KA'UPULEHU, Hawai'i — Idyllic conditions, a defenseless golf course and a bunch of golfers on offense combined to slaughter scoring records as the Champions Tour opened its 27th season. Loren Roberts led the golf carnage yesterday to win the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai with outrageous excellence.

Roberts closed with a tournament-record 11-under-par 61 to beat Don Pooley, win $290,000 and send numerous records into the circular file.

First to go was the tournament record of 21-under 195. Roberts busted up Hualalai Golf Club to the tune of 25-under 191, setting a tour record with 26 birdies. He had eagle or birdie on exactly half the tournament holes.

He also broke the Champions Tour all-time record in relation to par (22-under) and tied the numerical mark (191) set by Bruce Fleisher on a par-70 course in the 2002 RJR Championship. Roberts' 61 tied the lowest final round in the history of the tour and was one off the tour record for any round.

But while he stood alone — hibiscus in his ear — at the end, what was most memorable about the week was how many guys took Hualalai apart. The average score for the tournament was 4-under par.

Roberts, Pooley, Jay Haas and D.A. Weibring all broke the former tournament record. Ten players shot 65 or better yesterday, with the pins tucked into tight Sunday positions.

Gil Morgan set the course record when he came in with a career-low 62. It lasted less than an hour, until Roberts drilled in a 30-foot birdie on the final hole that closed Pooley out.

"It went in a lot faster than I wanted it to," Roberts said of his 23rd putt of the day. "It might have been 3 1/2 or four feet past the hole. Obviously I wanted to pressure Don to have to make it."

He pressured everybody to make everything yesterday. It seemed as if they almost did.

Morgan lost the tournament record he set in 1998 and a shot at the championship, it turned out, by firing 41 on the front nine Friday. He played the final 45 holes in 25 under to climb into a tie for fifth with Tom Watson, who shot two better than last year, when he lost a playoff to Dana Quigley.

Haas and Weibring had control early. Pooley took a three-shot advantage into the final round and it was gone by the time he bogeyed the third hole.

"I guess I had one too many bogeys this week," Pooley said with a sad smile. "I had one."

Weibring didn't have any, becoming the first player to play an entire tournament without a bogey and not win since Tom Jenkins in 2002.

Weibring led with 19-under at the turn. Roberts passed him when he chipped in from 58 feet for eagle on the 10th.

"I was 4-under at the turn and still not in the lead, Don and I got passed up," Roberts said. "The chip-in at 10 probably was the key thing. It got me to 20-under, got me right there.

"I was amazed. At nine I look up at the board and both Don and I are two behind. What a shootout. Don shot 7-under par today and lost ground."

Pooley, who was only 1-under on the front, began his push. He birdied five of the first six holes on the back to catch Roberts at 23-under on the 15th.

By then, Weibring was out of birdies. In this tournament, that meant he was out of contention.

"Both D.A. and I thought if we could get to 21 or 22 under and shoot something crazy today we'd have a chance and we were doing what we needed to do," Haas said. "We were surprised Loren and Don were matching us and going even lower."

The "real killer" for Pooley, as Roberts put it, came on the 16th. Pooley put his approach shot 12 feet from the hole. Roberts drained his birdie putt from nearly 17 feet and Pooley missed, making his birdie on the final hole meaningless.

"He played a phenomenal round," said Pooley, whose total was the lowest not to win in the history of the tour. "Hit the ball well, putted well, obviously. He played great and I was trying to hang right there with him.

"It doesn't feel real good right now but I'll take a lot of positives out of this week ... 65 with a three-shot lead. Normally that's pretty good."

Pooley had eight birdies after a par-par-bogey start. It would not be enough against a guy who is not yet 51, and shot 29 on the back.

"That stretch there from 7 to 14, he either birdied or eagled almost every hole," Pooley said. "I played well in that stretch. I birdied five or six and still lost ground."

Roberts was in the zone. He started knowing he had to fire at every pin. After missing a four-foot birdie putt on the second hole, he focused on keeping his head down longer over putts to keep his ball on line and "everything started to go in."

"I can't remember a Bermuda (grass) golf course in this good a condition," Roberts said. "The greens are fabulous. There was some grain but it didn't have that much effect on the putts. ... The weather was perfect. That's the real key here."

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