ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- Loren Roberts is looking forward to a "couple of good weeks" because he knows that here, in Scotland, there is a certain inevitability to the concept.

"You gotta love being at St. Andrews," Roberts said after walking off the 18th green of the Old Course. "This is the place for golf. This is what's it's all about if you're a golfer."

Roberts will compete for the Claret Jug for the third time on the Old Course on this milestone occasion, the 150th Open Championship. He earned a spot in the field by virtue of his victory last year in the Senior Open Championship at Sunningdale.

He tied for seventh in 2000, his second visit, behind winner Tiger Woods. In 1995, when John Daly won, Roberts missed the cut.

The British Open is the first of three straight major championships for Roberts. Next week at Carnoustie, he'll defend the Senior Open title he won in a playoff last year against Fred Funk and Mark McNulty.

A week later, the Champions Tour returns to the United States for the Senior U.S. Open at Sahalee Country Club near Seattle.

The timing couldn't be better for Roberts. He's playing his best golf of the year at the ideal time. In his last three starts, he has finished T3, 1st, T5. The victory at the Dick's Sporting Goods Open was his first of the year.

Roberts had a similar spurt in 2009 and kept it going all the way to his second Charles Schwab Cup triumph in three years.

"Three (majors) in a row," Roberts said. "It's nice to be playing well again. Hopefully, I'll maintain some of that momentum here."

Roberts knows it will be a difficult chore to challenge the youngsters on the Old Course but he's counting on a week-off helping.

"Hopefully, the mind will be fresh," he said.

Certainly, the psyche will be excited. That's what the Old Course does to golfers. It gets the heart rate up in a hurry.

Roberts put a new driver in the bag at Dick's and it helped him into the winner's circle. The TaylorMade Super Deep model made a difference in the distance statistic.

"I haven't had a new driver go farther in a long time," Roberts said.

How long has it been?

"Since 2002 when I put the (TaylorMade) 510 in," said Roberts, who at 47 was the oldest winner on the PGA TOUR at the Valero Texas Open that year.

It was the last of his eight victories on the PGA TOUR.

The other "new" item in Roberts' arsenal is an altered approach to putting which even the Boss of the Moss finds a bit amusing.

"I'm changing my stroke a little bit this week," he said. "The greens here are so much slower. I have to play a little more break. I'm a die/lag putter. Here, I have to make a little shorter stroke and put more hit in it, more pop."

Another reason for the alteration is because, in Scotland, the preferred club from well off the green is often the putter. It is another of the inevitabilities of golf in this part of the world.

Champions Tour Insider notebook:

• Al Geiberger was on his way to a morning practice session when word came that Paul Goydos had become the fourth golfer to shoot 59 on the PGA TOUR. Geiberger was the first to do it, followed by another current Champions Tour player, Chip Beck, and David Duval.

"My 59 had 11 birdies and an eagle and (the Goydos round) was similar to mine," said Geiberger, who achieved the feat at Colonial Country Club during the 1977 Memphis Classic. "It really got going in the middle of the round and neither one of us had any tap-in birdies.

"I think my shortest putt was six feet and I chipped in for an eagle on my 10th hole that day. Like Paul, I remember knowing where I stood with three holes to play but if you are playing that well, you can handle it. I started off my round hitting the ball good and it got progressively better as the day went on. I felt like I was never going to hit another bad shot."

Geiberger, 69, is the pro emeritus at Stone Eagle in Palm Desert.

"I'd like to welcome Paul to the 59 Club," Geiberger said. "It's starting to get a little crowded now. It just shows you don't have to be a long-ball hitter to shoot 59. Like me 23 years ago, it was the putter that got him over the line."

• Tommy Robinson, superintendent at Ravinia Green Country Club in Riverwoods, Ill., has qualified for his second U.S. Senior Open. His birdie won a sudden death playoff for third place in a sectional qualifier at Inverness (Ill.) Golf Club. Robinson, 57, from Grayslake, Ill., plays to a plus-2 handicap. The Senior Open is July 29-August 1 at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash.

• Eight players who have made an appearance on the Champions Tour this year will tee it up in the Open Championship at St. Andrews -- Mark Calcavecchia, Tom Lehman, Sandy Lyle, Mark O'Meara, Tom Pernice Jr., Loren Roberts, Peter Senior and Tom Watson. World Golf Hall of Fame member Sir Nick Faldo is also scheduled to compete at St. Andrews. Faldo, who celebrates his 53rd birthday on championship Sunday, has not played on the Champions Tour this year.

• Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Padraig Harrington were honored Tuesday with Honorary Degrees by the University of St. Andrews in recognition of their achievements and outstanding contributions to the game of golf.

Resource: http://www.pgatour.com