Fred Couples says he started it in the basement.
Then he moved it to the range.
The hope, though, is that a move he’s “never really thought about” delivers in Georgia. Augusta National and the Masters, after all, is where this all started.
It was at last year’s event when Couples said he was hurting. He’d shot rounds of 80 and 76, though it was the manner in which he accumulated the numbers that troubled him more.
“My back is shot,” the 1992 Masters winner said at the time.
“I have more stuff on just to play. The longer the club, I’m OK. I didn’t have any speed. I was driving it 260 [yards]. But most of them were going straight. It was fun. It was really difficult. If I’d have had more woods, honestly, yesterday, I probably could have shot 75, but I didn’t know — I kind of downplayed how bad I felt. I should have had 11-wood to hit 140 yards. I couldn’t even hit an 8-iron. I couldn’t swing.”
It wasn’t ideal. But that was a year ago, and he’s went to work in the time since. While he hasn’t used an 11-wood, he’s proudly added some headcovers to his bag, a collection of easier-to-strike fairway metals and hybrids. Then came last week. He opened with a 67 at the PGA Tour Champions’ Hoag Classic. In round two, the 65-year-old bested his age by a stroke, and he was a co-leader. While he finished tied for eighth, there was hope.
Couples thinks he knows at least one reason for it. Back to the basement.
There, he’s been hitting — and the last 20 balls are full-sends. “Everyone does weird things,” he said last week. But it clicked. He took the move to the range. He stuck with it. Had he not been feeling a bit sick last week, Couples said he would’ve done it post-round.
The thought is he’ll have one less club on approaches in two weeks at Augusta. Last year, he said, he “hit too many 200-yard shots.”
“I’m playing well and I’m trying to do a couple things in my game which I never really thought about,” Couples said Thursday ahead of this week’s PGA Tour Champions’ event. “One of them would be I’m trying to swing physically as hard as I can with my driver. I said that last week, too.
“Because when I go to Augusta, I can’t — I’ve got to pick up six or eight or 10 yards. So I’m trying to do it now, and if I feel OK when I’m done, I’ll come and hit 20 drivers, really swing hard. And I drove it well last week.”
A strong Masters week would be welcomed, of course. As a former champion, Couples can play under a lifetime exemption, but there are limits. Recently, in fact, via an interview with Doug Stutsman of Golfweek, Couples revealed he had a phone call with Masters Chief Tournament Officer Steve Ethun.
“I told Steve two things: First, that I don’t want to embarrass myself. And that I’m certainly not going to embarrass Augusta National,” Couples told Golfweek.
“Steve goes, ‘We already know that. We want you to keep playing.’
“I can’t tell you how much my blood pressure went down.”
That was evident when Couples said he called George Downing, who caddied for him at the 2024 Masters, immediately after talking with Ethun.
“George could hear it in my voice,” Couples said.
“He goes, ‘Did you win the lottery?’
“I said, ‘No, George. I get to keep playing the Masters.’”
