HALE `NEVER LETS UP' AGE AN AFTERTHOUGHT AS IRWIN DOMINATES CHAMPIONS TOUR.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Staff Writer

VALENCIA - An enduring myth on the Champions Tour - the professional golf tour for players aged 50 and older - is that its members hit a wall at age 55 and cease to remain consistent challengers.

Hale Irwin has yet to see any wall, perhaps because he has been so focused on winning he ran head down right through it.

Irwin, who plays this week in the SBC Classic at Valencia Country Club, comes in every bit as much a force on his tour as Tiger Woods has been on the PGA Tour or Annika Sorenstam on the LPGA Tour.

Last year, at age 57, Irwin not only continued to challenge consistently but won four times, raising his own tour record to 36 career victories. He also led the tour in scoring for the fourth time in seven years, then was named Player of the Year for a third time, becoming the oldest to earn that distinction on a tour that started in 1980 as the PGA Senior Tour.

Last week, he came within a stroke of a playoff in the Bosque Real Championship, a second-place finish that extended one of the most remarkable achievements in all of golf: Irwin has finished in the top three in 88 of his 187 Champions Tour starts.

``His mental game is unbelievable,'' South African Hugh Baiocchi said during a practice round at Valencia. ``He never lets up. He's relentless.''

Irwin, who credits his parents for his drive and golf technology for his and his fellow senior tour members' ability to remain close to the hitting ability of their youth, doesn't worry about age.

``I kind of look at that as just a number,'' Irwin said at last year's Tour Championship, where he finished fourth to complete a tour-record earnings year of $3,028,304 and dismissed age even further.

``When somebody is going to sit down and talk about being old, I leave the room,'' he said. ``I don't want to hear it. It's not part of my vocabulary.''

Irwin combines that attitude with good health - ``genetically, I've been blessed'' - and backs that with attention to fitness: ``I work at being in shape, I'm proud of being in shape. I'm going to get in better shape.''

Irwin knows he needs to be fit, especially with the growing strength of the young players on the 50-and-over tour.

``The players who have come on recently and those who have yet to come are going to be bringing great credentials,'' Irwin said. ``I speak for myself when I say this, but it's encouraging me along with others to step up and play a little better.''

The love of a challenge has long been one of Irwin's competitive strengths. He, as fellow Hall of Famer Jack Nicklaus on the PGA Tour, was a rare athlete who chose golf - much more common now but hardly the norm when they started on the PGA Tour in the 1960s.

Irwin, good enough as a collegiate golfer to win the 1967 NCAA championship at Colorado, also was a two-time All-Big Eight defensive back for the Buffaloes football team.

That kind of a background helped him win three U.S. Open championships on the PGA Tour - the last at age 45.

Former U.S. Senior Open champion Graham Marsh, also playing this week at Valencia, said Irwin's background as an athlete, success on the PGA Tour and staying in shape have contributed to his success on the Champions Tour.

``He came with a different set of credentials, a different mentality and a different record of longevity in his 40s than the players who came to the senior tour when the senior tour first started,'' Marsh said.

Marsh and Irwin expect to see more players do well in their 40s on the PGA Tour and bring that success to the Champions Tour. Jay Haas, 49, and 47-year-old Scott Hoch have PGA Tour victories this year.

``I go back to just 1997 - I won nine events, Gil Morgan won six events and since that time I think we've seen a ratcheting up of the other players,'' he said. And we've seen new players come on - Bruce Fleisher, Allen Doyle, Jim Thorpe, Doug Tewell, Larry Nelson - they have all pushed the bar up a little bit.

``From where we were just a mere five years ago, for instance, to where we are now, I'd say the caliber of golf has increased dramatically and is even more competitive.''

And, still, Irwin remains a consistent challenger, ahead of the pack and well past the wall.

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Hale Irwin, who won four times on the Champions Tour last season, plays this week at the SBC Classic in Valencia.

Scott Martin/Associated Press