On the links course which were the game's original battlefields, the tees are next to the greens and the turf is springy, making walking more manageable. There are no cart paths. If a course in Britain or Ireland stipulates carts as mandatory it has probably been built in the last decade by an American designer. Playing on the Jack Nicklaus-designed Monarchs course at Gleneagles one frosty October morning, I could not help thinking we would have been warmer walking on the neighbouring Kings course, James Braid's old classic masterpiece. Now, don't get me wrong.
Golfers do use buggies in Britain.
And, of course, anyone who needs one due to age or infirmity gets one. Just like Casey Martin. And if Martin had been born in Europe, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, would surely have found for him, too. The prospect of someone taking similar action is certainly a concern of the PGA European Tour. But like the U.S. PGA Tour, they can see that the logical extension of Judge Coffin's ruling is for over a 100 carts zipping round the fairways each week.