Fred Couples, should you be playing Pebble Beach, offers a tip.
Hole seven, the short par-3 set alongside the Pacific Ocean, is the real deal, he said. A gem. If given the chance, Couples would play it in perpetuity.
But don’t sleep on what follows it, he said.
Actually, it may be impossible to blink on hole eight.
“This hole always freaks me out,” Couples said.
This week, the PGA Tour is playing the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and the pros are gushing over the course in the name. Scottie Scheffler talked of Pebble’s charm. Jordan Spieth said hole 4 through 10 is “as good as it gets in golf.” Actually, Spieth is key to this conversation, as it was his stuntman shot, from the edge of a ravine, that brought the eighth to millions of eyes.
But Couples was already intimately familiar.
“This is a freakshow, this hole,” the 1992 Masters winner said.
But, while playing 8 on a video shared by the PGA Tour Champions, he spoke fondly. While the par-4’s fairway creates claustrophobia, and it’s split by the aforementioned ravine, and its green is “Volkswagen” small, and it’s defended by bunkers, you exit feeling like you did something. Golf, right?
On his tee ball, Couples hit 5-wood. “If I don’t smash a 5-wood and I overcut it, there’s room up to the right,” he said on the video. Couples went right. Said Jay Haas, his playing partner on the day of the video: “You can almost hit more if you went left, but then you make the fairway narrower.”
The group started to walk.
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“If you’re coming from another city or state or country to play, you want to play 7,” Couples said on the video. “… This, even for the pros, could ruin a good round. I’d rather play 7 all day long. But it’s an iconic hole. It’s unique. The land is and it’s probably one of the greatest holes in the world. Wouldn’t you say, Jay?”
Haas agreed.
“It’s not unfair,” Couples continued. “Just take a picture when we get up there. The green looks like it’s a Volkswagen.”
Added Haas: “Well, you’ve heard the term all the time — it’s visually intimidating. This is number one on that list.”
Added Couples: “But Jay is correct — intimidation for any player is a big deal. This is a freakshow, this hole. And it’s just basically because you’re downhill, you’re trying to judge a 190-yard shot and the green is teensy.”
On his second shot, with just over 175 yards needed to find the front of the green, Couples hit 6-hybrid. He’s switched recently to a headcover-based club setup. His back is thankful.
His ball found the putting surface.
“Six-rescue, better than the five,” Couples said on the video. “But you know, I couldn’t hit that with a 6-iron. I’m not strong enough anymore. I hate to say that. Very soft. My old caddie, Joe LaCava, said — what would he say — a lot of toos. Too weak, too this, too much rough, not enough time. How many balls you want to hit? Not too many.”
The group walked to the green. Couples had a story about the ravine.
“One of the bigger arguments Joe and I had, in the U.S. Open, I hit it over the bank,” Couples said. “And I knew it was too much club. And I told Joe, I’m going to lay up towards the edge and we walked up here and we could see the red flag and he — it was a huge player blunder because the caddie’s know a lot, what we’re doing. And I kind of argued with him and I hit it down, beautiful shot, into the ravine.”
Had Haas ever found the trouble “by stupidity,” Couples wondered. Just once, he said. They then talked about Spieth’s shot. During the 2022 Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Spieth’s tee ball finished just feet from the edge of the ravine — only for him to give it a go. He survived, somehow.
“The shot Spieth hit, people, I’m sure 99.999 percent of golfers have never had a shot on a cliff like that,” Couples said. “Or hitting off a building, that freaks me out. What Spieth did here was miraculous. Because even though you’re going to do that every time your whole life, you just think you’re going to fall into that.
“But yeah, it’s a hell of a place.”
A few putts later, they were on to the 9th.
