Roberts eyes second straight senior major title

HOUSTON, May 25 (Reuters) Boosted by a blistering start to the year, Loren Roberts has targeted a second consecutive major title at this week's Senior PGA Championship in Edmond, Oklahoma.

The 50-year-old American won The Tradition, the final major of the Champions Tour season, last August on his third start at senior level.

Having romped to victory in his first three outings this year, Roberts is heavily fancied to triumph at the Oak Tree Golf Club on his Senior PGA Championship debut.

''The goal is to win major championships out here,'' the eight-times PGA Tour winner told reporters yesterday.

''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.

''Obviously you have a much shorter window out here to do that, so you want to make sure all these weeks count.'' Popularly known as the ''Boss of the Moss'' because of his superb putting, Roberts leads the 2006 Champions Tour money list with earnings of 1,074,520 dollars.

He won his first three tournaments of the year, the first two in Hawaii, and has since notched up a further five top-10 finishes.

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

TOURNAMENT TESTED ''I put a lot of preparation in to starting the year well so, by the time I got to that first tournament, I was ready to play and felt like I was tournament-tested.

''It didn't surprise me that I played well. I was just a little surprised I won the first three.'' Roberts turned 50 on June 24 last year and came close to wining his first two majors in the senior ranks.

He tied for fifth at the Senior British Open at Royal Aberdeen Golf Club in Scotland on his Champions Tour debut and shared second place one week later at the U S Senior Open in Kettering, Ohio, where he finished a stroke behind Allen Doyle.

Roberts went one better the following month, beating compatriot Dana Quigley at the second extra hole to clinch The Tradition at The Reserve Vineyards&Golf Club at Aloha, Oregon.

''I definitely would like to win this tournament, not just because it's a major on a quality golf course, but it's a little extra meaning for me because I was a PGA member,'' he said of the Senior PGA Championship.

''I came up through the assistant pro ranks and actually got my PGA card the legitimate way, going through the business schools and all that.

''So that would be a little extra, a little extra added incentive, for me to be able to pull that off,'' Roberts added.

Among his main challengers this week are defending champion Mike Reid, four-times winner Hale Irwin and Jay Haas, who has triumphed twice on the 2006 Champions Tour.

REUTERS DH RN0656