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Tony Romo disqualified at Q-School pre-qualifier for signing wrong card
Romo signed for 4s on two holes where he made 5s in his final round in Oklahoma, according to GOLF.com. Under the Rules of Golf, signing for a lower score than you took on any hole means disqualification.
Tony Romo, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback, signed for lower scores than he took on two holes in his final round at a Q-School pre-qualifier in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, on Friday 2 October, and was disqualified, GOLF.com reports. Romo shot 76 and 75 at The Club at Forest Ridge before closing with what his card showed as a 74, three shots outside the qualifying places. According to GOLF.com’s Michael Bamberger, that card had him down for 4s on the 16th and 17th.
Brandon Rice, the professional in his group, recorded a 5 for Romo on the 16th. An official from the PGA’s South Central section, which ran the event, was monitoring the group’s pace of play and noted 5s on both holes. Rob Keller, the rules official, told GOLF.com that Romo took responsibility for the error.
The disqualification did not affect who went through, because Romo would not have advanced anyway. It does change the record. Our report last week gave his total as nine over par, the figure he signed for, and has been corrected.
Under Rule 3.3b(3), if a player returns a scorecard with a score on any hole higher than the one actually taken, the higher score stands. If the score on any hole is lower, or missing, the player is disqualified. There is one exception: a player who leaves out penalty strokes they did not know about is not disqualified; the Committee adds them instead. That exception does not apply here, because the problem was the number of shots, not an unknown penalty.
The marker also certifies the hole scores, but the player alone is responsible for them and bears the penalty if any is wrong. The simplest protection is to go through the card hole by hole with your marker before signing and say each score out loud.
The final round in Oklahoma was played on the same day CBS confirmed it had ended Romo’s nine seasons as its lead NFL analyst.
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