Martin returns to Web.com action in Boise

Casey Martin had most of the country pulling for him this past June at the U.S. Open. The outcome was disappointing, but his game effort served as inspiration for all who know his story.

He gets a chance to make amends this week in Boise, after receiving a sponsor exemption to the Web.com Tour's Albertsons Boise Open.

Martin is the disabled golfer whose situation drew national attention in the late 1990's, when he sued the PGA Tour for the right to use a cart in tournament play. Due to a leg disease that makes it difficult and painful to walk, he reasoned that the cart would not be providing him with any sort of competitive advantage, as walking to and from the cart was tough enough. The Supreme Court ruled in Martin's favor, 7-2, and he had his cart.

But soon after the ruling, Martin's game began to slip. He failed to keep his card in 2000, which proved to be his only full PGA Tour season. He tranisitioned back to the Web.com Tour, but gradually played less and less until he retired in 2006, taking a job as golf coach at Oregon.

Martin can still play, though. He frequently competes with his players in practice, getting the best of them on occasion, and was inspired to go through U.S. Open qualifying this spring - for the event was scheduled for Olympic in San Francisco, where he finished T23 in 1998.

Sure enough, Martin made it through, and hung around the cut line all week. A bogey on his final hole Friday dropped him one shot over the cut line, a disappointing end to a nostalgic week.

This week in Boise, Martin gets another chance to make the cut, at a friendlier course, against less severe competition. Every player at Olympic finished over par, and early starter Michael Putnam is already 8-under through 15 holes in Boise.

Martin tees off in the final group of the day off hole 10, with Patrick Cantlay and Jamie Sadlowski at 4:55 p.m. ET. Martin attracted a crowd rivaling the big names at Olympic, and don't be surprised if he steals a large part of the (much smaller) crowd in Boise.

Notes: -Jeff Gove suffered through a severe midseason slump, but recent play has shown signs that the veteran's game still has some life. After missing 8 of 9 cuts through the spring and early summer, Gove has rebounded to post three consecutive top-30 finishes, including a T6 at the News Sentinel Open three weeks ago.

Currently No. 83 on the money list, Gove tees off in Boise at 3:45 p.m. ET. He has a long way to go if he hopes to snag a PGA Tour card for next year, but the big week always looms as a possibility.

-Bob Heintz talked about retiring at the BMW Charity Pro-Am, but proceeded to play a handful of additional events throughout the summer. He backed up his words this week, though, taking the head coaching job at Penn.

The press release referred to Heintz as 'recently retired' - recently meaning the last month, as Heintz competed in the Midwest Classic in mid-August.

A nice note of sentimentality for the man who nearly won the PGA Tour's Reno-Tahoe Open in 2010? He closed his career with on a high, birdieing the 18th on Sunday at the Midwest Classic to finish T27.

Good career, Bob. Sad to see you go.