Loren Roberts takes honours with 66 - Turtle Bay Championship

"I missed my line by a whole cup, I thought, and it went right in the hole," Roberts said Friday after taking the first-round lead in the Turtle Bay Championship.

That's the way it's been the past two weeks.

"Things are going your way when that happens," said Roberts, coming off a record-setting victory Sunday in the MasterCard Championship on the Big Island.

The 50-year-old Roberts finished with a 6-under 66 in windy conditions Friday for a one-stroke lead over Bruce Summerhays on Turtle Bay's Arnold Palmer Course.

Don Pooley, second last week, was two strokes back after a 68, and Scott Simpson was three behind along with Kiyoshi Murota, Jim Thorpe and Mark Johnson. Hale Irwin, seeking his sixth straight and seventh overall Turtle Bay title, had a 73.

Roberts -- called the "Boss of the Moss" because of his brilliant putting touch -- made seven birdies, including four on the last seven holes.

"When you're putting well, it really does take a lot of pressure off your game," said Roberts, a two-time winner in seven Champions Tour starts. "It's not the birdie putts that are key. On tough days like this, the par putts that are key."

He missed only two greens in regulation on the oceanside course.

"You can't shoot under par when the winds are blowing like this without hitting the ball solidly," Roberts said. That's the whole key to playing in the wind."

Last week, Roberts had a 25-under 191 total on the Hualalai course to shatter the Champions Tour record for relation to par in a 54-hole event and tie the stroke mark. He also broke the tour record for birdies in a three-round tournament with 26.

"You can't predict how things go, but I did feel really ready to play this year," said Roberts, who tied for 18th two weeks ago in the PGA Tour's Sony Open.

An eight-time winner on the PGA Tour, Roberts joined the 50-and-over tour last July and won The Tradition in August for his first major victory.

Simpson, a San Diego native who lived in nearby Kailua for five years, holed a 6-iron shot from 167 yards an eagle on the par-4 first hole. The 1987 U.S. Open champion is playing in his fifth Champions Tour event since turning 50 in September.

He told playing partner Morris Hatalsky: "There's two ways to look at it: It's a great way to start the year, but it can only go down hill."

Jay Haas, Jerry Pate, Tom McKnight, Raymond Floyd, Ben Crenshaw and Lonnie Nielson opened with 70s, and Isao Aoki and Tom Watson shot 71s in the Champions Tour's first full-field event of the year. With the wind gusting to 25 mph in damp conditions, the 78 players in the field averaged 73.218 strokes.

Last year, Irwin became the first player to win a PGA Tour-sanctioned event five straight times. He had a tournament-record 16-under 200 total.