Loren Roberts, the guy who torched Hualalai Golf Course to win the MasterCard Championship last week, took one look at Turtle Bay's Palmer Course and knew his golf pyrotechnic days were over.

Roberts, who won by closing with an 11-under-par 61 Sunday, figures the winner of this week's Turtle Bay Championship will be lucky to get to 10-under — for the week.

"I don't think 25-under is in the cards," Jay Haas said after seeing the wind, rain, precise driving demands and undulating greens. "It will take us all month to get that at this tournament here."

Hawai'i's attempt to humble the Champions Tour begins this morning when the 78-man field tees off on the North Shore.

To be more accurate, there will be 77 golfers chasing Hale Irwin, who has won this event five consecutive times. His victory last year put him alone in the PGA Tour record books, ahead of Tiger Woods, Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen and Tom Morris Jr., who had also won the same event four straight years.

Irwin was emphatic in victory a year ago, winning by five strokes — the largest margin in the tournament's history. His three-day total of 16-under was the best winning score since the tournament moved to Turtle Bay in 2001.

It is rarely that easy, even for Irwin. Last year's stroke average of 72.338 made the Palmer Course the 11th-toughest all year on the Champions Tour. It was the first time Turtle Bay dropped out of the top 10.

The previous three years (there was no event in 2004 because of a schedule change), the scoring average was 73-plus. It was the fourth-hardest venue on tour in 2003 (73.988), sixth-hardest in 2002 (73.461) and ninth-hardest in 2001 (73.254).

Yet Irwin has only shot one round over par here. He has 19 rounds in the 60s and is a nice, neat 100-under par at the Turtle Bay Championship.

"It's incredible to see how he's done it here," Ben Crenshaw said. "You have to drive the ball so well. You have to hit intelligent iron shots and putt well. It's a very well-rounded test of golf. But Hale is good anywhere. He's just amazing. And the competitor that he is, he'll try and add to his record this week."

Haas and Crenshaw make it sound as if the stars aligned last week to kick off the 27th Champions Tour season.

Low scores started early and never let up. Players were forced to go for broke because without birdies they could feel people fly by. And, the top seven players pushed each other to an average of almost 22-under, which was the Champions Tour all-time record until Roberts eclipsed it by three shots.

Conditions were all but perfect. There was barely any wind on the Big Island and lots of roll on the wide, divot-free fairways. Every par-5 was reachable in two and absolutely every putting surface was pristine.

"Last week's greens were probably the smoothest, flattest greens we've ever played on," Haas said. "There was very little break anywhere. Here, that's not the case. There are lots of humps and bumps. Not ridiculous bumps, but enough to make them different."

More than 70 percent of last week's rounds were in the 60s. Don't expect that this week, especially with rain. But there is no need to lower expectations. Turtle Bay simply demands more of golfers and, particularly after Hualalai, it is obvious these guys are up to the challenge.

"Wet and windy, that's not anything for them," says Hawai'i's David Ishii, who makes his Champions Tour debut today. "These guys are good, you know.

"They all shoot good scores on any type of course so I've just got to make birdies on the easy ones and not three-putt the hard ones. If you get too far away from pins ... there are double and triple breaks at Turtle Bay. You don't want to be too far away. The rest is up to the wind and rain."

And, this week, Hale Irwin.

"The relationship that I've had with this state has been a long-running, friendly environment — one of which I buy into," said Irwin, who has won nearly $5 million in Hawai'i — not counting what he collects from family and friends on vacations here. "Say what you will about the spirit of Hawai'i and its people. Perhaps I feel some of that and perhaps I feel part of that. It's an environment that seems to do well with me.

"I can take these same conditions and go to Florida and I don't feel the same way. We play on Bermuda (grass) in Florida and we play in the wind in Florida and we play in the rain in Florida, but we don't have the people in Florida. I think there's something to that."

NOTES

Japan's Kiyoshi Murota, playing the Turtle Bay Championship on a sponsor's exemption, will stick around for the Hawai'i Pearl Open, Feb. 10 to 12. Murota is a two-time champion at Pearl Country Club.

That will be followed by the first two LPGA full-field events of the year — the SBS Open at Turtle Bay (Feb. 16-18) and Fields Open in Hawai'i (Feb. 23-25) at Ko Olina.

Tickets for the SBS Open and Fields Open are $10 daily and $25 for a weekly pass. A clubhouse badge for Fields, which provides access to Roy's Ko Olina restaurant and all tournament activities, is $20 per day or $50 for the week.

Fields tickets can be purchased now, at ticketmaster.com and all Ticketmaster outlets, including Times Supermarkets (walk in service only), Blaisdell Box Office and Brigham Young-Hawai'i. To charge tickets by phone, call 877-750-4400.

For more information on Fields Open sponsorship packages, or to be a Fields Open volunteer, contact the tournament office at 671-1727.

TODAY'S TEE TIMES

8:40 a.m.— Bill Longmuir, Mitch Adcock, Kiyoshi Murota; 8:51 a.m.— Hajime Meshiai, Rick Karbowski, Massy Kuramoto.

9:02 a.m.— Bobby Wadkins, Mike McCullough, Keith Fergus; 9:13 a.m.— Morris Hatalsky, Andy Bean, Scott Simpson; 9:24 a.m.— Hubert Green, Howard Twitty, Dan Pohl; 9:35 a.m.— Dave Eichelberger, DeWitt Weaver, Danny Edwards; 9:46 a.m.— Ed Dougherty, Jerry Pate, Tom McKnight; 9:57 a.m.— Allen Doyle, Dave Barr, Gary Player

10:08 a.m.— Tom Purtzer, Raymond Floyd, Ben Crenshaw; 10:19 a.m.— Bruce Summerhays, Isao Aoki, Jim Colbert; 10:30 a.m.— Mark McNulty, Gil Morgan, John Jacobs; 10:41 a.m.— Ron Streck, Tom Kite, Jim Ahern; 10:52 a.m.— Des Smyth, Larry Nelson, Vicente Fernandez

11:03 a.m.— Dick Mast, Pat McGowan, John Harris; 11:14 a.m.— Scott Masingill, Jack Ferenz, Stan Souza; 11:25 a.m.— Leonard Thompson, David Ishii, Mike Sullivan; 11:36 a.m.— Walter Hall Bob Eastwood, Brad Bryant; 11:47 a.m.— James Mason, Hugh Baiocchi, Curtis Strange; 11:58 a.m.— Joe Inman, Graham Marsh, R.W. Eaks

12:09 p.m.— Jay Sigel, Rocky Thompson, Lonnie Nielsen; 12:20 p.m.— Loren Roberts, Jim Thorpe, Bruce Lietzke; 12:31 p.m.— Jay Haas, Bob Gilder, Don Pooley; 12:42 p.m.— Tom Jenkins, Mike Reid, Craig Stadler; 12:53 p.m.— Bruce Fleisher, Fuzzy Zoeller, Tom Watson

1:04 p.m.— David Eger, Dana Quigley, Doug Tewell; 1:15 p.m.— Mark Johnson, Wayne Levi, Hale Irwin

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.