KAHUKU — Winning streak? Forget winning streak. All five-time defending champion Hale Irwin wants this week is a birdie.

"Fifty-four holes without a birdie. What can you say, except that I'm getting my rear kicked," said Irwin, who saw his bid to win the Turtle Bay Championship for the sixth straight time gone with the tradewinds.

After shooting a 5-over-par 77 — his highest round in five years at the Palmer Course where he has never been beaten — Irwin finds himself a whopping 18 strokes behind front-runner Loren Roberts, who's at 132, a 36-hole record since the event moved to Turtle Bay in 2001.

That's not counting 55 others also ahead of the all-time Champions Tour money winner going into today's final round.

"It's like climbing Mauna Kea with all that snow," Irwin said about any thoughts of making a comeback. "It's been a very disappointing week, particularly in light of the fact that I was hopeful of at least making a representative run at No. 6. I know that's almost impossible with today's field."

What got to Irwin was the inability to get a red number on his scorecard in the first two rounds. His reference to 54 holes without a birdie this week also included Thursday's pro-am.

"I didn't play particularly well at Hualalai last week, so it wasn't like I set the table coming in here. My play this week has been, I'd have to say, disastrous," Irwin said.

"The disappointing thing about it is that I'm having a difficult time getting the ball anywhere near the hole. I had a three-putt right off the bat (at the first hole). That didn't do well for setting the table for the day."

There's no need to push the panic button yet, says Irwin. After all, the 2006 Champions Tour has just begun.

"The good part is, I don't think it can get any worse," he said. "I can start building on a positive starting tomorrow. Get in the (Wendy's Champions) Skins Game and then in a couple weeks time down in Florida, maybe get it back together."

Hometown hero David Ishii shot an even-par 72 yesterday for a 36-hole total of 145, putting him in a three-way tie for 32nd in his first Champions Tour appearance.

"I was trying to get under par," Ishii said. "Hopefully tomorrow. I've been hitting the ball well but not scoring. ... Today, I got off to a better start, but I bogeyed 9 and that was kind of disappointing."

Starting the day with a birdie at the par-4 first hole, Ishii hit a long bunker shot fat and failed to go up and down at the par-5 ninth to make the turn at 1-over.

He sank a 25-foot putt at 14 and got on in two from 230 yards with a 5-wood at the par-5 18th for birdies on the back nine. His only mis-step was a bogey at 16 with his only three-putt of the round.

Don't talk about three-putts to Dave Eichelberger, the only Hawai'i resident on the senior tour.

"Four three-putts. And one deuce (2-putt) from this far," said Eichelberger, holding his hands less than 2 feet apart.

"I kept knocking them past the hole. I'm having trouble judging the speed because I'm gunning them 6, 7, 8 feet by," said Eichelberger, whose 74 yesterday left him at 147.

"Overall, I'm encouraged by the way I'm hitting the ball, the way I'm playing. I'm just throwing away all these shots on the green. I don't normally do that."

Stan Souza, the other local golfer in the Champions Tour's first full-field event of the year, shot a 78—153.