Champions Tour Insider: Roberts finishes strong
By Vartan Kupelian, PGATOUR.COM Contributor
There's something about the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship that spurs Loren Roberts on to bigger and better things.
For the second time in three years, Roberts used that event as a springboard to the Charles Schwab Cup, and its $1 million annuity.
After trailing Bernhard Langer, then Fred Funk, in the Charles Schwab Cup points list for much of the 2009 season, Roberts took control of the race at the Senior Players on Week 22 and never loosened his grip on his way to winning the bonus.
"The year that I won it in '07, I did the same thing," Roberts said Sunday at Sonoma Golf Club where a hard-charging finish earned him the title again. "I took over the lead at Constellation. That's been a great golf tournament for me."
The season finale was a reflection of Roberts' season. He didn't start particularly well but the finish was terrific.
In Sonoma, he opened with rounds of 70-73 and knew he had a lot of work left. He closed the deal with a pair of 66s to tie Bernhard Langer and Tom Watson for sixth place. Catching Langer was key. Langer, who led the points race for most of the year and finished as the leading money winner on the Champions Tour, was one of the three golfers who had a chance to pass Roberts at Sonoma. The others were Fred Funk and Jay Haas.
Roberts opened the season with similarly detached play. Although he won early, at the ACE Group Classic, his golf was indifferent. Then he caught fire.
"All I can say really about (the) week is, for me, there were two tournaments," Roberts said. "I played two totally different golf tournaments in one week. The first two days I really didn't hit it very good and I really didn't putt well. You know, obviously I'm 1-under par for two days and just basically out of it.
"I just started a whole other tournament on Saturday. Put a lot practice time in Friday afternoon. I went out there and just kind of beat myself up on the range a little bit and just really tried to focus in on what I need to do just to change my rhythm and find a little swing, something that worked. I found a little something probably in the last 30 balls that I hit out there late Friday night.
"I'm usually never the last one on the range. That's usually Tom Kite or Bruce Vaughan or someone. They're usually the last ones on the range, I'm not. But I was the last one on the range Friday. I found a little something -- it worked this weekend. It totally changed my outlook and my attitude about things."
That resulted in Roberts playing "as good as I can play" over the final 36 holes.
That's what he did from April on. In a 13-tournament stretch beginning with a third-place finish at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am in April, Roberts had 11 top-10 finishes in 13 starts. Included in the stretch was a major victory at the Senior British Open.
"This might be one of my best accomplishments, I think, in golf, just because I really wasn't playing very good the first part of the year," he said. "I won a tournament, but it was on a golf course that was tough and nobody else had seen it. I wasn't playing that good early in the year. To be able to come back and win it essentially with two thirds of a season was remarkable for me."
By any measure, Roberts' Champions Tour career has been exceptional. Where does he go from here? What's his next goal? His response won't come as a surprise to those who appreciate the mind-set of professional athletes.
"I just love golf so much that when I'm home on weeks off, I may be in my workshop filing down a sand wedge or messing with something," he said. "I like to go to the golf course and spend time with the guys there.
"I go to a golf course, a couple golf courses where I know they have a lot of juniors - I just go sit on the driving range in the summertime and watch the young kids hit balls. Hey, if I can tell a young kid, 'You need it lay off a little bit more. Your left hand hits it better.' You know, that makes me feel good. I just like being around golf.
"I feel like I can still always keep working at getting better."
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