After many close calls, Roberts seeks a history-making win  PGATOUR.com Editorial Coordinator TIMONIUM, Md. -- The Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship falls in the midst of college football season, NFL games and the MLB Playoffs, so snippets of conversations overheard at the golf tournament involve score inquiries and neighborly smack talk.  After struggling early Saturday, Loren Roberts played better on the tougher back nine. (Condon/PGA TOUR/WireImage)
Even the players aren't immune to the fandemonium, as Fred Funk made sure to check the final score in the University of Maryland game immediately following his round. Not to mention that Baltimore Ravens fans won't have to miss a minute of their beloved team since the 18th hole video screen will show Sunday's game. But on Sunday, the season's final major on the Champions Tour will rival the other sports in terms of excitement, and here's why -- Loren Roberts is on the verge of making the Charles Schwab Cup season-long points race pretty exciting. A win would give Roberts 780 points -- the five majors offer double the points of regular events -- and that'd be enough to make his 1,840 points turn into 2,620. Current leader Jay Haas has 2,459 points, so if Haas finishes outside the top-10 in Baltimore, then Roberts takes the lead. "What did you bring that up for? Golly," Roberts said, chuckling. In a role reversal of sorts, Roberts led the Charles Schwab Cup race for much of 2006 before Haas snatched it and the $1 million annuity on the final hole of the season. Roberts failed to make his par putt on the 72nd hole at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship and lost the race by just 20 points. But avenging that loss won't keep him up on Saturday night. "I'm just going to go out and play golf tomorrow. That's what I've been doing for the first three days," he said. "[I'll] go and get my Golf Digest and see if I can find a tip in there. I hit a couple funny iron shots today, see if I can find another tip in there." As he chowed down on a much-needed hot dog after a hilly trek on Baltimore Country Club's East Course, Roberts looked comfy sitting on his three-shot cushion heading into the final round. A round of 67 on Saturday -- added to his first-round 67 and second-round 66 -- gave him a three-stroke lead over Maryland-born Fred Funk and four-shot advantage over the legendary Tom Watson. The three will be paired together in the final round. "I expect it will be a lot of fun tomorrow and it will be a great gallery with Fred and Tom Watson on top of that," he said. "And he'll bring a great gallery so I'm happy to be involved with it. I think it's going to be fun. I love to play with Tom." On a course that Funk said has "some of the toughest set of greens we'll ever see", the Boss of the Moss, also known as Roberts because of his excellent putting skills, has shown why he's the master of the flatstick. For the week, he ranks first in fewest putts per round and putts per hitting the green in regulation and is tied for first in number of birdies made (14 over three rounds). Still, Roberts made bogey on Nos. 1 and 3, two of the holes in an opening seven-hole stretch that players have consistently described as the easiest to birdie on the course. Both came after bunker shots that he failed to get up and down, so Roberts had to birdie the second and fifth hole to make up for lost ground. "To get through the front nine at even par, which I really didn't hit it all that good, it kind of gave me a little bit of a lift," he said. "Really, my whole round was Nos. 10 through 15 today." He credited a two-putt par save on the ninth with being the key to his turnaround. Self-described "funny" iron shots during the day left him several long putts but, on No. 9, Roberts managed to hit an 80-footer that just barely missed the hole. He tapped in the remaining three-footer and made the turn in 35 strokes. After not taking full advantage on the front nine -- which he described as the "gettable" nine -- Roberts made an 8-foot sidehill breaker for birdie on No. 10 and followed that up with a 10-foot birdie on the 11th hole. On No. 13 he sank a 10-footer for birdie from below the hole to move to 10 under par. "I played the back nine better today than I did the front, so I'll have to rectify that [tomorrow] ... You have a lot of wedge holes on the front nine so you can make some birdies there," he said. "You would like to go through the front nine at least a couple under par, really." Roberts had a two-shot lead heading into the final round of this tournament last year before shooting 74 to fall into a tie for third. That seems to be the story of his short but profitable Champions Tour career. The 52-year-old has six wins, including two major championships, but comes close more often than he emerges victorious. In 2007 alone, he has finished in second place three times. He's also notched two third-place finishes. He's finished in fourth place four times and had one tie for fifth. That's 11 top-5 finishes in 20 starts. Yet Roberts has just one victory in 2007. "I want to go out and win. I'm just going to go out and try to stick to my routine," he said. "If you're really, really swinging the club well, you know, it's a little easier to go out and focus. If you're still searching for things, it can be a little tougher. "I just want to go out and focus on trying to put the ball in the fairway and keep putting it on the green." |
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