NAPA, Calif. – Well, it was fun while it lasted.
Tony Romo couldn’t back up his opening-round 70 at the Safeway Open and missed the cut at the PGA Tour event after finishing the second round 6-over 78.
He walked off the North Course at Silverado Resort & Spa 4-over 148 through 36 holes.
SAFEWAY OPEN: Scores | Tee times, TV info | Photos
But for Romo, 39, missing the cut wasn’t a failure.
“For me, it’s the closest I’ve gotten so far to being able to compete,” he said. “For about 24-25 holes, we were in position to make the cut. That’s better than four holes or nine. The goal is obviously to get to 36 and then go from there.”
Romo’s 2-under round on Thursday beat the likes of Justin Thomas and Phil Mickelson and pushed CBS to confirm back-up plans should its star NFL analyst make the cut at the Safeway and miss Sunday’s Vikings at Bears game.
Count television partner Jim Nantz among his biggest supporters of his quest to play on the PGA Tour.
“I have a lot of faith in Tony being able to pull off whatever he wants to do,” Nantz said by phone on Friday. “The same thing that made him an undrafted free agent out of Eastern Illinois and go on to set every passing record for the Dallas Cowboys that exists, same thing that took a guy from the playing field to the broadcast booth and into the ‘A position’ – and again met with a lot of doubts and critics – and proved to be a generational broadcaster from the analyst side, that’s where it’s coming from.
“He’s proven people wrong his whole life.”
But it wasn’t meant to be this time. Instead of heading to the weekend near the Bay Area, Tony Romo instead left Friday night on a private jet for Chicago to resume his regular duties calling NFL games.
Romo made five birdies on Thursday but only had three on Friday. His dream of surviving to the weekend pretty much died during a stretch of four straight bogeys on Nos. 6-9. He had nine bogeys in all as he struggled to hit fairways (3 of 14) and three-putted three of his first eight holes.
Romo has now posted scores of 77-82-79-80-76-74-70–78 in four PGA Tour events. Before he departed, Romo hinted that he would be open to playing more Tour starts in the future.
“If you can do it once, it shows you at least have enough stuff going in the right direction to be able to compete,” he said. “Haven’t been able to do two rounds yet, but I think by next spring, you’ll see a pretty big leap in the game.”
