Johnny Golf
Considering how his day started, it's a miracle Johnny Manziel broke 80 at the Texas State Open
When Johnny Manziel announced his intentions to make a run at a professional golf career, there was a massive eye roll heard 'round the golf world. When those same eyeballs saw that he finished the first round of the Texas State Open in 154th place on Tuesday (that's second-to-last), they all fell out of everyone's head.
But that doesn't quite paint the full picture of Johnny Golf's first competitive round, which got off to an extremely inauspicious start. The former Texas A&M quarterback apparently was unaware he was supposed to wear pants, meaning he had to scramble to find a pair before he could put his tee in the ground. Because of this, he didn't even hit a ball on the range prior to his round. Shoutout to the great Ryan French, also known as Monday Q Info on Twitter, for capturing the details on this crazy story:
Considering this information, the over/under for Manziel's first round had to be somewhere around 83.5. Incredibly, though, he went out in two-over 37 on the back nine at The Cascades Club, a course he's played countless times in his hometown of Tyler, Texas. He made three bogeys and one birdie (!). Not bad for a first-timer who didn't even get a proper warmup in.
The front nine (his back) was not as kind to the money man, as he came home in seven-over 42 with three double bogeys. Hey, he broke 80! A borderline miracle with basically everything going against him before the round. Manziel was able to look at it in a positive light, too.
"It was great being on the home track," Manziel told the Tyler Morning Telegraph. “I had it going for a while and just struggled on the front nine and didn’t play the way I wanted to. It’s a good first experience for me and had to start somewhere, and this is a great place to do it back home.
"I didn’t come here by any means thinking I was going to come in here and win this tournament," he added. "But I have a lot of people supporting me, a lot of family and a lot of friends that came out throughout the day. I’ve gone around this place hundreds of times. It was fun to do it in a competitive tournament setting. Hopefully tomorrow is a little better."
It's far too early to definitively say if Wednesday will be better for Manziel, but according to the live leader board the legendary Aggie is two over through five holes, with two par 5s remaining on his front nine. Making the cut, which is projected at one under right now, would be a bigger miracle than going into Tuscaloosa as a two-touchdown underdog and winning the game outright, but that likely won't be on Manziel's mind. Any forward movement the rest of the second round and Manziel would have had a semi-decent start to his golf career.