Big Ben Fires 81 at Bethpage, Clearly Better Athlete Than Romo

There are any number of ways to compare NFL quarterbacks. Conventional stats, advanced stats, Pro Bowl appearances, Super Bowl rings, celebrity ladyfriends. And now: golf scores on U.S. Open set-ups.

Leading up to the 2008 U.S. Open, Golf Digest came up with the great idea to pair three famous faces with one lucky contest winner and let them play 18 holes at Torrey Pines a week before the tournament. The catch: to see if any of the single-digit handicappers could break 100 on one of the toughest tests in golf.

A year ago, Matt Lauer (6.2 handicap) shot an even 100, Justin Timberlake (6) carded a 98 and Tony Romo (2) busted out an 84. Pretty nifty work, even though their scores just reinforce the difference between tournament golf and what the rest of us do in our spare time.

Yesterday, Ben Roethlisberger, Michael Jordan, Timberlake and contest winner Larry Geibelhausen teed it up at Bethpage Black, site of next week's Open.

Roethlisberger, a 3-handicap, shot 42 on the front that included a triple-bogey-8 at the par-5 fourth hole. He followed with a 39 on the back that included birdies at Nos. 10 and 15 -- the only birdies produced by any member of the celebrity foursome on the 7,426-yard, par-70 layout. ...

Roethlisberger, Jordan (86) and singer Justin Timberlake (88), a 6-handicap who shot 98 in the inaugural event a year ago, all broke 100 at Bethpage Black. The only exception was contest-winner Larry Geibelhausen, a Phoenix police lieutenant and 3-handicap who shot 101 after shooting 54 on the front and taking a 10 on the par-4 16th hole.

This proves that Big Ben is mentally tougher than Romo. Or maybe it just shows that on one day in June, he was three strokes better than Romo on a U.S. Open track. Clearly one or the other, though.

Whatever, here are my early submissions for next year's foursome: Charles Barkely, Brett Favre, John Daly and, hell, Shane Bacon. Why not. And I'll go ahead and put this out there: there's a better chance Shane breaks 60 than Charles breaks 150.