Why Fred Couples is ‘loving life’ — with ‘an old man’s bag’

Fred Couples, the last time we saw him, was wounded. In April, at the Masters, longtime back issues nagged, and it had delivered a nuisance. 

He couldn’t hit an iron, a staggering thought for one of golf’s all-time sweet swingers. 

“I went around, every wood I hit was really, really solid, but it is howling,” he said. “But an iron, as soon as I hit, I — on 7 I hit a 6-iron because I didn’t know what else to hit, and I carried it about 100 yards. No. 9, I hit a great drive and then had 125, and I had 50 yards left for my third. I can’t hit an iron. My body won’t let me do it.

“It was really, I don’t want to say no fun because it’s Augusta, but swinging was a chore.”

After shooting rounds of 80 and 76 to miss the cut at Augusta National, he lamented more in his session with reporters. 

“My back is shot,” the 1992 Masters winner said. “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. 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.”

With that, we go to this week and The Club at Snoqualmie Ridge, where Couples has returned. The course, about a half-hour east of his hometown of Seattle, is hosting the PGA Tour Champions’ Boeing Classic, and Couples was smiling.

In his bag earlier in the week were all kinds of head covers. He had a driver. And a 3-wood. And a 5-wood. 

And a 4-rescue. And a 5-rescue. And a 6-rescue. Those had seemingly replaced the pesky irons. 

A PGA Tour Champions social-media worker had noticed the setup, and he started this exchange with Couples:

“You have an old man’s bag.”

“I have six woods,” Couples said. “Driver, 3-wood, 5-wood, 4-rescue, 5-rescue, 6-rescue. 

“And I’m loving life. It’s going to get me through these three days.”

The verdict through two rounds? A two-under 70 on day one. A 71 on day two. He was contending. 

It also supported a pledge he made back in April at Augusta. 

The 64-year-old would be back at the Masters in 2025. And 2026. 

“I’m planning on being healthy and making the cut and telling Fred [ANGC chairman Fred Ridley] I’m coming back the next year, too,” Couples said. “This was really ugly. Yesterday there were several times I should have not played, but I thought I could help these guys that I was playing with a little bit even though they’re out-driving me by 50 yards with the wind, so I didn’t want to quit.”

Did he have an idea how much longer he would continue to play?

“Well, I’ve got to get my back fixed,” Couples said. “I could play forever, but I can’t play like this. I withdrew at Newport [the Champions’ Hoag Classic], I withdrew at Palm Springs [the Champions’ Galleri Classic], and I’m not withdrawing here, and I felt better at those places trying to make sure that I could come here. I played nine holes in a practice round and played around it, never really hit an iron. Then I came out here and you’re in competition, and you hit a good drive a little farther and now you’ve got 160 yards. I can’t hit a wood, so I hit an iron.

“Yesterday on the 17th hole, I thought I was going to not be able to walk, and I just took my time and bogeyed 16, 17 and 18 just to finish. But it’s all all right.”