Hardy takes pride

Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo is making his PGA Tour debut next month in the Dominican Republic.

As a player Broncos Authentic Jerseys , not a broadcaster.

Romo, now the lead NFL analyst for CBS Sports, has received a sponsor’s exemption to play in the Puntacana Resort & Club Championship on March 22-25. The first-year event is held opposite the Dell Technologies Match Play, a World Golf Championships event that attracts the top 64 in the world.

”You never know how good you are until you go play and perform,” Romo said Wednesday. ”Obviously, the odds going against these guys are not great. I think we all know that. But I think that’s what makes it really fun and enjoyable. I also think that the challenge that’s presented is what a competitor really wants.”

He joins a short list of athletes who have tried to compete against those who play for a living.

Mark Rypien, the former Washington Redskins quarterback, played the Kemper Open in 1992. He shot rounds of 80-91 and missed the cut by 27 shots.

Ken Harrelson, an All-Star outfielder for the Boston Red Sox in 1968, qualified for the 1972 British Open at Muirfield and missed the cut by one shot. John Brodie qualified for the U.S. Open while playing for the San Francisco 49ers and later won on the PGA Tour Champions circuit.

Most recently, Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry played a Web.com Tour event outside San Francisco. He shot 74-74 and missed the cut by 11 shots.

Tournaments are allotted unrestricted exemptions – Michelle Wie received them when she was a teenager – and there invariably are complaints from other players who might feel as though he is taking a spot from someone who has a better chance.

”I know a lot of these guys, so I’ll just tell them, `Get out there. Let’s play a couple rounds and see what happens.’ I’ll joke with them a little bit,” Romo said. ”But I think if you play good Lions Authentic Jerseys , they will respect you. If you don’t play good, then you really aren’t going to be respected very well. If you hit a 5-iron … and you can put it to a back right pin and fade it in there, they’re going to respect you. And if you can’t, then you’ll probably get some blow back.

”So I understand that,” he said. ”That’s why you’ve got to go out there and play well.”

Romo has tried to qualify for the U.S. Open three times, most recently failing to advance from the first stage a year ago. He reached the final stage in 2010 and was tied for 10th after the first 18 holes. But he started the next round with a quadruple bogey and was 7 over when play was stopped for the second time because of weather. The Cowboys had an organized team activity the next day and he had to withdraw.

Romo has a plus-3 handicap index out of Dallas National Golf Club and occasionally plays with Jordan Spieth. Romo says those rounds take the longest because he’s asking Spieth for advice on his game.

He also began seeing Spieth’s chiropractor, Troy Van Biezen, to help recover from back surgeries that forced him out of football. Romo is playing this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with Will Zalatoris. Romo will play from the forward tees as an amateur.

”His short game is fantastic,” Spieth said. ”He’s walking in putts from 15 feet at home. … His muscle memory, his hand-eye coordination is really special. So I have no doubt he’ll shoot under par every round out here from where they’re playing from. And he’s really excited for the challenge and he wants to beat the pros that are in his group. That’s kind of his goal. I mean, he thinks he can win this golf tournament if he played it with us.”

Romo said if he played well, he would be open to more sponsor exemptions.

”If you don’t play well … it’s like a free agent in football,” he said. ”You get one shot. Hopefully, you do well.”

The Detroit Tigers certainly weren’t supposed to be here at this stage of the major league season. Not at all.

Only a season after finishing 38 games behind in the American League Central with a 64-98 record and a veteran roster led by one of the major league’s highest-paid players in Miguel Cabrera Packers Authentic Jerseys , they’re 36-37 and are right behind Cleveland in the division.

If they can beat the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on Tuesday night, the Tigers — these no-name Tigers — would be at .500 for the first time since early April.

And it’s not so much how they’re doing it — with surprisingly strong pitching and a better-than-expected offense — but the players they’re doing it with. Even with Cabrera out for the rest of the season with a ruptured biceps tendon, they’ve won five in a row and six of eight with a not-well-known cast.

Not that they care.

“We just go out there and try to get every single win. That’s it. We got close (to the Indians) a couple of weeks ago and then we’re here again,” center fielder Leonys Martin told reporters after a three-game weekend sweep of the White Sox in Chicago. “We only care about getting every single game. That’s it.”

The Detroit bullpen has been especially good behind a surprisingly efficient starting pitching staff, allowing only one run and 12 hits in 17 1/3 innings during the five-game streak –and while walking only one and striking out 20.

Closer Shane Greene saved each of the first four games of the streak, and right-handed setup man Joe Jimenez hasn’t allowed an earned run in 18 of his last 19 games.

Left-hander Matthew Boyd (4-4), who opposes Reds right right-hander Sal Romano (3-7) on Tuesday night, was 6-11 with a 5.27 ERA last season, but he has won his last two starts and has trimmed his ERA nearly two runs per game from a year ago to 3.23.

And then there’s left-hander Blaine Hardy (3-1), who had only nine career wins going into this season. He was designated for assignment in spring training and wasn’t claimed by any other team but was brought back to Detroit in May and pitched his way into the rotation. He gave up one run in 5 1/3 innings in beating the White Sox 3-1 on Sunday.

Hardy takes pride in the fact that the Tigers are closing in on a winning record.

“Any team wants to be over .500, it’s kind of a mark that lets you know that you’re playing good baseball,” he said. “When we’re within (a few games) of the Indians, that’s a good sign, especially since we go (to Cleveland for a three-game series next weekend). We can go in there and say we have full control over what the standings will be.

“It’s huge. … We need to try to make a push Texans Authentic Jerseys , and I think we’re doing a good job of it.”

The Reds are making a modest push despite losing two of three last weekend in Pittsburgh and being 16 games out of the National League Central lead. They’ve won four of six, in part because of the way Eugenio Suarez and Scooter Gennett are hitting.

Suarez has homered in each of his last two games and is among the NL leaders with 52 RBIs. During an eight-game hitting streak, Suarez is 9-for-29 (.310) with three homers, and he’s closing in on a .300 average — he’s currently at .297.

“He’s been one of the best players in the league,” Reds interim manager Jim Riggleman said of his third baseman. “He’s always played his position well. He’s a smart player and he’s a very well-rounded baseball player.”

Since May 10, Gennett has raised his average from .301 to .336, with a high of .345, by getting hits in 26 of 33 games. He has a five-hit game, a four-hit game and three three-hit games during that run.

None of the Reds have faced Boyd before, and none of the Tigers have gone against Romano.

In Boyd’s last start, he gave up two runs and three hits in five innings of a 5-2 win over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday.

Romano has lost four of his last five decisions but is coming off his best start of the season, limiting the Kansas City Royals to one run and four hits in eight innings of a 5-1 Reds victory.

Both teams had a day off Monday.