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You probably heard by now that Dallas Cowboys quarterback,Tony Romo won’t be playing in the U.S. Open.  He withdrew from the 36-hole sectional qualifier on Monday after bad weather delayed it a second time.  For sure, starting his round with a quadruple bogey wasn’t exactly encouraging (see Tweets here).

Romo pulled out because he needed to return to the Cowboys on Tuesday for practice.  The way things were going, that qualifier round would have been continued on Tuesday.

In an AP story, Romo was quoted talking about what he learned from the experience and what he’d share with his Cowboy teammates.

“On the football field, we’re going and all of a sudden, we have two drives that stall,” Romo said. “Everyone is saying, ‘What’s going on? Why haven’t we done anything?’ We’ll talk about it, we’ll learn from it, we’ll go out and execute on the next one. No matter what happened in the past, it’s about the next play and about going forward and I think that’s what I tried to do today, and I was very proud of fighting back.”

The United States Golf Association said Romo would’ve become the fourth athlete from a professional team sport to qualify for the U.S. Open.

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At the Memorial Tournament,  which was won by Justin Rose with a flawless final round (he overcame a four-shot deficit and had one-putt greens on eight consecutive holes Sunday to close with a 6-under 66), there was a bit of off course play by some notable Tour members.

Phil Mickelson hit a terrible drive on the 15th that ended up far, far to the left into a creek that usually doesn’t come into play.  Instead of going back to the tee, he opted to take a one-shot penalty — playing his ball from a drop from the middle of the cart path on the 17th hole.

The drop was fraught with problems.  Both times his ball bounded down into the weeds, unplayable.  Per the rules, at that point, he is allowed to place the ball at the site of the drop, in this case in the middle of the blacktop.

Playing like he’s used to hitting off paved surface, Mickelson pulled out a 3 wood and cleanly picked the ball off the cart path, hitting a high draw that left him near the tee at the par-3 16th hole.  If only the rest of the course was through streets and parking lots, he would have won and claimed #1 position going into the U.S. Open.

Instead, Mickelson ended up three-putting for a double-bogey 7.  For the tournament, where he finished tied for 5th, putting was a challenge (he took 30 on his way to a 69).

Another golfer who spent time off-course was Tiger Woods.  He ended up hitting not one, not two, but three fans on three different holes.

According to an AP story appearing at Golfweek.com

“On his first swing on the first hole, Woods pulled his drive left and drilled 37-year-old Jeramy May in the neck. “I’m just glad they were on the other side,” May said, pointing toward his daughter and a friend.

On the second hole, Woods hit 19-year-old Alan Flood in the back of his left leg as he was standing far left of the fairway. Then at the 15th hole, Jimmy Craig of suburban Columbus was in the right rough when Woods’ drive hit him in the thumb and then the side.”

Tiger’s way of making it up to the people he hits is to give them an autographed golf glove.

On Sunday he remarked, “Thank God I get them for free.”

Errant shots at Pebble Beach in a few weeks may end up plunking an otter or sea lion.

Spare gloves won’t be an issue.  Extra sleeves of balls will.

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This week, Tiger roars back… in ads.  To promote the release of Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11 which arrives on Tuesday, EA unveiled an ad campaign which is really fun.  In fact, based on the “behind the scenes” video, it looks like it was as much fun to shoot as it is to watch.

According to a story in The Wall Street Journal, the EA ads were shot on May 11 in Orlando.  The campaign, by San Francisco advertising firm Heat, includes online-video ads that will appear on sites such as Facebook.

In the Journal story, Peter Moore, president of EA Sports, was quoted saying, “It was time to bring some life and fun back into golf.”

Indeed!  Check out the clips below.  The “Team Golf” concept is communicated through Tiger and his mates participating in unusual golf environments: curling, soccer, hockey, etc.

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11 for the Wii, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 will be available on Tuesday.  List price is $59.95.

The curling video:

Behind the scenes with Rickie Fowler:

…and you thought the only one doing the text messaging was Tiger Woods! Ok, ok, that was bad. Sorry.

The other day while reading the GolfCrunch Twitter Feed (follow us @GolfCrunchLive) I happened to notice a few tweets from British Open Champion Stewart Cink (@StewartCink). He first posted an image of one of the tee sheets posted in the locker room. This is typical week-to-week stuff that players see. In fact, in my younger playing days myself I can remember this being the case. I played in quite a few amateur tournaments, and it was normal (and expected) to see tee times posted in the locker room and pro shop… and in the local paper (of course!). Nothing about this shocked me at all, but Stewart’s following tweet certainly perked my interest.

Cink went on to note that the tour sends out text messages to each player, letting them know exactly when their tee time is. Talk about convenient! I trust that all tour players have a cell phone handy, as they are world travelers, are always on the road, and need some sort of communication device at all times to stay in touch with family. When the PGA Tour sends texts like this to players, it’s not only convenient, but it’s instant, and the tour can be assured players know INSTANTLY what their tee time is once the message goes out. Great stuff.

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo is a step closer to playing the U.S. Open.  He earned one of seven qualifying spots Thursday at The Honors Golf Club of Dallas. Romo birdied three of his last four holes to shoot 69, then survived a four-for-three playoff to advance. He took just 12 putts on the back nine.  It was the first time in three attempts that Romo advanced to sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open.

Romo will play a 36-hole sectional qualifier June 7 at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas. At least one player from each of 13 sectional qualifiers will advance to the U.S. Open that will be played June 17-20 at Pebble Beach (Calif.) Golf Links.

In other local qualifying events held during the past two weeks, former MLB pitcher John Smoltz, Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Josh Scobee and Minnesota Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell failed to advance to sectional qualifying.

Source:  Golfweek

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Juli Inkster (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images)

The first-round matches at the Sybase Match Play Championship played at Hamilton Farm Golf Club are in the books. Ten of the top-ten players in the Rolex Rankings started the day and only seven advanced to the second round.

• Rolex Rankings No. 3 Suzann Pettersen was upset by LPGA Hall of Fame member Juli Inkster, No. 6 Anna Nordqvist was beat by Shi Hyun Ahn and No. 9 Na Yeon Choi suffered a loss at the hands of Karine Icher.

• All three rookies in the field won their first-round matches. Amanda Blumenherst upset Stacy Lewis 1 UP. Sponsor’s invite Beatriz Recari won over Brittany Lincicome 1 UP, while Azahara Munoz defeated last week’s winner Se Ri Pak 3&2.

• The biggest margin of victory was 5&4 by Sophie Gustafson over Na On Min and Candie Kung over Natalie Gulbis.

• Michelle Wie rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole to take the lead and posted a 2-up victory over a tough Stacy Prammanasudh (Source: GolfChannel.com)

• Six matches went extra holes and another six ended on the 18th hole.

Complete round-up and results can be found here.

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