"He is sending the tour a letter formally requesting the use of a golf cart, as Casey Martin did."
/Jim Moriarty in the new Golf World files a must read profile on Erik Compton and his amazing story. Though I was surprised this was buried near the end, because it seems like we're headed for a controversy if the PGA Tour is as stubborn as it was with Casey Martin:
He is even thinking about the first stage of PGA Tour Qualifying School. "I know when I return to golf, it's not going to be the same as it was. People are going to be looking at me like I'm some kind of bionic guy," he says. Now, the first week of September, not even a full year after his near-fatal heart attack, Compton is already practicing, trying to recover his game. He has sent his application for Q school. Fortunately for him, the first stage is in Florida.
"You have to do something good again to get back into the game," he says. "Nobody's going to hand me anything. I'm going to have to go out and work and get good again, get my body in shape, and that's going to take some time, for sure."
At this point Compton doesn't know what his limitations will be. While his golf swing has returned, his stamina hasn't. At the suggestion of his doctors, he is sending the tour a letter formally requesting the use of a golf cart, as Casey Martin did. And, of course, passing one of the tour's new drug tests would be an utter impossibility. So much remains unknowable.