Tony Romo Comes Up Short in Attempting to Qualify for the US Open

Tony Romo is a man of many talents.

He was obviously a great football player for the Dallas Cowboys, where he was a four-time Pro Bowler for America’s Team and is still the franchise’s all-time leader in touchdown passes. He’s also a phenomenal broadcaster, having jumped from the field to the booth and become CBS’ No. 1 color commentator for the last decade.

He’s also a talented golfer, and not just in the sense of being good at golf for a lay person—he can legitimately compete with professional players.

Romo put his golfing skills to the test recently by attempting to qualify for the 2026 U.S. Open, one of the four annual major championships in golf. Romo took part in a U.S. Open qualifier on Monday in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area at Ridgewood Country Club. However, the uber-talented Romo wasn’t able to live out one of his dreams by being a part of a major field, as he failed to advance with a 9-over-par score of 79.

Romo needed to score 2-under to advance to the next stage. The winner of this qualifier, Theo Humphrey, shot a 66, or 4-under-par.

There’s no shame in losing to Humphrey, a professional golfer who has played in PGA Tour events. Even if Romo had met the needed score, this was simply one stage of qualifying. He would have then had to advance through a second stage. In 2010, Romo did advance to that second stage, but he came up short in qualifying for that year’s major.

As for Romo’s success at golf, he is a three-time winner (2018–2019, 2022) of the American Century Championship, a celebrity tournament that takes place annually in Stateline, Nevada. Only three others have won the event more often than Romo, who also has the second-most points scored in a single final round of the tournament with 31.

Romo certainly isn’t the first pro athlete in one sport who then tried his hand at golf. He is among a number of former athletes who are attempting to qualify for the 2026 U.S. Open. Next week will see former MLB players Tyler Clippard, Aaron Hicks, and Shigetoshi Hasegawa take part in local qualifiers. Additionally, former NFL player Danny Woodhead, retired NHL player J.T. Miller, and former tennis pro Mardy Fish will also take part in qualifying events.

This isn’t Romo’s first foray into another sport, and according to a former NBA All-Star, Romo had the talent to potentially play pro basketball. He was an All-County basketball player in high school, where he competed against that All-Star—Caron Butler. Both Romo and Butler made the All-Racine County (Wisconsin) team, and the former left his high school as the team’s all-time leader in points.

In 2017, Butler said that Romo could have played pro basketball if he hadn’t gone the football route. Romo did get a ceremonial run with the Dallas Mavericks after retiring from the NFL as then-owner Mark Cuban allowed the quarterback to be a “Maverick for a day.” That consisted of taking part in pre-game warmups for the Mavs’ final home game of the season and also sitting on the bench during the actual game. However, Romo was not allowed to play in a game and was never considered an official member of the team.

But the former quarterback’s heart lies on the links, and he’s been fortunate to compete against some of the very best golfers in the world. Living in the Dallas-Fort Worth area certainly helps, as the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth also call DFW home. Romo has had the chance to compete against both of them, and reportedly, even beat Spieth, according to Scheffler himself.

“He’s beat Jordan before, so shout-out to Jordan for that,” Scheffler revealed to reporters at the RBC Heritage on April 16. “But he hasn’t beaten me yet. I’m not going to say that he can’t because he’s a good golfer, so I’m definitely not going to go out and say that he can’t.

“We also play a lot of golf together, and in golf you never really know what’s going to happen.”

Romo will presumably try again next year to qualify for the U.S. Open, where he would get to share a stage with Spieth, who won the 2015 U.S. Open, and Scheffler, the top ranked player in the world. However, the 2026 U.S. Open will go on without the former quarterback, taking place on June 18–21.

The third major of the year will head to Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y., which is in the New York City metro area—Giants territory. The former Cowboy can at least take solace in knowing that by not qualifying, he won’t have to deal with heckling from the locals.