Tony Romo’s PGA TOUR sponsor exemption not taking anybody’s “spot”
Tony Romo has transitioned seamlessly from NFL quarterback to the broadcast booth. With his invitation to the Corales Puntacana Championship, will he move as easily to the ranks of professional golf?
Tony Romo’s NFL career may have ended a bit prematurely. After suffering a shoulder injury late in the 2015 season, a back fracture forced him out for much of 2016. The Dallas Cowboys replaced him with Dak Prescott, and as they say, the rest was history.
Romo moved on quickly, becoming one of CBS’s featured NFL commentators alongside Jim Nantz. The four-time Pro Bowler seemed content, but the competitive fire doesn’t go away that quickly. Romo now finds himself at the center of a surprisingly familiar controversy – a non-professional golfer with a sponsor exemption to a PGA TOUR event.
The 37-year-old will make his TOUR debut at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship next month, from March 22-25. While this wasn’t entirely unexpected – Nantz basically let the cat out of the bag recently – it does raise plenty of questions.
The most important one: does he really belong in a competitive event on the game’s biggest stage?
While there will be plenty of opinions, mostly from borderline pros hoping to hold their card, the answer is simple.
Why not?
Romo is officially a better-than-scratch golfer, carrying a +0.3 handicap index. Realistically, that’s not even close to what’s needed to survive on the PGA TOUR, but he’s no duffer. A serious player who’s likely playing even more in his “retirement”, that number might even be a little lower today. But even if it isn’t, the “cost” to active pros is so minimal that it doesn’t matter.
Tony Romo, like Steph Curry, brings much-needed publicity
Golf’s economy is a funny thing. There’s a ton of money to be made at the absolute top of the game. When you get to the Tiger Woods or Jordan Spieth type of level, you’re basically set for life. Of course, only a handful will ever truly realize that level of success. The vast majority of touring pros are literally playing for their careers each week.
So, of course, you’ll hear plenty of chirping, mostly from these types. “He’s taking a valuable spot from a ‘real’ pro,” they’ll cry. “He’s just there for publicity, he won’t even have a chance,” they’ll whine.
Perhaps they’re technically right on the first one, but they should be hoping – begging, even – for the second to be true.
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The reality is this: sponsor exemptions exist for a reason. Mostly, they’re there to allow the sponsors, who put up nearly all the money for the prize fund, to boost their field. And if you’re a full-time pro, you should love every bit of that.
If Tony Romo’s presence sells even a couple hundred more tickets than the tournament would have sold otherwise, that’s better for everyone. The tournament in the Dominican Republic is in its third year, after two years on the Web.com Tour.
To put it in perspective: Nate Lashley, the 2017 champion, won $112,500 after going 70-65-67-66. It was his first career win, and represented nearly half of his entire year’s earnings. In eight PGA TOUR starts this season, he’s won just under $76,000. He’s also made just three cuts and has yet to crack the top-25.
Why the “taking a spot” argument fails
The Corales has the unenviable position of being an opposite-field event to the WGC Match Play, but that’s even more reason why Romo’s presence isn’t a bad thing. Not counting the top 50 players automatically qualified for the WGC Match Play, there are 156 openings at Punta Cana. You can try all you want, but you’ll never convince me that one spot, for one week, is going to destroy someone’s chance to hold a card. Even if it did, there’s no guarantee that player would have gotten the sponsor exemption that Romo has received anyway.
Now, if you want to eliminate sponsor exemptions entirely, I might be able to join you. Then again, see above. The more money there is coming into an event, the more there is to put in the prize pool. Fill a tournament, especially an opposite field, with a bunch of players nobody’s ever heard of, and you have a much tougher task ahead.
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Sure, Romo will probably miss the cut. He probably won’t shoot 56 over par, as Julio Bell just did at the Web.com Tour’s Club Colombia Championship. But regardless of how he plays, the worst case scenario is a forgettable week in which his presence maybe sells a number of extra tickets. He’ll then head back to the broadcast booth, and the whole thing will blow over.
He’s got the game. He’s got the support. Let him play, and the rest will work itself out.