Hitchin' a ride

The PGA Championship gets underway today at Bethpage Black, which of course ramps up the Tiger Woods Storyline once more, this Storyline being Can Tiger Do It Again.

The Blob says no. OK, maybe. OK, after Augusta, the wager book is closed and the Blob isn't taking bets against him anymore.

What it will do is revisit an even more venerable storyline, the one about whether or not a debilitated player should be allowed to use a cart in a PGA event, and whether or not it's an advantage.

This comes up again because John Daly is on wheels this week at Bethpage, smoking cigarettes down to the filters and cursing his 53-year-old body, which he has frequently (and famously) abused and which is predictably betraying him these days. It seems Daly has some serious arthritis issues in his right knee, which makes walking pretty much impossible. So he got an exemption from the PGA to use a cart this week.

Some people, Tiger Woods the most notable, scoffed at that. Daly himself wishes like hell he didn't have to ride, and says he's only doing it because the PGA Championship means the world to him. It is, after all, where he first burst into the golf world's consciousness by coming off the alternate list to win the PGA at Crooked Stick in 1991.

So, he'll ride. And once more -- as happened when Casey Martin needed a cart to get around -- we'll wonder if it's somehow an advantage.

The Blob's take: Of course it isn't. Don't be ridiculous.

Look. I get it. Golf is its traditions, and one of its most impenetrable is that you walk the course in  PGA events. Using a cart ... well, it's kinda like cheating.

As a confirmed hacker and distinct non-athlete who's walked a few courses himself, I find this absurd. The guy on the cart -- Daly in this case -- still has to get out eventually and hit his shots. The cart has zero, zilch, no impact on how well he does that. In fact I would argue that an arthritic knee puts Daly at a disadvantage in that regard, ride or no ride.

After all, it's just walking. It's not like these guys have to lug their own bags around (as my chronically out-of-shape self has also done). And it's not like they're running the Boston Marathon between shots. They're just loping casually along.

If that takes something out of them, they shouldn't be professional athletes. They should be lying on the couch at home watching professional athletes.

So ... yeah.

Ride on, Big John.