KAHUKU, Hawaii -- Loren Roberts capped a remarkable two-week run in Hawaii with a fitting finish for a man known as The Boss of the Moss. Winning for the second straight week, the smooth-putting Roberts holed a 9-foot eagle putt on the final hole for an even-par 72 and a two-stroke victory over Scott Simpson on Sunday in the Turtle Bay Championship. "It was 17 holes of grinding and groaning and on the last hole, everything was perfect," Roberts said. "It was worth it." The 50-year-old Roberts, the first Champions Tour player to win his first two starts of a season since Larry Nelson in 2001, finished the wire-to-wire win with a 12-under 204 total. Last week, Roberts had a record-setting, one-stroke victory in the season-opening MasterCard Championship at Hualalai. "It was a struggle," said Roberts, who also ended Hale Irwin's winning streak in the event at five. "I was just out of sync." Roberts, who had 14 birdies in the first two rounds and 40 in his first five Champions Tour rounds this year, failed to get a birdie Sunday, but held off Simpson with the timely eagle on the par-5 closing hole. "The whole thing came down to 18 and I probably made the three best swings of the day," he said. Both men, tied heading into the final hole, easily cleared the lake and were on the green in two shots on the par-5 18th. Roberts hit a perfect 4-iron shot from 200 yards out to set up his winning putt. After Simpson missed his long eagle attempt, Roberts made his and then showed some emotion for the first time in the tournament, shaking his fist and smiling. Japan's Isao Aoki shot a 70 to finish third at 9-under 207. It was his best finish since his second-place finish in the 2002 Royal Caribbean Golf Classic. Don Pooley (71), second last week in the MasterCard, and Tom Watson (68) tied for fourth at 8 under. Roberts, an eight-time winner on the PGA TOUR who joined the Champions Tour last July and won the JELD-WEN Tradition in August for his first major victory, took home $225,000 to push his two-week total to $515,000. He also tied for 18th in the PGA TOUR's Sony Open in Hawaii. Last week, Roberts had a 25-under 191 total on the Hualalai course to shatter the Champions Tour record for relation to par in a 54-hole event and tie the stroke mark. He also broke the Tour record for birdies in a three-round tournament with 26. Roberts is the third player in Champions Tour history to win consecutive events to start a season. In his first eight starts on the Champions Tour, Roberts has three victories, seven top-five finishes and earnings of $1,474,882 "The name of my game is putting," he said. "If I'm putting well, it frees up the rest of my game. If I get a little off with the putter, sometimes the rest of my game struggles, too." Simpson, the 1987 U.S. Open champion who lived in nearby Kailua for five years, began the day four strokes behind Roberts. The 50-year-old Simpson opened with a bogey after three putting from long range, but he holed a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 17 to tie Roberts for the lead heading into the final hole. "Honestly, starting the day, I was pretty sure Loren was going to run away with it," Simpson said. But Roberts bogeyed Nos. 5 and 6 on three putts, which gave the others some hope. The 63-year-old Aoki and 61-year-old Bruce Summerhays each birdied the 574-yard ninth to tie Roberts for the lead at 10 under, but Aoki three-putted the 10th from about 20 feet. Roberts, who made the turn at 38, sank a key 18-footer for par at No. 10 to stay atop the leaderboard with Summerhays. "That was huge," he said. "That was clutch because if that doesn't go in, all of the sudden I'm 3 over and going south in a hurry." Summerhays birdied Nos. 7-9 but stumbled with bogeys on Nos. 11 and 12. He fell out of contention with a double bogey on the par-3 13th. The tournament was the first since 1999 that Irwin was watching the leaders instead of being among them. Irwin, seeking his sixth straight and seventh overall Turtle Bay title, shot a 70 for a 4-over 220 total. "I got a swift kick in the tail end this week," Irwin said. The 44-time Champions Tour winner tied for 21st at the MasterCard. "I just wanted to play solidly and try to get back into some sort of groove and it just didn't happen," he said. "The wind exposes your weaknesses and my weaknesses were exposed very, very quickly. I could not get it going." ©The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. |
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