Cite as: 532 U. S. 661 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
TOUR and NIKE TOUR require players to walk the golf course during tournaments, but not during open qualifying rounds.4 On the SENIOR PGA TOUR, which is limited to golfers age 50 and older, the contestants may use golf carts. Most seniors, however, prefer to walk.5
Third, "Notices to Competitors" are issued for particular tournaments and cover conditions for that specific event. Such a notice may, for example, explain how the Rules of Golf should be applied to a particular water hazard or manmade obstruction. It might also authorize the use of carts to speed up play when there is an unusual distance between one green and the next tee.6
The basic Rules of Golf, the hard cards, and the weekly notices apply equally to all players in tour competitions. As one of petitioner's witnesses explained with reference to "the Masters Tournament, which is golf at its very highest level, . . . the key is to have everyone tee off on the first hole under exactly the same conditions and all of them be tested over that 72-hole event under the conditions that exist during those four days of the event." App. 192.
II
Casey Martin is a talented golfer. As an amateur, he won 17 Oregon Golf Association junior events before he was 15,
4 The PGA TOUR hard card provides: "Players shall walk at all times during a stipulated round unless permitted to ride by the PGA TOUR Rules Committee." Id., at 127. The NIKE TOUR hard card similarly requires walking unless otherwise permitted. Id., at 129. Additionally, as noted, golf carts have not been permitted during the third stage of the Q-School since 1997. Petitioner added this recent prohibition in order to "approximat[e] a PGA TOUR event as closely as possible." Id., at 152.
5 994 F. Supp. 1242, 1251 (Ore. 1998).
6 See, e. g., App. 156-160 (Notices to Competitors for 1997 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, 1997 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, and 1997 Quad City Classic).
667
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