Campbell out of bounds

Published July 1, 2009 4:00am ET



One name came to mind when watching Redskin players Jason Campbell and Antwaan Randle El tee off at times at Congressional during the pro-am Wednesday: Mark Brunell.

Why? Because their tee shots often resembled Brunell’s passes: high and out of bounds.

Thank you; we’ll be here all week.

Turns out the safest place to be when they teed off was in the middle of the fairway. Unless it was an adjoining fairway. The first one we saw Campbell hit happened to be on the 11th. Alas, he was teeing off from 15.

And it only took one hole to see why Tiger Woods opted to play with Tony Romo instead of the local starting QB. Romo is a player; Campbell is still learning the sport. Here’s a tip, Jason: pivot on your shots.

Judging by the crowd, they wanted to see Romo as well. Of course, he was playing with Woods as well as the Minority leader of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio). Still, there were more fans wearing Romo No. 9 Dallas Cowboy jerseys than there were actually following Randle El and Campbell (as well as Mike Weir and Caps coach Bruce Boudreau). Their gallery numbered around 40. Heck, Romo got a polite reception for his first tee shot and only one fan shouted, “Go Redskins!” But before the opening ceremony, he was loudly booed.

In fact, we counted two fans wearing Redskins shirts during the first few hours of their round.

But the Campbell group was more relaxed, signing autographs, posing for picture and having fun. On the 14th tee, Campbell’s tee shot skidded about 25 yards. Before he hit a mulligan, Campbell said of the flubbed shot, “There were ants on the ball.”

At the first tee, (before Campbell’s shot landed over the green on the par 3), one fan shouted out, “Are you going to beat Tony Romo!?” Another shouted, “Of course he is!” Uh, no.

But Campbell was friendlier. While walking to the 17th tee, a father and his young son (in a Romo jersey no less) asked the Dallas QB for an autograph. He kept walking. So the dad yelled out, “Jason Campbell signed it!”

See, all was not lost for Campbell. Except for a lot of his golf balls.