Never underestimate the pride of a professional athlete. Never.
Our latest example of this mantra comes to us via Tony Romo.
The Dallas Cowboys quarterback is a well-known fan of golf. As far as NFL players go, he's one of the better golfers around. What Tony Romo is not is a professional golfer.
Therefore, when Romo hits the links with friend and now-Masters champion Jordan Spieth, the quarterback ends up on the losing end of their friendly wagers.
On Jim Rome on Showtime, Spieth said Romo asks for just "two or three strokes" a side.
"The good news is he doesn't swallow his pride and take a lot of strokes," Spieth said, via Will Brinson of CBSSports.com. "He likes to play maybe like 2 or 3 a side, which means I'm usually on the winning end of that one."
Classic Romo fumble there. Always trying to do too much.
As a terrible golfer who plays with a lot of less-than-terrible golfers, I know first hand that you should always barter as many strokes as possible out of better players. No. 1, it makes a match much more competitive. No. 2, money > pride in the game of golf (mainly because at the end of the round you will never have pride left anyway).
So given that Romo is essentially giving his money away to his young Texas friend, Rome asked just how much Spieth has swiped.
"Ha ha. Oh man. I don't know. I can't even count that high," Spieth said jokingly. "He's a good friend and a great competitor so we have fun out there."
Now that Spieth is wearing that Green Jacket, he should have to give up a couple of more strokes, even to a man as prideful as Romo.
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