RACINE - No mass of reporters following him, no television cameras or microphones recording his every move, no distractions except for possibly a few mosquitoes.

Just a golfer and the course.

That's something every player in the Racine Tri-Course Amateur Championship is used to, but not Tony Romo. The Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback and Burlington High School graduate is becoming accustomed to the massive media attention paid to him and girlfriend Jessica Simpson, but he got a rare break from his hectic life during the first round of the Tri-Course Friday at the H.F. Johnson Park Golf Course.

He was free to be just Tony Romo, the kid who grew up in Burlington and became a standout athlete, and that freed him up to shoot a bogey-free 5-under par 65 for a three-shot lead over two-time defending champion Ben Bendtsen III of Racine and 1998 champion Paul Zarek of Burlington, who shot 68s.

Mike Masik Jr., the 2004 Racine County Open winner, was another shot back at 1-under 69 and four players, including three-time Tri-Course champion Kai Kamakian, are at even-par 70.

The course played at par-70 because of damage to the 10th fairway by last month's floods, forcing tournament officials to shorten the hole to a 147-yard par-3. It didn't matter to Romo, 28, how long the course was. His score, in relation to par, matched that of Tri-Course co-founder Rex Capwell, who shot a tournament-record 5-under 67 at Johnson Park in 1966.

"Really," Romo said when he was told of the record. "Honestly, I think it was just a solid round. I hit the ball solid off the tee and I hit my irons solid. I didn't three-putt and I hit a lot of par-5s in two."

Romo had back-to-back birdies on the 374-yard, par-4 second and the 139-yard, par-3 third holes and also had birdies on the 10th, the

474-yard, par-5 12th and 602-yard, par-5 16th for a 4-under 31 on the back nine.

He thought there could have been more.

"I honestly felt I left some out there," Romo said. "I had about four others (birdie chances) within 10 feet."

That was the way Bendtsen's round went. He shot a 2-under 68, but had a couple three-putts that resulted in bogeys and had several other birdie chances that didn't fall.

"The way I hit the ball, I should have shot lower," said Bendtsen, 22. "I didn't make anything outside of five feet. Tee to green was good, but that was it."

Bendtsen had four birdies, three on the back nine (12th, the 409-yard, par-4 14th and 16th), and was satisfied with his position.

"In the first round, you try not to shoot yourself out of it," Bendtsen said. "You want to play a good solid round and play smart and that's what I did. A 68, I'll take it - I did my job for the first day."

Zarek, 51, broke up the youth dominance of the tournament - for a day, at least - by matching Bendtsen's score. Zarek played with Romo and Jim Nord and was nervous on the first tee, but got over that quickly by rolling in a 30-foot birdie putt on the 602-yard, par-5 first hole and going back-to-back with a 5-foot birdie putt on second hole. He shot 32 on the first nine holes, the best score on the front nine.

"I had been looking forward to it all day to play with Tony," Zarek said. "On the front nine, I hit every green (in regulation) and had four birdies. I was really focused and I was happy with the way I handled myself.

"I hit 14 greens and that's good for me. If I can do that, I'll score pretty well."

Masik, 26, hit all but two greens in regulation, but joined the others in their putting woes. He finished with three birdies and two bogeys.

"The greens were perfect to make putts on," Masik said. "They were really a good speed and you didn't have to worry about hitting it past (the cup). When you hit 16 greens in regulation, you figure you should make more than three (birdies) just by chance."

Joining Kamakian at 70 were John Bechard of Wind Lake, Bill Winkler of Racine and newcomer Nate Schroeder of Caledonia.

Defending County Open champion Joe O'Brien and 2000 Tri-Course champion John Staehler shot 71s.

Notes

DEKEUSTER CAN'T BUY A PUTT: Many golfers had their putting woes, but perhaps no one had a day like Andy DeKeuster, last year's Tri-Course runner-up.

He shot a 3-over par 73 in the first round at Johnson Park, but it could have been much better.

"Oh, it was not good," DeKeuster said. "I hit 16 of 18 greens, but it's not good when you have more putts (38) than regular shots (35). Every hole on the back nine, I either burned the edge or lipped out. The flatstick was my mortal enemy today."

TEAM COMPETITION: The Public Links team of Romo, Zarek, Kamakian, Bechard and Schroeder has the first-round lead at 343. Meadowbrook Country Club (Masik, Winkler, DeKeuster, Greg Romano, Troy McReynolds) is second at 360 and Racine Country Club (Bendtsen, O'Brien, Steve Borzynski, Fred Petersen, Paul Jacobsen) is third at 361.

The teams are comprised of the top five scores of the three categories after the first round.