Tough combo to beat -- Tiger and patriotism this week

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As host of the AT&T National, Tiger Woods takes a special interest in honoring our Armed Forces.

Only Tiger Woods could pull this one off.

No, we're not talking about that visit to the Oval Office earlier this year. Nor the off-the-cuff let's-tee-it-up-sometime offer to President Obama.

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We're talking about crossing a serious line here with Wednesday's premier pro-am pairing when Tiger will tee it up with House Minority Leader John Boehner and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. Yep, a Cowboy on the tee. Deep in the heart of Redskins country.

Oh my. Tiger always has to shake things up a little, doesn't he? Why not have a little fun? After all, he's hosting what is becoming -- just three years into its run -- a perfect fit with the Fourth of July.

This week is all Tiger red-white-and-blue. Yes, he's put his own touch on the holiday with a tournament that fits as nicely with the nation's birthday as those elegant dovetail joints that held together the furniture our forefathers built.

The AT&T National is Tiger's tribute to the military and his dad, a former Green Beret Lieutenant Colonel. Beginning with the opening ceremonies, overhead fly-bys, parachute jumps and a patriotic tribute to the Wounded Warriors on the first tee. And did we mention the 30,000 tickets handed out to the military? Or the camo caddie bibs military personnel will wear at the 7th hole as they act as caddies during Wednesday's Earl Woods Memorial Pro-Am?

Talk about your patriotic inspiration.

Tiger grew up hearing Earl's stories and learning golf with Special Forces style discipline. Heck, a few years ago, Tiger himself went through some Special Forces training, just to see how he would stand up to it.

He puts as much heart into this as he does to his Learning Center -- soon to be Centers -- and his glitzy, glam-fest Tiger Jam in Las Vegas, the Center's annual fundraiser.

Tiger was front-and-center at the first AT&T, playing congenial host, teeing off with President George H.W. Bush in the pro-am and finishing tied for sixth. And last year? He hosted long-distance from the couch, leg propped up and healing from knee surgery.

This year, he's headlining and shaking hands once again as he heads into a week at Congressional's Blue Course as the player to beat. All due respect to U.S. Open champ Lucas Glover and defending champ Anthony Kim, of course, but the world's No. 1 hasn't finished out of the top 10 this year and has a pair of wins.

This will be the field's last chance to look at Congressional until the 2011 U.S. Open. Tiger's event will move to Aronomink Golf Club for the next two years, which may not be in the shadow of the Capitol and White House, but is just down the West Chester Pike from Philladelphia where the American Revolution was born. And in case you didn't know, Philly was also the nation's first capital, so the AT&T won't miss a patriotic beat.

This is a week when we talk as much about Presidents and golf -- no President is as passionate about the game as Bush 41; no President was better, according to a Golf Digest poll, than John F. Kennedy -- as backyard barbeques and fireworks. It's a week when we pause and reflect on so much; a week when a golf tournament and an iconic player remind us to thank the men and women who serve to keep our freedom safe.

Tiger would like nothing better than to hand himself the sterling replica of the U.S. Capitol on Sunday afternoon. It wouldn't erase what happened at Bethpage a few weeks ago when, if he'd made half the putts he missed, he might have notched major No. 15. Instead, he left there with a angry scowl -- at himself.

As for that pairing with the Cowboys quarterback? The last time Woods and Romo played the same course in conjunction with a tournament was at last year's U.S. Open. Romo shot 84 the Saturday before the U.S. Open to top a group of amateurs -- he beat Justin Timberlake and Matt Lauer -- who tried to break 100 at Torrey Pines.

You know happened at Torrey the following week.

Maybe there is a method to Tiger's Cowboy-in-Redskin-land madness.

Melanie Hauser is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. Her views do not necessarily reflect the views of the PGA TOUR.