You can take a guy out of the Big Island, but you can't take the Big Island out of a guy.

Hilo native Steve Veriato is back home this week, visiting his mom, Margaret, brother Franklin and sister Valerie, looking up old buddies, including Dennis Rose, Mauna Lani Resort's director of golf, and chowing down on local grinds.

Of course, he would have been happier if he had been on a golf course this weekend, playing in the Turtle Bay Championship on O'ahu's North Shore.

But Veriato, a one-time king of Monday qualifiers on the Champions Tour, missed making the 78-player field. His 3-under-par 69 Monday at the Palmer Course wasn't good enough to be among the nine qualifiers for the senior tour's first full-field event.

"I thought 3 under was a pretty good score, but I guess I should have been more aggressive in going for the pin," said Veriato, who made the long journey from his home in San Marcos, Texas, for the qualifying.

"I hadn't been in an event for a while, so I was a little anxious and a little excited," added Veriato, who wished he went with a 3-wood instead of driver on his first hole, which he bogeyed.

Veriato is looking forward to making a comeback in 2007, and turning 61 in May isn't a deterrent. He has a role model in another 61-year-old, Hale Irwin, who won the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai last week on the Big Island for his first victory in 15 months.

"I marvel at him. He looks like he's back," Veriato said.

There aren't many Hale Irwins in golf, but there are a lot of guys like Veriato, who has had to scuffle all his life to earn a living in a game he first took up as a youngster growing up in Hilo and attending St. Joseph's.

Nothing ever came easy for Veriato, a long-time club professional after graduating from Texas A&M. He played six years on the PGA Tour from 1975 to 1980 without much distinction. His best showing was a runner-up finish in the 1977 Atlanta Classic ... to Hale Irwin.

Their paths have taken different directions since that encounter, although Veriato did play in three senior events at Ka'anapali, Maui, with Irwin in the field. Each time, though, Veriato had to Monday-qualify to get in, while Irwin has been fully exempt — and winning — since joining the Champions Tour in 1995 when it was known as the Senior Tour.

All told, Veriato played in four Ka'anapali Classics with two thirds, a fifth and a tie for 11th to earn $166,171. Not bad for a Monday qualifier.

Since that chance conjunction with Veriato in Atlanta, Irwin went on to win his second and third U.S. Open championships, the 1981 Hawaiian Open and nine more PGA events. He hasn't stopped winning, making the 2007 MasterCard Championship at Hualalai his 45th victory on the Champions Tour.

Veriato, a two-time Hawai'i State Open champion (1976 and '77), has won only once on the Champions Tour — the 2001 Novell Utah Showdown. He has had to go to senior Q-School four times. But mostly, he played on by being successful in Monday qualifiers.

Over a three-year span he successfully made it through 40 Monday qualifiers to earn $1.77 million on the Champions Tour.

After not making the top-30 money list in 2003 to retain an exempt status, Veriato faced back-to-work Mondays again.

Only, the PGA made it more difficult in the past three years for guys on the outside looking in, while those in the winners' circles were thriving.

Instead of four spots open to Monday qualifiers, the PGA reduced the number to two.

In the past two years, Veriato tried to qualify on Monday only twice, both in Texas, because it wasn't worth it for him to lay money down on such poor odds.

However, the new Champions Tour policy this year on Monday qualifying opens up nine spots, and "makes it better for me and others like me," Veriato said.

So he plans on trying around 15 to 17 such qualifiers this year, the next being the Alliance Championship in Boca Raton, Fla., two weeks from now.

"Before, the only access we had to make the top 30 was to win a tournament and we don't have many opportunities. It was harder to get into tournaments," Veriato said.

He'd like nothing better than to get back on the Champions Tour and maybe play "one or two more years."

Then, he'll settle down and be content at his 25-acre ranch in Texas with his wife and one-time caddie, Karen.

"He's a farmer's boy now," says sister Val.