BETHESDA, Md. — It’s not often that a player is bold enough to challenge Tiger Woods on the golf course. Rarer still is when it happens during a pro-am round from one of his amateur partners.
“That still puts me 1 up,” Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo said to him Wednesday morning. “Does it, now?” Woods replied, not sounding the least bit concerned.
The world’s No. 1 player then smoked a fairway metal down the 17th at Congressional Country Club. Romo, a scratch player who asked to play from the championship tees, followed with a 3-wood that traveled about a yard farther.
On the par-3 second, Romo appeared to have the edge when Woods bladed a bunker shot over the green and into the gallery. He didn’t finish out the hole, and when Romo three-putted from the fringe, the quarterback said, “You wouldn’t have made 4 from there.” They didn’t mention the stakes or how many shots Woods gave Romo — if any — although it had a familiar conclusion.
“He contributed to my spending fund, which is nice,” Woods said on his website.
The bold move by Woods was playing with the Cowboys quarterback in Washington Redskins country, and while it attracted a large gallery for the 6:30 a.m. tee time, the cheers and jeers were relatively tame.
There was plenty of star power at Congressional, even during the opening ceremony when Jessica Simpson sang the national anthem. When the AT&T National gets underway today, the biggest star will be the host.
Woods missed his own tournament last year, which was played a week after he had season-ending knee surgery. He had to watch from his couch as Anthony Kim closed with a bogey-free 65 for a two-shot victory.
“I thought he was here last year,” Kim said. “His name was all over the place.”
It is everywhere but the trophy.
One obscure piece of trivia that could come out of this tournament is a chance for Woods to match Jack Nicklaus by winning his tournament on the second try. Nicklaus won the Memorial in 1977, the second year of the tournament. The only Nicklaus record that matters to Woods is 18 professional majors, and that’s on his mind too.
Woods is playing for the first time since he failed to defend his title in the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, largely due to his putting.
Next up is the British Open in two weeks at Turnberry. For now, he is intent on being a “greedy host.” He wants the 120-man field at Congressional to have a great week, as long as he goes home with the trophy.
