Aaron Rodgers finishes 8th at American Century Championship

Golf is one of Aaron Rodgers’ passions off the football field, and over the last several years he has made an annual appearance at the American Century Championship, held at Edgewood Golf Club near Lake Tahoe. Rodgers joined a host of fellow athletes, both active and retired, as well as a number of actors and other celebrities in the three-round tournament over the past weekend.

When all players completed their rounds on Saturday, Rodgers found himself in the top ten of the final leaderboard, ranking 8th in the tournament’s scoring system. Players were awarded one point for each par, 3 points for a birdie, and 6 points for an eagle, but were penalized for any holes finishing more than two strokes over par. For the entire weekend, Rodgers hit just one double-bogey, on the 11th hole in round 2 — a hole that he birdied on the first day.

Against par, Rodgers finished 10-over for the entire weekend, which put him in a tie for 11th place in conventional golf scoring.

Rodgers was interviewed after his first round, a two-over 74 which had him in a tie for fourth place with 22 points, and said that he wasn’t happy with his putting game:

I putted terribly actually. I had five 3-putts and still shot 74, which means I was actually hitting the ball pretty good. I came out and 3-putted two of the first three, and then I hit over the green on four and chipped in for eagle, so that kind of got my round going from there. It was a good round for me. This is really uncharacteristic.

Rodgers shot 4-over in each of the second and third rounds, and slipped back to sixth after the second and his final finishing position of 8th after the third round. Still, winning the tournament wasn’t his goal: “I don't go into this tournament thinking I can even compete,” he said. “If I can get top 20, that's kind of my goal and I'm sitting here in fourth. So, I'm going to get some good sleep tonight and have some fun and hopefully come back out tomorrow and play a little better.”

“I don’t (think I can win),” Rodgers continued. “It would be the greatest underdog story ever.” Still, a top-ten finish is impressive nonetheless.

Furthermore, Rodgers finished second among active athletes, coming in behind only Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors.

As a side note, a number of other individuals with connections to the Packers participated in the tournament. Former Packers receiver Sterling Sharpe led the way among these individuals, finishing in a tie for 20th place. Meanwhile, former Green Bay cornerback Charles Woodson finished tied for 84th in the 89-person field, A.J. Hawk came in 64th, and a pair of former Packers backup quarterbacks — Jim McMahon and current Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson — came in tied for 52nd and 49th, respectively. Thankfully, all of these former Packers finished above Charles Barkley, who finished in last place after hitting par on just a single hole through three rounds.