Golf Course Agrees to Offer Carts for Disabled

The Half Moon Bay Golf Links course will offer two modified carts for disabled players as part of a class-action lawsuit settlement, lawyers said.

Course owner Ocean Colony Partners agreed to buy the carts to settle part of a lawsuit filed in October on behalf of two players in wheelchairs, plaintiff attorney Mark Chavez said Thursday.

U.S. Army veteran Larry Celano, 37, of Arizona became a paraplegic after he was shot during the U.S. invasion of Panama, and Rich Thesing, 66, of Atherton injured his spine in a diving accident as a teenager, Chavez said.

Thesing said the Half Moon Bay course denied his repeated requests to provide him with a modified cart.

‘It’s very pleasing on the one hand, and it’s disappointing on the other hand that it had to go this far to make something happen,’ Thesing said.

The carts can cost up to $8,000, twice as much as regular carts, lawyers for the plaintiffs said.

But the lawsuit remained unresolved over a claim seeking to compel Marriott International to offer the carts at 80 courses affiliated with the hotel chain around the country.

The Half Moon Bay course offers packages in connection with the Ritz-Carlton hotel, one of Marriott’s companies.

Plaintiff lawyers accused Marriott of walking away from negotiations.

But the company is still waiting for more details about the carts before resuming negotiations, said attorney Gregory Hurley of Greenberg Traurig, the firm representing Marriott.

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