PGA to Ask Supreme Court if It Will Hear Martin Case

The PGA Tour plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether Casey Martin should be allowed to ride a golf cart, Martin’s attorney said Wednesday.

Roy Reardon, who began working on the case after Martin won his lawsuit two years ago in federal court, said the tour asked for a 60-day extension to file its motion with the Supreme Court and was given until July 5.

The tour’s policy board met last week in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., and Reardon said tour officials sent an application in which they “now intend to file” a petition with the Supreme Court.

PGA Tour spokesman Bob Combs confirmed that the board discussed the Martin case, but “the tour is not yet prepared to make an announcement.”

Martin suffers from a rare circulatory disease in his right leg that makes it difficult for him to walk.

He successfully sued the PGA Tour in 1998 for the right to ride a cart, and became the first player to ride in the U.S. Open and on the PGA Tour. In March, the 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco unanimously upheld the Oregon court’s decision.

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While waiting to put Ray Lewis’ limousine driver back on the witness stand, Atlanta prosecutors explored the “blood trail” they say will connect the Baltimore Raven linebacker to a brawl that left two men dead.

Shirley McMillan-Horton, a crime-scene technician for the Atlanta Police Department, testified that she collected swabs from several bloodstains in the stretch limousine rented by Lewis.

Lewis and two friends, Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting, are charged with murder in the deaths of Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar, who were stabbed in the Jan. 31 fight outside an Atlanta nightclub after a Super Bowl party.

Though she did not identify whose blood was found, McMillan-Horton said she found dried blood in Lewis’ limousine, on a towel found near the vehicle, and in the men’s bathroom at a hotel where the limousine was parked.

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Ivan Feris Chadid, a Colombian boxing manager, testified in the racketeering trial of IBF founder Robert W. Lee that he made payoffs to the IBF for eight years to get his South American boxers ranked. The IBF’s written standards for rankings centered on a fighter’s record and his method of winning. But Feris insisted during the trial in Newark, N.J., that “the criteria that was always used was the photograph on a $100 bill.”

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Jaime Valdes of Chile, who plays for Bari of the Italian A soccer league, was released from jail in Santiago, Chile, one day after being arrested in a street incident that left one man dead. Valdes’ attorney, Jorge Mohor, said that after questioning the player Judge Maria Olga Rojas of the 28th court of Santiago released him because he had no responsibility in the beating death of a 28-year-old would-be robber. . . . The NFL retirement plan doesn’t have to pay former offensive lineman Stephen Courson an extra annuity for alcohol-related heart problems, a federal appeals panel in Philadelphia ruled.

Boxing

Evander Holyfield’s June 10 fight with John Ruiz for the vacant WBA heavyweight title was called off after Holyfield suffered a hand injury in training.

Miscellany

Former Buffalo Bill quarterback Jim Kelly suffered minor cuts and scrapes when a two-seat plane he was in crashed into the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska during a hunting trip last month, Kelly told a Buffalo television station.

Kelly and the pilot made their way safely to shore. Kelly said he had a few cuts to his face and also had a nail ripped off a finger.

The Continental Basketball Assn., the official development league of the NBA, said its teams will play against NCAA Division I squads in exhibition games, starting in November. . . . Roger Kaiser, who led Life University of Marietta, Ga., to three NAIA basketball championships in the last four years, announced his retirement.

David Gossett tied the NCAA record with a nine-under-par 63 to help Texas take an eight-stroke lead after the first round of the NCAA golf championships at Opelika, Ala. Gossett tied the tournament record most recently matched by Arizona State’s Phil Mickelson in 1992.

Sara Walker of UCLA was among 12 players named to the 2000 USA Tennis Collegiate Team by the U.S. Tennis Assn. The team is made up of six men and six women, and the elite training program will provide exposure for college players to professional tennis.

Mississippi’s Savante Stringfellow won the men’s long jump at the NCAA track and field championships in Durham, N.C., with a mark of 26 feet 9 3/4 inches, beating world leader Melvin Lister of Arkansas, who managed only 26-0.

South Carolina teammates Terrence Trammell, the world leader in the 110-meter hurdles, and Miki Barber, the Southeastern Conference champion in the women’s 200 and 400, have been chosen outdoor collegiate athletes of the season by the U.S. Track Coaches Assn.

New Zealand suffered another loss for its defense of yachting’s America’s Cup title in 2003 when chief designer Laurie Davidson, 70, quit the team to join a Seattle syndicate. .

Winning skipper Russell Coutts and tactician Brad Butterworth earlier quit to join a Swiss challenger.

Penn State baseball Coach Joe Hindelang will miss this weekend’s super-regional against Texas after suffering a mild heart attack. The 54-year-old coach was in stable condition at Hershey (Pa.) Medical Center.

The Cal State Northridge football program, the subject of a 10-month investigation by the NCAA, is expected to learn today whether the NCAA will impose sanctions for numerous rules violations allegedly committed during the one-year tenure of former coach Ron Ponciano. . . . Texas Tech will host New Mexico Aug. 26 in the inaugural Hispanic College Fund Bowl to open the 2000 football season.

Cheryl Levick was named athletic director at Santa Clara, becoming the first female athletic director in the West Coast Conference.