Tony Romo playing in a PGA Tour event is nothing new. But for the first time, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback will tee it up in a tournament during the NFL season. In other words, he could wind up skipping his day job for a chance at his dream job.
Romo will compete in next week’s Safeway Open (Sept. 26-29), the third event of the 2019-’20 PGA Tour season. And the Napa Valley tournament coincides with the Sept. 29 NFL game between the Bears and Vikings in Chicago, where Romo is scheduled to be for CBS.
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Either Romo’s bosses at CBS are really understanding, or they’re simply being pretty realistic. After all, it’s highly unlikely Romo, who accepted a sponsor invite into the event back in July, will make the weekend cut at Silverado Resort and Spa based on his three prior PGA Tour starts.
According to the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand, CBS has a contingency plan to pair someone else—the network isn’t saying who—with Jim Nantz in the booth if Romo makes the cut. If he misses the cut, the popular play-predicting analyst will fly Friday night from California to Chicago for normal Saturday prep ahead of Sunday’s important NFC North tilt. Marchand reports CBS didn’t allow Romo to miss work for a tournament last year.
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This will be the second consecutive year that a former pro athlete is in the field at the Safeway Open. Last year, retired MLB pitcher Mark Mulder shot respectable rounds of 75 and 74 in missing the cut. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Stephen Curry turned down a sponsor’s invite to play this year. He’ll play with Phil Mickelson in Wednesday’s pro-am.
While Romo’s forays on the PGA Tour have been mostly disappointing, he’s had his moments, including an eagle during a first-round 76 at this year’s AT&T Byron Nelson. He has also been dominating the celebrity golf circuit, successfully defending his title at the American Century Championship—against a field that included Mulder and Curry—at Lake Tahoe in July.
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