fifteen minutes after the game, standing outside the locker room, with Begay’s extended family all around, congratulating the kid on a high school basketball game well played.
Goodwin had seen
Martin play golf. It was the summer of 1989 at the Junior Worlds at Torrey Pines, a benchmark tour- nament that would make or break junior golfers. It helped make Tiger Woods, who had won it five times in different age groups by the time he was fourteen. For Casey Martin, the 1989 Junior Worlds changed his career. He played brilliantly and wound up as the top junior
American, second in the world, in his age group. He was about to enter his senior year at South Eugene High, and recruiters would come calling. There was just one problem: Martin had a disabled right leg. Born without a deep venous system, he had a rare ail- ment called Klippel-Tre- naunay-Weber Syndrome, which meant blood could be pumped down to his leg but had trouble being pumped back up. Blood would collect in his leg, and his leg would swell, and the pain was extraordinary. It affected his ability to walk and threatened his leg long-term. And now here he came
at Torrey Pines, limping down the fairway. Goodwin stood with a handful of other college golf coaches, mesmerized by Martin’s courage. “Wally, what do you want with Casey Martin?” one of the coaches said. “With that leg, he’s just not going to make it.” “I don’t care if Casey
Martin plays golf at Stan- ford or not,” Goodwin said. “But I want him on my team.”
The other coach raised
his brow. “His heart is the biggest
I’ve ever seen,” Goodwin said. “He fits me.” Goodwin would always go back to the recruiting
questions he asked himself:
Do I want this player to be around my other players? Do I think this player has a big heart? Do I want to be around this player?
Excerpted from
THE LAST PUTT: Two Teams, One Dream, and a Freshman Named Tiger
by Neil Hayes and Brian Murphy. Copyright © 2010 by Neil Hayes and Brian Murphy. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
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