playing card for the PGA Tour.
Heintz, who closed with a 72, came into the final event of the year on the Nike
Tour in 16th place. He and Jeff Gove, who came in at No. 20, were the only two
players to move into the top 15, replacing Kevin Johnson and Dick Mast, who had
been 14th and 15th.
"I
really wanted to do it for my wife because she stuck her neck out, as well as
I have, to come back and play professional golf for the last three years," said
Heintz, who finished sixth on the money list with the first prize of $72,000.
Dawson, whose closing 68
was today's only sub-70 round, hit his tee shot into the water on the playoff
hole, No. 18. Dawson did not win a tournament this year but he led the tour in
top-10 finishes with 11, including eight in the top five.
Shaun Micheel, who had a 70, and Gove, who had a 73, finished tied for third at
285.
The players
who earned their PGA Tour cards were: Englishman Ed Fryatt, Carl Paulson, who
finished with $223,051, Joel Edwards, Dawson, Mathew Goggint, Heintz, Matt Gogel,
Glen Hnatiuk, Micheel, Ryan Howison, Brad Elder, Gove, Kelly Gibson, Martin and
Steve Gotsche.
Born
with a rare circulatory disorder in his right leg, walking 18 holes is too painful
for Martin.
He needs
to ride in a cart, which is prohibited on the PGA Tour, so Martin sued for the
right to use it. He won his case, but the tour appealed. The 9th U.S. Circuit
Court could rule any day on the appeal.
Finchem refused to discuss what kind of PGA Tour future Martin might have.
"Right now the matter is
with the courts and whatever it does it does," Finchem said. "There is no point
in speculating because it all might be academic."
But the commissioner was still pleased to welcome Martin and the others to the
tour.
"Right now,
we're just pleased and excited for Casey," Finchem said afterwards. "We have a
great deal of admiration for what he's done, first with his physical disability
and then with all the distractions."
The distractions -- which hurt his game this weekend at the Nike Tour Championship
-- almost cost Martin his card.
Needing to play well enough in the final Nike event of the season to place in
the top 15 on the money list and earn his card, Martin just made it.
A 37th-place finish today at Highland Oaks dropped him from 12th in the money
standings to 14th -- still good enough by one spot.
"If
I play like I did here, I won't be a very good PGA (Tour) player," Martin joked.
Martin's status was in
jeopardy after a poor performance today on the back nine sent him into the clubhouse
tied for 37th.
All
he could do at that point was wait to see how the tournament would play out. Watching
on television with his mother, Melinda, Martin stayed calm through the two-hour
wait.
"Really, he
was at peace," Melinda Martin said, fighting off tears. "With all the adversity
he's been through in his life, he could handle the wait."
It wasn't until a television announcer said Martin was guaranteed to make the
top 15 that the 27-year-old golfer gave his mother a wink -- the only emotion
he showed.
"It might
not have been as dramatic as you would have liked, but I'm so exhausted it's hard
to show any emotion right now," Martin said. "I tried to stay straight-faced.
I didn't want to break down, I've had a tendency to do so and I'm trying not to."
Tiger Woods, a college
teammate of Martin's at Stanford, learned of Martin's tour exemption as he won
the National Car Rental Golf Classic at Disney World. He said he expected Martin
to be welcomed to the tour next year by most of the golfers.
"Now
that he's earned his way on, everyone has a lot more respect for him," Woods said.
"By getting on the big tour by playing his way on, I don't think there will be
any hard feelings at all -- only congratulations."
Martin, who shot a 6-over 78 in the final round, then had to wait through the
playoff to accept his award. As he quietly waited, his parents did all the celebrating
for him.
His father,
King, so nervous during the two-hour wait he went and sat by himself in the car,
said it was a fitting way for Martin to earn his tour card.
"He
sort of limped in, didn't he?" King Martin said. "The fact that he got there the
hard way was kind of indicative of his life."
Nervous from the start of the final round until the end, Martin did his best to
keep control of his emotions and failed only once, tossing his club onto his bag
and walking off in disgust after making a bogey on No. 3.
But he recovered to birdie the next hole -- one of only three birdies on the day
-- and closed the front nine with another birdie to make the turn at even par
for the day.
But
he started to feel the pressure on the back nine and ultimately crumbled under
it.
He opened the
back nine with three straight bogeys. He had another bogey 14 and took a double
bogey when his chip shot went into the sand on No. 15, dropping him to 10 over.
"I felt pretty good on
the front nine, but on the back nine I just ran out of gas," he said. "It was
a humbling round."
Despite a birdie on the par-5 16th, Martin finished with yet another bogey for
the 78 that left him at 11-over 299, tied for 37th.
"It
was a very stressful week, very nerve-wracking," he said. "I'm just glad it's
over."
Now, even
with the card, Martin's future on the tour isn't guaranteed. If the court rules
against him, he'll have another uphill battle to fight.
"I'll
be disappointed if it's taken away from me," he said. "But right now, I don't
even want to think about it. It's out of my hands."
