Martin Qualifies For U.S. Open Berth

Casey Martin overcame a balky cart and a double bogey on the 36th hole - one he feared would be his last - before qualifying for the U.S. Open in a two-hole playoff Monday in Cincinnati.

Martin sank a 25-foot birdie putt in the rain to clinch the fifth and final qualifying spot at Clovernook Country Club. He had failed his three previous attempts to make the Open, which will be held at San Francisco’s Olympic Club starting June 18.

“I’m going to fly around the Open. I don’t think I’ll need a cart. I’ll be so pumped,” he said, moments after winning the five-player playoff.

Martin, who won a court order to ride a cart because of a circulation problem with his right leg, took a while to adjust to a newfangled one-person cart brought in for the event. It had a different breaking system than a standard cart and quit on his second hole when he accidentally kicked the power switch.

He had to walk two holes before the cart was revived.

“I liked it. There are a few kinks that need to get worked out,” he said of the cart, which he’ll use at the Open.

Martin, Ryan Howison and Perry Moss shot par on the first playoff hole to stay in contention. Martin then sank one of his most pressure-packed putts to win it in a steady rain.

Golfer Ian Baker-Finch will join ABC Sports for next month’s British Open, a year after shooting a first-round, 21-over-par at the event.

Baker-Finch, 37, winner of the 1991 British Open, will join the network as an analyst at this year’s tournament, July 16-19 at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England.