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AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIP

July 17, 2009

Tony Romo

STATELINE, NEVADA

PHIL WEIDINGER: Tony, welcome. Nice round. 27 points today. Why don't you take us through your round.
TONY ROMO: It was a good day. It was a good start. I think started off hitting the ball pretty good. Coming into the tournament, I hadn't played too much in the last few weeks but I practiced on Tuesday and Wednesday night and finally got a round in on Thursday.
And I kind of felt like if I was going to drive the ball well that I would have a chance. And the driver, I drove the ball very well today and gave myself a lot of opportunities.
So it was a good start today. Want to go hole by hole or anything like that?

Q. Eagles? Birdies?
TONY ROMO: No eagles. Started off, I birdied 1 and 2. Came out, started the round. So that was a pretty good start. Gets it rolling. And I think anytime you can get off to a good start it makes things easier.
3, I had a chance at a birdie but chipped it by a little bit. And then made par there. Birdied 4. Par 5. Hit the green in two and 2-putted. 6 was a par-3 that I actually made a pretty good putt for par. That kind of kept it going.
7, the same thing. I hit a pretty good shot in there. Made par. 8 I hit a real good iron shot to about three feet, and at that point I had been hitting the irons pretty good. So I felt pretty good about the round and being able to put up a number. I think we were around 4-under at that time. And 9 was the first real bad swing of the day. I tried playing a little cut around the edge with a rescue club and ended up just pulling it a little bit.
You can't really pull it there just because as soon as you get over the bunkers it almost always goes out of play. I was barely inbounds. But I had to punch out, tried to hit an iron shot, missed the green and didn't get up-and-down. I lost two points there with a double bogey.
That was the kind of the lull in the round, 9 through 13 or 14 there. And then I kind of figured out something a little bit of the swing on the back nine about midway through and it brought me to the end strong with some birdie putts and some good shots.

Q. Seven birdies?
TONY ROMO: Seven, huh? I'll take it.

Q. What's your best score?
TONY ROMO: Tournament rounds, 65.

Q. Anything you'll do different tomorrow?
TONY ROMO: I'll try and tighten up a couple shots, I guess. It's all about consistency. This game, it's no different than other sports. You're just trying to get to where you do it enough times that it's not something new.
And you're always going to have different shots and different things that come up that are new where you haven't practiced or whatever. Especially in this sport, for me, and that will happen at some point in this week. I have to be able to weather the storm when it happens and keep making some putts and some birdies.

Q. You had some experience last year being in the hunt. That should help a little bit this year, you're thinking?
TONY ROMO: Yeah. Honestly, this is the third year I've played now. And when I started the year really this year I was like, well, let's work on a little bit of a left-to-right shot off the tee and putting yourself in position. Because this course, at least half of the holes is dogleg left-to-right, in some ways. So if you cut a lot of distance off on a lot of holes and put yourself in a lot better position if you can do that.
And I'd also been a right-to-left type of flight on the ball, and I guess I worked pretty -- worked at it pretty good in the beginning of the year this year and it's paid off so far this year and able to come out today and move the ball from left-to-right. And go back to the right-to-left, I guess, when I need it. When you can do that I think it allows you to put up a score.

Q. Tony, was last year's kind of circus around you kind of thing, was it a little distracting? Is it easier this year not having to deal with some of that?
TONY ROMO: I don't know. I think it depends on what you mean by "circus," I guess.
We have a lot of Cowboy fans. They're out here supporting us. They're excited. And it's fun getting out there interacting a little bit with the crowd and the fans. And everyone's so excited about the upcoming football season, it makes it exciting being out there around it.
Makes you look forward to it. So I look forward to that.

Q. I think a few of us here want to get our entertainment editors off our back. Can you confirm or deny the latest reports on you and Jessica?
TONY ROMO: Don't want to talk about my personal life. But I appreciate you asking the question, though. (Laughter)

Q. Are you going to miss Terrell Owens this year?
TONY ROMO: We have a little turnover with some of the guys on the team. Every offseason that happens with each team. And you never know each year. And I know why we play the game sometimes is to win Super Bowls and to achieve certain goals and things as a team.
And each year you bring in new people in. And for us it's just another season with a lot of the guys, but we got some new guys going in. Looking forward to the upcoming season.

Q. Anything memorable you heard from the gallery today, or were you too locked in to pay any attention to it?
TONY ROMO: There were a few things that were a little interesting, that's for sure. A few of them you probably couldn't share on air here.
But we saw some interesting signs out there, I know that. People get a little more aggressive as the day moves on into the evening.

