NYT19980117.0042 NEWS NEWSWIRE The following editorial will appear in The New York Times, Sunday, Jan. 18: Casey Martin, a 25-year-old professional golfer afflicted with a circulatory disorder that hinders his ability to walk, has sued the PGA Tour to force it to exempt him from one of professional golf's basic rules. The rule says that, except for golfers over 50 on the Senior Tour, players must walk the course. Martin says he cannot earn a livelihood in his chosen profession unless he can ride in a cart. Martin is a first-class golfer with bright prospects. He was Tiger Woods's teammate at Stanford, and when a judge's preliminary injunction allowed him to play (and ride) in a PGA satellite event last week, he went out and won the tournament with a 19-under-par score of 269. We believe that Martin should be allowed to ride. We also believe that the integrity of professional golf will not be hopelessly corrupted if the PGA Tour bends its rules for him and for others with similarly crippling diseases. That said, it must also be granted that this is a complex matter, in both legal and sporting terms. Martin has invoked the Americans With Disabilities Act, the first time a professional athlete has done so. The verdict may utimately turn on fine legal questions, like whether the PGA Tour is an employer, as defined by the act, or a nonprofit association that simply arranges and manages tournaments for self-employed golfers. But it is on the level of common sense that we think this matter can and should be resolved. The PGA Tour argues that the stamina involved in walking five miles is an integral part of the game. Traditionalists also recall that no exception was made for Ken Venturi, who nearly collapsed in 98-degree heat en route to victory in the United States Open, or for Ben Hogan, who won the Open after recovering from a near-fatal car crash. This is the old level-playing-field argument, and usually it makes sense. But we side with our colleague Dave Anderson in believing that it is the swing, not the stride, that defines a professional golfer. Furthermore, the PGA Tour is never going to be inundated with applications from afflicted walkers who possess professional swings because such skills are rare in the population at large. An exception for Casey Martin will not hurt the sport. It will make the PGA look wise and compassionate. It will add diversity and interest to a game that doesn't need to be any more dull or homogenous.