OT: golf John Daly...ride or walk....you be the judge

[Blakeon18]

The PGA tournament....a major...is being played at Bethpage Black next week.
John Daly has qualified for it. He now plays on the Senior tour where you are allowed to ride a cart.
He applied to do the same at Bethpage and has essentially gotten a 'doctor's note' to do that...due to osteoarthritis.
It is very very rare the PGA grants this exception...I don't think they 'have to' even with the note.

They have given it the OK.

Would you permit him to ride?

I would vote 'no'. I suspect quite a few players could doctor-shop and get notes themselves...without a ton of certainty I think the Daly OK would lead to a slippery slope.

What say you?

 

[VAMike23]

I’d say no

 

[cohenzone]

Casey Martin wasn’t allowed to ride. Let them all ride as far as I care.

 

[Wbbfan1]

I'd approve a pro golfer riding a golf course as long as the illness/injury was permanent and/or degenerative in nature. If the injury for example was a sprain, muscle tear or broken bone that would heal and not be an impediment in the future, then I wouldn't approve using a cart while the injury healed. Injuries are part of the game.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

As long as he doesn't use it for a beverage cart ....

 

[MainefanSC]

Walking is the "order of the day" and always has been. If you want to participate, you have to walk. If carts are allowed on the senior tour then you should stay with the seniors.

 

[Sommercamp]

Also Bethpage Black only allows players to walk outside of tournament time - no carts allowed. So allowing him to ride is a total head scratcher. He amuses me, I do not dislike him. But IMO no carts for any players. Going on Friday to walk the grounds.

 

[uconnfan68]

Also Bethpage Black only allows players to walk outside of tournament time - no carts allowed. So allowing him to ride is a total head scratcher. He amuses me, I do not dislike him. But IMO no carts for any players. Going on Friday to walk the grounds.

This. No one rides there, neither should Daly.

 

[Alydar]

I was at the PGA championship at Wing Foot back in the late 90's, right when that player with phlebitis in his legs so bad that the doctors told him he would be in a chair a some point was trying to be allowed to ride. It was a hot story then, injunctions filed and lawsuits brought and Jack came out against giving the guy a break. "The game is meant to require walking", said Lord Jack and the golfing world nodded. Riding would give him an unfair advantage said Jack. So I was shocked when, on a hole I was watching, Jack duck-hooked a tee shot into an overgrown area and couldn't find the ball. For those unfamiliar, he then had to go back to the tee and hit another ball with a penalty. Well Jack was having an issue with his hip or knee and had been holding up the field so a rules official drove him back to the tee. He hit his shot, meaning his ball was in play again and then jumped into the cart and took a ride out to his ball. Now if that wasn't riding in a tournament then the moon is an illusion.
It's easy to pick on the Daly's of the world.

And as long as I'm picking on Jack, I remember when there was all the controversy over the Ping Eye 2 irons back when then dominated the market due to their (totally legal) groove design. The other manufactures were dying and the USGA tried to save them by banning the clubs by rule. While this was going on, Jack, who had been an owner of Macgregor, a then well known manufacturer, came out against the Ping clubs. His complaint was that they replaced skill, meaning that they made players better. He even went as far as to insult Mark Calcavecia(sic), who played the Eye 2's by saying he wouldn't even by on the tour if not for the Eye 2's unfair advantage. (When mark won the British Open a few years later Jack was nowhere to be seen). That was his objection. Of course for years and years we had seen Jack's face on the MacGregor ad's with the caption: "Play Macgregor clubs, they will make you a better player". The PGA community missed the hypocrisy. After all, Jack is Jack. The fact that he was either lying or else the irons he was touting should have been banned.



Frankly I don't think riding in a cart gives anyone an edge. Walking benefits relaxation and in golf 99% of the 4-5 hours of a round is spent walking or standing, waiting to shoot. Stress is a problem and walking helps.

 

[CocoHusky]

John Daly looks like he could use the exercise so I'd make him walk.

 

[Zorro]

As long as he doesn't use it for a beverage cart ....

That's cold!

 

[Bama fan]

Maybe Daly should go play Bedminster. I hear they let players ride their carts onto the greens.

