INVITED CELEBRITY CLASSIC

April 23, 2023

Tony Romo

Las Colinas Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. How does it feel to be the champion?

TONY ROMO: Oh, it feels great. Doing it in your hometown feels great, too. Like I said going into the week, I've been playing pretty good golf coming in. I was hoping to be able to do that this week. I played some really good golf today. Honestly, I was down six shots going into it. I hurt my back going into the first day right before going to the tee, so I was just managing it. But this morning, getting up and doing all the routine and everything for a couple hours, I finally started to get it opened up, so that allowed me to swing like normal, and that allowed me to attack a little bit more than normal.

It wasn't easy out there. It was cold, a little windy, and then made birdie on 1, which is huge. You start the day on 6, just getting that momentum just kind of as a catalyst I feel like in some ways to get that emotional boost that lets you know you have a chance.

Q. How did the hometown fans feel out there today?

TONY ROMO: There was a lot. Everyone was just rooting for you and wanting you to do well. You want to do it for them. Some of the putts felt so huge coming in. It's just golf. It's just a hard sport. It's just difficult to maintain.

I know that behind or in the lead, it's just hard for 18 holes, but I did a really good job today, just head down and -- I'm a guy who likes to follow the score the whole time, so right around hole 8 is where I was like, all right, where am I at. When I got to 2-under, I made a good bunker shot on 7, got up-and-down, and then from there I was like, I've got a chance to do this.

That's one of those situations that makes it fun.

Q. The bunker shot at 18 here, how good was that?

TONY ROMO: Yeah, I felt like I kind of had it wrapped up at that point, so that was a good shot, but I had gotten up-and-down, I think I was like seven for seven or eight for eight this week getting up-and-down from bunkers. I hit them pretty close. I did that on 7 today, as well. Very similar bunker shot, maybe even a little further on 7 today when I needed it because I was 1-under through 6.

Mardy is such a great guy, but he's also a great golfer. He looks like a PGA TOUR professional when you watch him hit balls. You feel like you have to get those up-and-down. My bunker game has been sharp. I work really hard on that, so it's nice to see it show up when it matters.

Q. Do you think there was a difference between playing with your sweater on and playing with your sweater off?

TONY ROMO: Other than hot and cold, no, I don't think there was a difference. I think my wife will tell you, I like it about 52 degrees in our room at home, so I should probably wear a sweater more often. I like being a little chilly.

This is my shirt that I've worn a few times -- I've got like four of these actually, but I've worn them in most of the victories here in the last four or five years, so I brought it out. It's my Sunday shirt. It's been good luck for me. It worked today.

Q. Fist pump on 15, what were you thinking? What were you feeling?

TONY ROMO: Like I was saying, I was tracking the scores. I'm a guy who likes to know exactly what's going on. I know some people don't want to know and then just play. In some ways it makes me -- I don't want to say makes your mind get sharper, but it makes you get tighter with your thoughts, so you literally do what you know cold, and it makes you remember situations in the past.

I can still picture the tee shot on 18 at Tahoe last year two times in a row in the final round and then in the first playoff and in the second, really tough driving hole, and it's the same exact move I did today on 18. Those things can happen. That's why the experience -- some people talk about experience. It's like, to me that's you can put yourself in that situation and be able to have those same feelings to be able to produce hopefully the same outcome. Some of that really helped today.