Irwin wins in a runaway in record day at Turtle Bay

By Bill Kwon
Special to The Advertiser

Arnold Palmer might have designed the challenging golf course at the Turtle Bay Resort on O'ahu's North Shore, but Hale Irwin owns it.

Hale Irwin misses a birdie putt on the final hole of the Turtle Bay Championship, but it didn't matter. Irwin cruised to a five-stroke victory to become the first golfer to win a PGA event five times in a row. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

He shot a final-round 5-under-par 67 for a 54-hole total of 200 to break the course record of 205 he set in 2001, when he began his Turtle Bay winning streak.

The victory put Irwin in the PGA record book for winning the same event five straight times.

He has won the event all the years it has been held at the Turtle Bay (2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005) and the 2000 Ka'anapali Classic on Maui before it moved here. The tournament wasn't held last year because it was moved from late fall to a new date on the Champions Tour calendar as its first full-field event.

Irwin had shared the record at four straight with Tiger Woods, who did it at the Bay Hill Invitational, and also Walter Hagen at the PGA Championship, Gene Sarazen at the Miami Open and Tom Morris Jr., who won the British Open four straight times.

"It's always good to be a part of golf history. It has been a proud moment for me," Irwin said.

The victory, too, continued Irwin's amazing success in Hawai'i.

It was his eighth official PGA victory in the Islands beginning with the 1981 Hawaiian Open. And it's not counting three victories in the Champions Tour Skin Games.

Yesterday's $225,000 top prize, plus the $110,000 he collected for finishing tied for third in the MasterCard Championship at the Hualalai Resort last week, boosted Irwin's earnings in Hawai'i to $3,864,475 in official money.

He has also earned nearly $1 million in Skins Game competition.

Taking a two-stroke lead going into the final day, Irwin birdied the second and third holes and really went into cruise control with birdies at 8, 9 and 10 to get to 17 under.

Playing partners Dana Quigley, who won at Hualalai last week, and Allen Doyle found all kinds of trouble at the risk-reward, par-5 18th.

Quigley drove into the right bushes but found his ball. He punched out, laid up and went up and down from 81 yards to save par and finish second at 205 with a closing 69.

"That par at 18 was as good as any birdie I made," said Quigley, whose runner-up paycheck of $132,000 gave him $404,000 for his two-week Hawai'i swing.

"It (that great par) summed up the two weeks I had here. Finishing 1-2 was beyond any expectation I had," he said.

Doyle drove into the water hazard on the left and bogeyed 18th for a 71 and 206 to finish in a tie for third with Tom Watson.

Bruce Fleisher shot the day's best round, a course tying 7-under 65, to finish tied for fifth with four others, including Dick Mast and former Hawaiian Open champion Wayne Levi.

A conditional qualifier on the Champions Tour, Mast shot 31 on the front nine but bogeyed three holes coming in to finish with a 69 and a 54-hole total of 207.

It hasn't been a bad three weeks for Mast, who had qualified on Mondays to play in back-to-back PGA Tour events (Sony Open and Buick Invitational) before earning $55,200 here.

But once again, it was all Hale Irwin.

"Turtle Bay has really been kind to me," said Irwin, who told the Golf Channel television audience, "I'd like to welcome you to Hale's hale (Hawaiian for house)."

Irwin has certainly felt at home at Turtle Bay.

"It has been a great course for me. (And) Hawai'i's sort of like my golf home."

"He's been really successful everywhere," said Jim Colbert. "He keeps that competitive fire burning."

Irwin said his plan for the final round was to get off to a quick start — and he did, birdieing the second and third holes, the sixth and then eight and nine. For good measure, he also birdied 10.

"That got me going off quickly. And I got a lot of distance between me and the next guy," said Irwin, who played the front nine in 13 under during the week.

"Hale was on another planet. In a different world," said Quigley.

"We've got to have Hale disqualified somehow," Quigley kidded.

Irwin hit all 18 greens in regulation and every fairway except 17 when his drive went through the fairway.

"In that sense, I didn't really create any trouble for myself. I kept myself in the game," said Irwin, who has now scored at least one victory in 11 straight years, extending a Champions Tour record he holds.

Dave Eichelberger finished the best of four golfers with local ties, shooting a 73 for a 220 to earn $3,900. Dan Nishimoto was next at 75—225, Dick McClean at 75—228 and Larry Stubblefield at 80—235

NOTES

The 201-yard, par-3 13th hole played the most difficult during the tournament with a scoring average of 3.29, yielding only 12 birdies in three rounds. Rodger Davis skewed the hole's statistic by taking a 9. The most bogeys (58) were made at the par-4 10th, which ranked as the second toughest. The easiest was the par-5 third hole, which saw four eagles and 100 birdies compared to 116 pars for a 4.607 scoring average.