John Elway will still be a part of the 2018 U.S. Senior Open . He just won't be playing alongside the likes of defending champion Kenny Perry.

The Broadmoor's notoriously knotty east course got the best of Elway in his Memorial Day attempt to qualify for the 39th Open championship http://www.cowboysauthorizedshops.com/authentic-dalton-schultz-jersey , where he'll serve as the tournament's honorary chairman next month.

Playing Monday for one of two qualifying spots, Elway, who is a 1.4-handicap golfer, shot a 10-over 80 on a drizzly and cool afternoon on the dazzling but demanding course. That left him tied for 18th.

Elway acknowledged that pulling double duty at the Open next month was a pipe dream but cherished his round nonetheless.

"I haven't been playing very well. I haven't been playing much, either," Elway said. "But it was fun to be out here and compete. It's a lot of work in that rough."

Elway remained upbeat even after bogeying two of his last three holes following a 75-minute rain and lightning delay.

"It's good for me to play in these conditions," he reasoned. "It makes me a better player."

Elway started off strong but a double-bogey on the ninth hole sent him sliding down the leaderboard, where only one golfer broke par 鈥?Doug Rohrbaugh, an instructor at Snowmass, Colorado, shot a 1-under 69 to qualify for his fourth Open. Rohrbaugh also has NFL bloodlines: His uncle, John Meyers, was a defensive tackle for the Cowboys and Eagles in the 1960s.

Chris Johnson, of Castle Rock, Colorado, was the other qualifier Robert Griffin III Jersey Ravens , shooting a 2-over 72.

Elway's long-shot hopes began to fade when he put a ball into the water and then missed a short putt on No. 9.

"I was actually playing probably as good as I can play," Elway said .

His goal, he said, was to break 80, but the delay didn't do him any favors.

"Bad finish," he lamented.

The hour and 15-minute delay wasn't ideal for a man who celebrates his 58th birthday when the Open begins on June 28.

"I'm afraid to sit down, I'll get too stiff," Elway said as he signed golf balls and some of the No. 7 jerseys that dotted the 200 or so members of his gallery during the weather delay.

This marked just the fourth time the championship course also served as a sectional qualifying site.

Elway, who won two Super Bowls during his Hall of Fame playing career and another as the Denver Broncos' general manager, took up golf during the springs of playing career and refined his game after retiring in 1999. But he hasn't had as much time to work on his game since moving into the Broncos' front office in 2010.

His golf resume includes two Colorado Senior Open appearances, and he is past president of Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver.

With its always unnerving setups, the Open is already considered the toughest challenge in senior golf. Add in the nearly 6,500-foot altitude and the unforgiving rough and "it's not going to be a birdie fest," Perry, the defending champ, said after getting in a practice round on the east course three weeks ago.

"It tests the player in every facet of this game. I think it's going to be a great championship. It's going to be tough and you're going to see a lot of guys struggling out there http://www.brownsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-denzel-ward-jersey ," Perry said.

Perry said during a recent visit to Broncos headquarters that Elway had his work cut out for him going from front office to the fairways.

"That course is going to test him mentally. He's been in the draft room getting ready for the season. He hasn't been practicing or preparing," Perry said. "Just like anything you do, if you don't practice or prepare, it's hard to be successful."

"He's right, it's difficult," Elway said. "But like I said, it's always fun for me to get to play in these conditions. Plus, when you play these, you realize how good those guys are."

Power forward Robert Williams was projected to be a lottery pick – and that was last year, after his freshman year at Texas A&M.

But there he was, sliding down to the Boston Celtics at the 27th pick in the NBA draft Thursday night.

”It’s not my job to know what the other 26 teams are thinking,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said after adding the two-time Southeastern Conference defensive player of the year. ”We thought that he was the right pick for us, and we felt very fortunate to be able to get him.”

A 6-foot-10, 237-pound Oil City, Louisiana, native Authentic Joe Mixon Jersey , Williams was considered a certain first-round pick as a freshman – maybe in the top 10.

But he decided he wasn’t ready. He returned and averaged 10.4 points and an SEC-leading 9.2 rebounds while leading the Aggies to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16.

”He’s a rim-protector and a rebounder, and he can play above the rim on both ends of the court,” Celtics general manager Danny Ainge said. ”We don’t have much of that.”

Williams, 20, still has some work to do- especially on offense, Ainge conceded.

”He’s still young,” Ainge said. ”He brings an upside. There’s still parts of his game that are untapped. But rim-protection and rebounding, we know that.”

Stevens said current Celtics big men Al Horford and Gordon Hayward will be a big help in getting Williams ready. ”He won’t have any better role models than the guys in front of him,” the coach said.

The Celtics followed an appearance in the 2017 Eastern Conference finals with an offseason overhaul that brought in Hayward and Kyrie Irving. Despite losing both of them to injuries during the season, they returned to the league’s final four thanks in part to Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, back-to-back No. 3 picks in the previous two years.

But after stockpiling eight first-round picks in the previous four drafts, including three lottery picks, the Celtics were left with just their own first-rounder this year and no picks in the second. They could have up to four first-rounders next year.

Ainge said he looked into moving up to the top of the draft.

”We spent the last couple of weeks figuring out what the cost was. We knew that was very, very unlikely,” he said.

Acquiring a second-round pick didn’t interest him all that much.

”We don’t need more young players really,” he said. ”We feel good about adding one that does something that we don’t have.”

Speaking at the team’s brand new practice facility Trent Brown Jersey Elite , the Auerbach Center, Stevens said Williams was a good athlete with good feet and an arm-span of 7-feet, 5-inches. Williams blocked 155 shots in college – third in Texas A&M history, with 78 as a sophomore that were the second-most in a single season for an Aggie.

”Right now he is an elite athlete, with incredible length,” Stevens said. ”And he plays well above the rim. Obviously, if you can have four shooters in the game and a guy like that rolling to the rim, you can just throw it into the air and he can go get it.”

Because Williams was expected to go higher in the draft, the Celtics did not have a workout for him in Boston. Stevens said having a prospect visit is ”just a formality in a lot of ways” for Ainge and his staff.

”They’ve already watched them pay live a bunch, spent time with their coaches and everybody else,” Stevens said. ”But I don’t think you need to watch must to tell how athletic he is. It’s pretty obvious.”

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