PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic – A golfer was on the practice range for most of the afternoon Wednesday, sweating his way through a few bags of balls working on yardages with a Trackman – his coach lending an eye – and trying to tighten his chipping dispersion.

That golfer was Tony Romo.

Romo, who is playing for the second straight year at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship – shot 15-over and missed the cut in 2018 – said he’s come back with a refreshed attitude, amongst other things.

“Probably just my backswing, my downswing, through the ball, my hip rotation, my hands, my mind,” he said with smile when asked what’s changed in the last 12 months, “but that’s all.”

Romo, 38, is CBS Sports’ lead NFL analyst and called his first Super Bowl earlier this year. He said he and partner Jim Nantz had “a lot of fun” all week long, and now it’s time for fun of a different variety.

Romo played the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February and hit arguably the shot of the tournament.

But this week he’s back in action trying to test his mettle against the world’s best. Romo said he’s feeling more confident the second time around Corales Golf Course.

“You can see now why people play certain events really well. When you see a golf course it allows your brain to be freed up. You know the spots where you’ve missed before and where you haven’t,” he said. “I wasn’t good enough to probably even hit the spots (last year), but when you get better at golf those things really do matter. Hopefully I’ll be able to show that this week.”

Romo will be paired with Kramer Hickok and Denny McCarthy for the first two rounds in Punta Cana. It’s a comfortable group for Romo, who played with McCarthy last year and who has teed it up in Texas with Hickok a few times.

Hickok, a winner on the Web.com Tour and former Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada Player of the Year, said he recently saw Romo working with his coaches – Andy Traynor and Chris O’Connell of the Plane Truth Dallas, who also count a number of TOUR players in their stable – at Maridoe Golf Club. Hickok said Romo told him he was feeling good about his game and is, more often than not, working hard on a bunch of different things.

“He’s out practicing as long as his wife lets him,” Hickok said with a laugh. “It’ll be cool to see how he transfers that to tournament golf.”

Hickok said Romo is already asking good questions, since he tees it up frequently with Jordan Spieth and many other TOUR pros who call Dallas home.

“He picks apart every little detail of every game, and that’s part of the what made him such a good football player – and now broadcaster,” said Hickok. “You hear him talk about these things and he’s trying to figure out, ‘if the wind is 15 mph in off the left, how much is that going to effect a flighted 52 (degree wedge) versus a full 52 in terms of yards?’ Every aspect of the game he’s trying to figure out in a year or two while we’ve had time to do over the course of our whole lives.”

Hickok said Romo has been shooting a few low nine-hole scores (31’s and 32’s) and is excited about where is game is at coming into the week, since he’s been trying to figure out all the little things that make great players better, said Hickok.

“He’s asking all the right questions and he has the confidence and belief in himself to dissect his game and also has the belief to know that he can go out and beat you,” said Hickok, “which is what you need to have in this game.”

Romo is staying this week with a group of childhood friends – basically the same group who came down a year ago – and has another friend, Andy, a PGA of America professional from Wisconsin, as his caddie.

“Just a couple buddies who love golf have come down to support me,” he said. “It’s been a great week.”

But Romo admitted the week hasn’t really started yet.

Things are different now, however, as he looks to Thursday first round – and in a good way.

He started working with Traynor just three weeks prior to his start in Punta Cana in 2018 and now that it’s been more than a year, it’s time to put that work into a tournament-mode setting. He also has an accepted an exemption into AT&T Byron Nelson in early May, but he said he’s not looking that far ahead. Right now, he said he’s focused on improving – both on the scorecard and with his swing – and playing well in Punta Cana.

“You’re just excited to see the parts of the game that you’ve built and worked hard at over the course of the past year and see how they hold up under pressure,” he said. “This tournament taught me a lot last year about my own game, and I had to practice. Hopefully I practiced the right way.”

Hickok, McCarthy, and Romo tee off Thursday at 8:10 a.m. ET.