When it comes to former professional athletes competing as high-level amateur golfers, Tony Romo is one of the best. The 40-year-old spent 13 seasons as the quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys before retiring in 2016, but he’s been making headlines ever since for his prowess on the golf course.
Romo has two wins in the amateur division of the American Century Championship on his resume, and has attempted to qualify for the U.S. Open and the Web.com Tour. Incredibly, he actually made it to second-stage at Web.com Q-School. Romo has also received sponsor exemptions into four PGA Tour events, and though he has yet to make the cut, he did fire a two-under 70 in the first round of the 2019 Safeway Open to make things interesting before fading with a second-round 78.
Suffice to say, Romo is a stick, with a handicap that is widely reported as better than scratch. And it turns out that all those years in the Dallas spotlight have come in handy when he’s grinding out a tough round on the course.
On this week’s episode of Subpar, Romo told hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz that the pressure he endured as a Cowboy benefitted other areas of his life.
“You felt the weight of it,” Romo said. “If you threw an interception to lose a game or a bunch of picks — which I never did — but if it did happen, per se, on that one occasion, you knew you were going to be talked about poorly here, for the next 24 to 48 hours and might open up a lot of the SportCenter shows and such.
“It toughens you up though,” Romo continued. “I mean really, I look back now, it sucks when you’re going through that, but it’s also, you really want to improve and get good at something. I think it hardens you, and gets you ready for life.”
You can watch Romo’s Subpar interview in its entirety below, as Romo discusses how much he practices his golf game, why golf fills football’s void and more.
