Irwin Tries for Seventh Turtle Bay Championship Title  PGATOUR.com Editorial Coordinator When surfing champion Kelly Slater and actress Cameron Diaz pal around, it draws national attention. The duo have been spotted surfing, dining and even playing golf at the Turtle Bay Resort, home to this week's Champions Tour event, in recent days. But while that famous pair is making waves in Hawaii, it's Hale Irwin and the rest of the members of the Champions Tour who hope to make even bigger headlines at the Turtle Bay Championship this week. The most successful player in Champions Tour history, Irwin won his 45th tournament at the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai last Sunday.  Loren Roberts and Hale Irwin will square off for the second straight week. (Chris Condon/PGATOUR/WireImage)
He's had some incredible success at Turtle Bay, too -- winning five straight tournaments there until a tie for 38th last year ended that streak. "Turtle Bay has been an exceptional venue for me over the years," said Irwin. "I'm trying to carry over a little bit of last week's attitude here this week." The 61-year-old is back this week to go for a seventh career Turtle Bay Championship title and his second win in 2007, though he will be challenged by some of the Champions Tour's best. One of those is Loren Roberts, who won the two Hawaii events back-to-back last year on his way to a four-win season and a second-place finish in the Charles Schwab Cup race. Jay Haas, the man, who edged Roberts by 20 points in the competition, is also playing at Turtle Bay. This year, though, it's Irwin who has a head start in the season-long points competition designed to identify the Champions Tour's top player. After his victory at the MasterCard Championship in Hualalai, Irwin takes a 140-point lead over Tom Kite and Jim Thorpe into this week's tournament. An impressive crop of rookies -- guys like Mark O'Meara, Nick Price, Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Jeff Sluman and John Cook, all of whom turn 50 in 2007 -- should further heighten the competition. "This is an exciting year for the Champions Tour," said Kite. "We've got a strong influx of really talented guys coming out. We've got a lot of guys already out here playing really well. It's going to be unbelievably competitive, and unbelievably competitive with some real name power. Everybody is excited about it, but probably nobody is more excited about it right now than Hale Irwin." Haas agreed. "With all these new players coming out, it can only enhance our Tour. Fields will continue to get deeper and deeper. It will make a win even more special. You will have to play very well to win with the new faces," he said. There are nine players who will play the Turtle Bay Championship for the first time, including Fred Funk, who won in just his third start on the Champions Tour last year, and 2006 Rookie of the Year Eduardo Romero, winner of the JELD-WEN Tradition. Chip Beck, David Edwards, Tim Simpson, Kenny Knox, Jack Renner, Denis Watson and Peter Jacobsen will also make their Turtle Bay Championship debut this week. "It is nice. I've played at Hualalai several times but I have never played Turtle Bay before. This week is beautiful," said first-timer Jacobsen, who made his return to the Tour at last week's event after having left hip replacement surgery in early September. "I'm very excited to play again. It has been probably about five years that I've been playing with pain, so it is a new sensation to play pain free." Despite hip problems, Jacobsen still had seven top-10 finishes in 2006, including a tie for second at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf and a tie for third at the U.S. Senior Open. "I was playing well. Somehow I was manufacturing pars and birdies. But I was hurting and I was manufacturing swings and creating shots to get the ball in the hole," Jacobsen said. He had a faster recovery time than most, and Jacobsen work hard to get back to tournament golf. After a tie for 19th last week, he hopes to have even more success as the Tour tees it up on Friday in Kahuka. But Jacobsen, Roberts, Funk and the rest of the field face a formidable challenge in Irwin, who has shown an amazing ability to dominate on the island. In addition to his six titles at Turtle Bay, Irwin now has won the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai twice, as well as the 1981 Hawaiian Open on the PGA TOUR, and three unofficial Skins Games. Including his earnings from the unofficial events, Irwin has won over $4.1 million in Hawaii. Hale and Hawaii -- has a nice ring to it. And, if Irwin wins this week, those two words might become as synonymous and talked about as Kelly and Cameron. Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
PGATOUR.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network