By Lauren Deason Loren Roberts looks to make Champions Tour history with a win this week at The ACE Group Classic in Naples, Fla. Roberts, the Champions Tour Player of the Month for January, could become the first player to win the first three tournaments of the season. Only two other players in the 26-year history of the Champions Tour have had the same chance. “I’m excited to be out here playing again after a couple of weeks off,” Roberts said. “I was not sure I was going to play here [in Naples] but when I won twice, I decided to come.” Roberts knows what it will take to earn a third victory. “I think you need to go low all three days out here if you're going to win,” he said. “With just three rounds, you have to get off to a good start. You can't put yourself six shots back after one round.” Roberts, whose scoring average of 65.83 ranks second on the Champions Tour, certainly has taken those words to heart. He’s only trailed once in six rounds this year, and he more than made that up with a closing 61 at the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai.
Roberts took a wire-to-wire victory at the Turtle Bay Championship the following week. He holds a 258-point lead in the Charles Schwab Cup competition, the season-long race that rewards points to the top-10 finishers in each event, and he leads the money list with $515,000. Dubbed the “Boss of the Moss” in 1985 by fellow PGA TOUR member David Ogrin, Roberts is known on the TOUR for his exceptional putting ability. “"It doesn't surprise me what Loren is doing,” said Peter Jacobsen, who has won two Champions Tour majors. “His short game is one of the best in golf, and he is a smart player. I've got a lot of respect for him." The last player to win the first two Champions Tour events of the season was Larry Nelson. Nelson opened 2001 with two wins but fell short of the record when he placed eighth at The ACE Group Classic. Don January won both season-opening events in 1981 but he tied for eighth at the Peter Jackson Champions and could not make it three in a row.
After joining the Champions Tour in July 2005, Roberts divided his time between the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour. While he plans to concentrate on the Champions Tour this year, Roberts will play some PGA TOUR events to keep current in order to better assist Captain Tom Lehman at the Ryder Cup later this year. “It's been exciting coming out here to the Champions Tour,” Roberts said. “I've enjoyed seeing guys I haven't seen in 7-8 years. I paid attention to the Champions Tour before I came out here. My big focus coming out here the next two or three years is to win some major championships.” Roberts’ last win cut short Hale Irwin’s bid to accumulate an unprecedented sixth consecutive win at the Turtle Bay Championship, but Irwin has traditionally had the most success at The ACE Group Classic. Irwin, a two-time champion (1997, 2002), is the tournament’s leading money-winner with $644,920 in six appearances. D.A. Weibring also comes into the tournament with a streak on the line, having gone without a bogey for 60 holes. If Weibring continues to play bogey-free, he could match Morris Hatalsky’s record of 98 consecutive holes at par or better. Mark James won The ACE Group Classic last year by making birdie on the final two holes. Ed Dougherty tied a record at the 2005 tournament by hitting all 42 fairways at the TwinEagles Golf Club, matching a Champions Tour mark set by Calvin Peete. |
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