Now for those golfers
who want to walk

Casey Martin got his way and, if he's able to score well enough on the Buy.com Tour, professional golf's minor league, he'll be able to rise to the PGA Tour and ride in an electric cart between shots -- something that most golfers in Hawaii are forced to do.

Most privately owned golf courses in the state require golfers to rent electric carts to carry them through their rounds. Any desire they might have to gain a little exercise by walking -- between two and five miles, depending on how straight they hit the dimpled subject of their endeavor -- takes the back seat to what the course owners explain is the need for speedy play.

Whether riding in a cart actually results in a faster round of golf than 18 holes of walking between shots is arguable. Plumb bobbing and other imitations of pros seen on television probably consume more time than walking. The real reason that local golfers are forced to ride in electric carts is that the courses make money renting them. That is the obvious reason that golfers in Hawaii don't own their own electric carts; they aren't allowed on the course.

--Lee Catterall

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