Casey Martin (born June 2, 1972) is a former
American professional golfer and the current college golf coach of the
University of Oregon.
Martin was born in
Eugene, Oregon and still resides there. He was educated at
Stanford University, where he was initiated into the
Sigma Chi fraternity and was briefly a teammate of
Tiger Woods. He was a three-time all
Pac-10 and was a member of the University's
NCAA Championship team in 1994. He won the 1993
Sahalee Players Championship. He turned professional in 1995.
Martin suffers from a
birth defect in his right leg known as
Klippel Trenaunay Weber syndrome. Martin successfully sued the
PGA Tour in 2001 for the right to use a
golf cart during competition under the
Americans with Disabilities Act. Among the attorneys representing him was
Martha Lee Walters, a 2006 appointee to the
Oregon Supreme Court. During the years that the suit wound through the courts, he enjoyed limited success on the golf course, and throughout, was permitted to use a golf cart. In 1998, he won a
Nike Tour event, the
Lakeland Classic, in a playoff, thus assuring himself of remaining on the tour the following year and securing a five-year exemption from the first round of
Qualifying School (Q-School), the competition whereby golfers seek to secure places on both the PGA Tour and the Nike Tour (later the Buy.com Tour, and now the
Nationwide Tour), the second-level competition. Also in 1998, he attained a career highlight by finishing tied...
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