 

[Woof 101]

Professional sports are simply just that! No way no how anyone gets to play on a different level.
In golf the walk is part of the talk, not fair or even sensible for any participant to have the advantage.

Having said that, he is a personality that draws (which really is not needed here) he should just settle for what they pay him in the pro-am. If the integrity of the sport is going to be down graded they may as well go full monty....Put his oversized back side in a Shriners car and let the show begin.

 

[VAMike23]

Still no

 

[uconnfan68]

Professional sports are simply just that! No way no how anyone gets to play on a different level.
In golf the walk is part of the talk, not fair or even sensible for any participant to have the advantage.

Having said that, he is a personality that draws (which really is not needed here) he should just settle for what they pay him in the pro-am. If the integrity of the sport is going to be down graded they may as well go full monty....Put his oversized back side in a Shriners car and let the show begin.

Without looking it up, he is a past PGA champion, so he may have a lifetime exemption.

 

[uconnfan68]

There's something odd about a "sport" where some players are petitioning to be relieved of the burden of walking. I worked at a golf course growing up and the attitude I developed from observing our members, and which has stuck with me ever since, is that if you can play it half decently while p*iss- drunk, it's is not a real sport. Great recreational activity, but not a real sport.

It’s a real sport. And you really can’t perform drunk for 4 days and 72 holes.

 

[Bigboote]

That's cold!

Just like my beer.

 

[UConnNick]

It’s a real sport. And you really can’t perform drunk for 4 days and 72 holes.

Why not? I've been doing it for close to 50 years now. You do have a point, though. It's not for everybody. "Roy McAvoy" shot an 82 at the US Open in that condition.

 

[uconnfan68]

Why not? I've been doing it for close to 50 years now. You do have a point, though. It's not for everybody. "Roy McAvoy" shot an 82 at the US Open in that condition.

Win much money those 50 years?

 

[HuskylnSC]

Casey Martin wasn’t allowed to ride. Let them all ride as far as I care.

May 30, 2001 - The Supreme Court ruled decisively today that Casey Martin, the disabled golfer who has been battling the PGA Tour over its walking rule for the last four years, has the legal right to ride in a golf cart during tournament play.

 

[cohenzone]

May 30, 2001 - The Supreme Court ruled decisively today that Casey Martin, the disabled golfer who has been battling the PGA Tour over its walking rule for the last four years, has the legal right to ride in a golf cart during tournament play.

The PGA resisted. That’s why he had to sue. Nicklaus didn’t favor it.

 

[uconnfan68]

May 30, 2001 - The Supreme Court ruled decisively today that Casey Martin, the disabled golfer who has been battling the PGA Tour over its walking rule for the last four years, has the legal right to ride in a golf cart during tournament play.

The 4 year wait might as well have been a life sentence. He got worse every day.

 

[HuskylnSC]

Time for a Daly story. In the days when Dunlop was sponsoring John and when they were located in town, A coupe friends of mine who worked with Dunlop arranged to play a round with John at Wicked Stick in Myrtle Beach. They told me he showed up 20 minutes late, drove a taxi to the first tee. Jumped out in cutoffs, flip-flops, grabbed a driver and hit his tee shot off the deck 300+ yards down the middle. They said it was the most fun round they ever had.

 

[UConnNick]

Time for a Daly story. In the days when Dunlop was sponsoring John and when they were located in town, A coupe friends of mine who worked with Dunlop arranged to play a round with John at Wicked Stick in Myrtle Beach. They told me he showed up 20 minutes late, drove a taxi to the first tee. Jumped out in cutoffs, flip-flops, grabbed a driver and hit his tee shot off the deck 300+ yards down the middle. They said it was the most fun round they ever had.

Sounds like a scene from "Caddyshack".

 

[HuskylnSC]

Sounds like a scene from "Caddyshack".

Weelll, I wasn't there so they might be exaggerating. You know how golfers and fishermen are. "It was at least a 45 foot putt...."

But my answer to the OP is the game was meant for walking. Except the other day I was walking and dragging my bag on a very hilly course. It was upper 80's and at #15, I quit. I was looking for someone to rescue me. So walking aint as easy as it used to be