Golf

Roberts to make it count in debut

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 25, 2006

EDMOND, Okla. - Loren Roberts had never played this well before.

After an offseason of honing his game, the "Boss of the Moss" went out this year and won his first three starts on the Champions Tour.

Making his Senior PGA Championship debut this week, Roberts has a chance at another streak - two straight majors.

"The goal is to win major championships out here," Roberts said Wednesday, the eve of the tournament. "Obviously, I didn't get that job done on the regular tour after 23 or 24 years, so I would like to get it done out here.

"You have a much shorter window out here to do that, so you want to make all these weeks count."

Roberts, 50, comes in as the Champions Tour leader in scoring average, greens in regulation and putting average, the category that earned him his nickname. He's also tops on the money list and has the most wins this season.

"I hit the ball extremely well for about a six- or seven-week period there," Roberts said. "In fact, I've spent the last three months trying to get back to that level. I haven't quite got there."

He has been close. In 14 career Champions Tour starts, Roberts has never finished lower than 11th. After setting a tour record with his consecutive wins to start the season, he has placed fifth, seventh, tenth, sixth and third.

On Wednesday, he spent the first nine holes of his practice round at Oak Tree Golf Club tinkering with a couple of drivers. He missed the fairway twice - on No. 6 and No. 9 - and both of his ensuing chip shots ended up in greenside bunkers.

"You have to be able to pick the lines here," said Roberts, who didn't have enough points to play in the 1988 PGA Championship at Oak Tree. "Wind direction is going to determine what line you can take. You got a lot of trees that you kind of have to play off the trees a little bit. You may have to start a shot down a tree line to get it to end up where you want it to be. So you really have to control your golf ball on this golf course.

"I'm just still trying to learn exactly where I want to put it. But I think I've pretty much got an idea of what I want to do."

Roberts came close to winning the first two majors he played on the senior tour. He finished fifth at the Senior British Open last year in his first Champions Tour start. A week later, he tied for second at the U.S. Senior Open, one stroke behind Allen Doyle after sharing the lead after the third round.

[Last modified May 25, 2006, 00:55:15]