The clan shared a cramped two-bedroom house that lacked indoor plumbing, on the far corner of Andres's grandfather's backyard, in Yerba Buena, a small city on the outskirts of Tucuman in northern Argentina. "Every time we wanted to wash up," Romero says, laughing, "we all had to go to my grandfather's house." To make ends meet, Romero's father, Federico, transported dirt and construction supplies, while ported mom Rosa cleaned houses for four hours a day to supplement the family income.
Romero was an easygoing, fun-loving kid who rode his bike throughout the barrio and played soccer until dusk. He picked up golf at age 6, when, Rosa recalls, he strode intently up and down an abandoned lot that abutted their property, hitting a golf ball with a club he'd fashioned out of the branch of a Mulberry tree. Says Rosa: "He'd hit the ball for hours and hours, pretending to be his hero, Eduardo 'El Gato' Romero.".
But little Romero's awe was tempered by a mischievous entrepreneurial streak. Pigu, as Romero is known to his friends (don't ask — even Romero doesn't know the origin or meaning of his nickname), and his barrio buddies would filch oranges from neighboring orchards. By age 8 he graduated to more sophisticated criminal behavior at the course where his oldest brother Jose caddied. "Romero would hide at the far end of the club's driving range," says his current caddie, Tucuman native Adrian Monteros. "When El Gato hit practice shots, Pigu would sneak out onto the range and swap El Gato's shiny new balls for his own beat-up ones."
"That's absolutely true," Rosa says. "He was always getting into something."
But it wasn't all fun and games. At age 9, Romero was diagnosed with nephritis, or inflammation of the kidney. His doctor told him that if he didn't adhere to a strict no-sodium diet, Romero might have to rely on dialysis and would never grow strong enough to excel at golf. Romero followed the diet religiously. "That's when I realized how serious Andres was about becoming a professional golfer," Rosa says.
Romero turned pro at 16 and played his way onto the Argentine and South American circuits, relying on financing from his brother Jose, who would borrow money from friends and club members. "He'd get a check from one guy on a 30-day loan and cash it with another friend," Andres recalls. "They were hard times. I had to play well to pay people back. Sometimes, on the road, I'd go to bed early because there was no money for dinner."
Romero's prospects brightened when his play caught the attention of Sergio Supertino of SMG International S.A., the Buenos Aires–based golf agency that represents Eduardo Romero. He won twice on the South American tour in 2003 and, fully funded, headed to Europe, where he quickly scaled the ranks, playing well enough on Europe's Challenge Tour in 2005 to earn a 2006 European Tour card. In 2006 he surged to 35th on the Order of Merit. But it wasn't until Romero's stellar play at the 2007 British Open, on the heels of Cabrera's U.S. Open victory, that it became clear that a second Argentine was vying for a spot among golf's elite.