Q. Like the 17th hole, always fun out there.
TONY ROMO: Definitely. I joked with, I was telling Roberts out there, I was joking with Elway and Marino, and we're like, well, practicing a fist pump here. If we make a long putt, we'll get one here shortly. I made the putt on 17. Gave kind of a fake fist pump. It's pretty funny.

Q. The girl was cute that you signed the ball for.
TONY ROMO: Yeah, she ran out there. I didn't know she was running out there. I would step on her if I don't watch it.

Q. What did you think about the company you were keeping in your group today?
TONY ROMO: Today was special for me today. I think I met John before -- I met them both before, but never got to hang out with them, per se, as much as we did today. And I'll remember that for a long time. Those guys are -- they're as good as they get. And it was special for me to be out there and be a part of it and talk and hang out.
It was just fun. Obviously it was great to pick their brains a little bit on different things. But it was just fun being around it. And sometimes you just wish you could keep playing and hang out more and let's play another 18. Elway's like "My knee's done." Marino, "My back, shoulders." (Laughter).

Q. That's what you have to look forward to.
TONY ROMO: Yeah, exactly. I'll be there in three years.

Q. We saw a lot of girls on the boat with Tony Romo signs. They all think they have a chance now that they presume you're single.
TONY ROMO: It's interesting. (Laughter).

Q. You've tried U.S. Open qualifying twice now, right?
TONY ROMO: Something like that.

Q. Do you know how close you've come, what --
TONY ROMO: The closest I came, I shot 69, and I was in a playoff for the alternate spot. So I ended up winning the playoff. So I was the first alternate but everyone made it to the next round.

Q. When was that?
TONY ROMO: Three, four years ago now.

Q. I apologize for not looking at the lineup sheet. Are you still playing as an amateur?
TONY ROMO: Yeah, I'm still an amateur. I think I'll always play as an amateur. The game, it's enjoyable. It's something to compete at. And I tell people this all the time, too: I'm a football player, obviously, and they talk about playing golf or things of this nature.
And parents tell their kids anytime, people sometimes today are predominantly putting their kids into one sport. Age 10, they're going to do one thing the rest -- and I have a hard time with that because for me I would have, shoot, I was like a basketball player as a kid. If I would have just concentrated on one sport, soccer or something, I never would have been able to do what I'm able to luckily enough to do, play football.
And I think basically what I'm getting at, other sports could help you with other sports. And I use the tools that you get mentally on the course for football.
Anytime you're in a pressure situation or something happens where you have to rely on your mental strength or discipline or all of a sudden you get nervous, blood starts racing, heart starts going, the more you're in those situations the better off you're going to be.
And I think that for me it's exciting to be in those situations on the golf course, because then all of a sudden when you're at the end of a football game, you felt your blood pressure rise, you felt this stuff go through your brain, and you have to rely on your fundamentals. You've got to do the things you've done over and over again.
And I think my fundamentals are probably a little better at football, but I think that it's a neat thing to kind of use that in something else. I don't know, I enjoy explaining it, talking about it.

Q. Are you looking forward to the new stadium?
TONY ROMO: The new stadium is awesome. It's a sight to see. And, really, predominantly, I've always been, oh, it's a stadium, stadiums are stadiums. But this one is not. It's really something to see.
And if anyone has the ability to go see it or the option, you've really got to take advantage. Because I've never seen anything like it. And it will be really exciting when we step out there and get playing in that first home game.

Q. Looks like this guy probably had a pretty strong back nine (referring to Rick Rhoden), what do you think about the competition for the rest of the weekend?
TONY ROMO: Oh, he's no threat. (Laughter) I think I better play well. Rick's a great player. 14-time champion or whatever he is. It's going to be a good test. I know he'll be around on Sunday. Hopefully I'll be able to be there and give him a little better run than I did last year. We'll see.

Q. You get to bed early tonight, is that the game plan? Or how do you prepare for tomorrow's round?
TONY ROMO: Same thing every night: Go out, stay out until 4:00 in the morning. Get up, roll to the first tee.
I think, yeah, probably relax a little. Long day today. Might go out and hit some balls and try and tighten it up. Still gotta go for a jog and all that other stuff we're not looking forward to. But we've got to do it for other reasons, obviously.
PHIL WEIDINGER: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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