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  Brian Thompson Thompson is going to start using a golf cart now, but only because he’s too lazy to walk. He can be reached at bthompson@media.ucla.edu.

Now, I realize that this is a university newspaper with a majority of its readers in the 18-25 age group, so few open this paper every day looking for coverage on the sport of golf.

But on Tuesday, something significant happened in golf. It’s something that can change the way in which not just golf, but all sports are played.

In a case that has drawn attention outside of the sports world, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that a disabled man, Casey Martin, is permitted to use a golf cart while playing in PGA tournaments.

Now, before disregarding this as just something particular to golf, consider what the court did. The court basically told the governing body of a professional sport that it cannot create and enforce its own rules.

First, a little background on the Martin saga. Martin, now 28, was a member of the “dream team” at Stanford in the mid-1990s, which included Tiger Woods. After his collegiate career, he moved on to professional golf.

However, Martin was not able to compete at the same high level he had grown accustomed to. This is because Martin suffers from Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber Syndrome, a rare circulatory disorder that has left him with a withered right leg. While he can still swing a golf club normally, he experiences extreme pain when walking. The pain only gets worse with time and Martin may face amputation later in life.

But Martin still wanted to pursue a career in his profession of choice: golf. The problem is that the PGA would not allow him to use a golf cart to move about the course. It claims that walking (often five to six miles per round) is an essential part of the game. Allowing Martin use of a cart would provide him an unfair advantage and ruin the integrity of the game.

In 1997, Martin sued the PGA. After years of appeals, the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, allowing him to ride in a cart while playing golf.

Sounds fair enough, right? A man has a disability. He just wants to make it possible to pursue his career. After all, the Americans With Disabilities Act was passed to allow just these kinds of things to happen.

If Martin was a schoolteacher or a lawyer or had any other normal occupation, I’d be all for it. But allowing Martin the use of a cart, by means of a court order, sets a dangerous precedent in sports.

There is a certain Darwinian element to sports. Only the strongest, fastest, fittest, most skilled people are usually lucky enough to compete in pro sports. If I were capable of hitting a baseball like Barry Bonds or playing soccer like Michael Owen, I’d be making millions of dollars instead of writing for this newspaper. Having the ability to play at the top level is what separates athletes from the rest of us.

As pro golfer Steve Pate told ESPN.com, “In sports, everybody brings their own strengths and weaknesses to the game and whoever can overcome their weaknesses and maximize their strengths is going to do well. It’s maybe not fair, but I just think it’s the way it should be.”

Certainly, it is unfortunate that Martin is disabled and experiences such unbearable pain when walking. But under the rules and norms of golf, he is not fit enough to compete. To play pro golf, it is essential to walk the course. Moreover, it’s one of the rules of the game. Walking five to six miles over four straight days in 90-degree summer heat under extreme pressure makes golf both physically and mentally demanding.

Being able to succeed under those conditions by producing great shots is what makes golf a sport.

If we start changing the rules around, where is it going to stop? How many golfers out there are going to ask for carts because they have a bad back or a foot problem? Golfer Jose Maria Olazabal, for example, almost had to retire due to a foot injury. Do we now let him have a cart? Are we going to turn pro golf into country club golf, where everyone gets beer and cigars as well?

“It’s a concern as to who is going to make the rules and set them, and then how much leeway there is,” Marty Parkes, USGA senior director of communication, told ESPN.com. “If somebody had entered (a tournament) and then had sprained an ankle and then wanted to use a cart, I don’t know what the answer is.”

And what does this mean for other sports? Do our courts start changing the rules for other sports? Former California Angels pitcher Jim Abbott competed without the use of his right arm. He had to cradle his glove on his deformed arm while pitching with his functioning left arm. He had a severe disability yet still thrived under the normal rules of baseball.

But what do we do for guys like Abbott now? Does he only have to get two strikes instead of three for a strikeout? Or does he get to stand closer to the plate when he pitches?

Sports ought to be able to set their own rules and guidelines. Obviously, if the rules were blatantly discriminatory, the courts should get involved. But when the rules focus on how the game is played, it’s up to the sport itself to make and enforce the rules.

I sympathize with Martin. People like him are role models for those who pursue their dreams despite having all the cards stacked against them. But allowing the courts to change the rules of a sport is flat-out wrong.

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