| There were times in his life when Casey Martin cried out to God, saying "why me?" Now, the PGA Tour Rookie allows his current circumstances to bring glory to the Lord.
"I’ve learned to trust Him," said Martin, who accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior at the age of eight and deepened his relationship with Him in his late teens. " It’s not until those times when you are really tested to see if you’re going to trust Him or not."
Those times are now for Martin, whose reputation hasn’t yet been forged by ending up in the PGA Tour’s winner’s circle. Instead, he is recognized as the player whose physical condition is career and life threatening.
Born with a rare birth defect in his right leg called Klippel-Trenaunay-Webber Syndrome, Martin is unable to walk his entire round of golf. Fitted with a strong support stocking to keep the pain and swelling down, the only way the 28 year-old Eugene, Oregon native can play is to ride in a cart—something that was against the PGA Tour’s rules.
Martin’s only option was to take the Tour to court. He won his case and was granted permission to ride. It has allowed Martin to pursue his quest to become one of golf’s best, but it hasn’t scored points with everyone around him.
"Certainly I’ve been challenged that way to love other people," said the winner of the Buy.Com Tour’s 1998 Lakeland Classic. "Especially when the Tour isn’t for me right now. I’m called to love everyone, and I haven’t done that perfectly. But I’ve hopefully done that well enough so that others can see Christ in me and see there’s something different about me."
With all of the media attention surrounding Martin, it’s given him considerable opportunities to share his faith.
"God has definitely given me a platform out here," said Martin, a member of Stanford University’s 1994 National Championship Team where he was a teammate of Tiger Woods, the World’s top-rated player. "I’ve been in the media so much that people know who I am. I think God has used that and put me here for a reason."
One of the longest hitters on the PGA Tour, Martin knows his battle to continue riding his needed cart isn’t over. But he also realizes the battle isn’t his (1 Samuel 17:47) but the Lord’s. "I just need to be faithful to Him and give him the glory and the credit," said Martin.
"It’s His credit and not me. I don’t take claim for being out here on my own strength, it’s because of His grace."
|
