If you only knew three things Tony Romoyour list might look like this:
1. After a college career that led to enshrinement in the College Football Hall of Fame, Romo, 46, had a largely successful career, 13 years as a quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys;
2. After a dazzling and electrifying start*, Romo enjoyed a nine-year career as CBS’s lead NFL color analyst, which came to an abrupt end on Friday, Oct. 2, when the network and Romo. they announced that they are separating;
3. After decades as a devoted and skilled golfer, Romo, as an amateur, received a sponsor’s exemption to play in a second-round PGA Tour event in the Dominican Republic in 2018, in which he shot a first-round 77 and second-round 82. missing the cut by 16 shots.
The details of his life and times could fill a book. Here are three fragments.
As a quarterback: Romo went 2-4 in his six playoff games, all with the Cowboys, the only professional team he played for.
As issuer: In order Varietyamong other reliable entertainment points, Romo, in 2020, signed a 10-year, $180 million contract extension with CBS and was still owed $74 million when the relationship ended on October 2, three months after Romo was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and after several years of working in live booths that had not been criticized in an uncomfortable way.
As a golfer: On that same day – Friday, October 2 – Romo played in the third and final round of a Korn Ferry pre-qualifying tournament, the first step (and one that Romo took on several occasions) in a series of tournaments for non-status golfers seeking privileges to play on the Korn Ferry Tour. The 54-hole tournament ended for Romo not with a point, but with a disqualification.
There are strange elements to all these events, and this darkest and most recent one, golf, might be the strangest.
The pre-qualifier Romo played at a golf course called the Club at Forest Ridge in Broken Arrow, Okla. After rounds of 76 and 75, Romo was 13 shots off the leaders of 36 holes, but well positioned to advance to the first (of three) stages of the Korn Ferry Q-School. With a good third round, he would be in the top 37 and tied, and he would go on.
For that third round, Romo was paired with another amateur, a college golfer from Nebraska named Ethan Smith, and a professor from Louisiana named Brandon Rice. Smith and Rice were in the same position: a round of even or better would give them a good chance to advance. A couple of dozen fans followed the trio.
Smith had a poor day and shot 80, which left him with no chance of advancing. Rice played a little better, but with 75 they never sniffed the good sign of the cutline.
Of the three, Romo played better. Out in 37, one over par. He needed a hot second nine. The group’s play was slow and the trio was put on the clock, a warning for slow play. Romo made no birdies on his second nine (Broken Ridge’s front nine), shot another 37 and closed for 74. Close-ish. Those final nine holes went 4-4 and a bogey 5; 3-4-3, all pars; 4-4-5, three more pars to close when he needed three birdies. Rice held Romo’s card. Another player still holds your card – it’s your marker. All the while, a player also keeps his own card.
In a phone interview Thursday with Ryan French, editor of Monday Q InfoRice said he thought Romo made a 5 on his 17th hole, but Romo said the score was actually a 4, and that’s the score Romo signed. By the end of play that day, Romo’s three rounds — 76, 75, 74, a neat progression of improvement — meant he missed the lead by three shots. That’s how it appeared. Certainly respectable. With everything he’s been through in his life, including a no-contest plea on his DUI charge and the conclusion of his high-profile, high-paying CBS Sports gig? More than respectable, indeed. Tiger Woods He once said of Romo that the only celebrity athlete he knew had more game was the retired pitcher John SmoltzAlthough that was before basketball star Steph Curry’s golf skills were on display for all to see on national TV.
There was just one problem with Romo’s third-round 74, as Rob Keller, a 12-year PGA Tour official, explained in a phone interview with GOLF. Keller was the head referee for this pre-qualifier, run locally by the South Central PGA of Oklahoma section. Two problems, actually. A South Central PGA professional had been monitoring the group’s play, and their pace, as they “limped in,” in Keller’s vivid description. At that point in these situations, the main goal is to bring the group to the clubhouse and make sure that you do not keep the trio.
The Oklahoma coach, whom Keller declined to name, looked at Romo’s scorecard Friday night on a website that displayed hole scores. As he recalled Romo’s game, Romo had a three-putt 5-bogey on his 16th hole and a three-putt 5-bogey on his 17th hole. In other words, where Rice had Romo for 4 and a 5, the South Central PGA pro/walking referee had Romo for a 5 and a 5. But Romo stopped for a 4 on 16 and a 4 on 17.
Peru Rules of GolfIf you sign up for a higher score than your current score, you are stuck with the higher score. In all games sanctioned by the PGA Tour, and by the modified local rule, if you sign for a score lower than the one who actually shot, and do not fix the error within 20 minutes of leaving the scoring area, you are disqualified. The next thing that happens is the two saddest letters in golf, DQ, are printed next to your name. Often the mistakes are innocent mistakes in the procedure. But sometimes those two letters become the golf version of Hester Prynne’s A in “The Scarlet Letter.” It’s hard to know what you’re really seeing, because a lot of golf is in the player’s head. You don’t know because you can’t know. Only one person really knows.
Keller said there might be a problem with Romo’s third-round scorecard. He interviewed both players, Smith and Rice, by phone. Neither player was sure what Romo had done on those two holes. Keller called Romo and asked him to recall his play on those two holes.
Keller, a former college All-American and widely respected rules official, described a rushed scoring process and Romo signing Rice’s proposed card without checking it properly. He suggested that Romo, between the slow-play warning hanging over the group, his inability to mount any kind of birdie run “and everything that went with it” was frustrated with how the day was going. Keller said Romo took responsibility for the wrong card and was “very complimentary” about the event and how it was handled. Keller noted that Romo wasn’t moving forward anyway.
“The protocol I like is, we want our eyes on the scorecards,” Keller said, describing the late call he got on Romo’s third-inning scores, the call that turned a number into a DQ.
So in the end, Romo didn’t shoot 225 in the three-time Korn Ferry Q-School pre-qualifier at Broken Ridge. You can say it was 227, with these two 5’s, but it’s not accurate, either. According to the Rules of Golf, Tony Romo did not have a third-round score. In the end, his three rounds ended not with a number, but with two letters.
By Romo’s own admission, his life is at a crossroads, and he plans to take some time to reflect on it. (There was no immediate response to a request for comment from Romo sent, via email and voicemail, to Romo’s agent.) At 46, maybe he’ll try to hatch a plan to try to earn a spot on the senior tour in the next four years. If he gets there, he’ll have good rookie company. Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott, Ian Poulter and Lucas Glover are all 46.
* As for Romo’s meteoric rise as a CBS Sports analyst, it brought to mind what Phil Mickelson made a brief cameo as an analyst at the 2020 PGA Championship, also broadcast by CBS Sports. It was funny, insightful, quick and present. If this was Mickelson’s test, it looked like he might write his own ticket as a broadcaster. At the time, there was a quote and insight that every person could understand: “Phil Mickelson could be the Tony Romo of golf.”
At the time, however, it made a lot of sense, but a lot can change in six years.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.
