RAINING CHAMP ON TRACK
Fred Couples putts during a damp round at Canyon Meadows on Thursday ahead of his Shaw Charity Classic title defence.
As unforgettable endings go, it wasn’t maybe quite up to Bogart and Claude Rains strolling off into the fog at the beginning of a beautiful friendship at the close of Casablanca.
But for a golf tournament in Calgary, factoring in the famous names littering the field and the lustre of the man manufacturing the late- afternoon magic, it isn’t likely to fade from memory anytime soon.
The 40- foot chip- in for eagle at 18 after lacing a 5- wood 240 yards into the Par- 5 closer to a cap a course record 61. Followed by a tap- in birdie putt after sticking a sand wedge shot to within a foot on that same hole to beat back the stirring challenge from Billy Andrade.
“Top it?” Coming up on a year after the fact, back at the scene of his memorable Sunday assault on Canyon Meadows, Fred Couples blinks at the suggestion. “Well, I mean, you don’t. “You don’t top it. “You come out tomorrow, you’ve got to play well.
“I went from 20th or whatever to winning. Sixty- one, 62, those are just rounds that you enjoy and then you go out the next day and just keep playing.
“Golf usually tops you. That’s what usually happens. You’re usually the brunt of the top, here or there. “Not the opposite.” Couples opens defence of his Shaw Charity Classic title Friday in an 11 a. m. swashbuckling threesome, Colin Montgomerie and Miguel Angel Jimenez playing a Scottish Athos and a Spanish Porthos, respectively, to his Aramis.
“I’d come back every year,” says Couples, following Thursday’s final pro- am event. “It’s a great event. I love the course. It’s kinda the same old song I’ve said since I got here: I grew up in Seattle and we don’t play a ton of courses that remind me of Jefferson Park, where I grew up playing.
“I like the greens. I like the shape of the holes. And I seem to play well here.”
There are, he knows, no end of serious challengers. The Shaw newbies, Montgomerie and Jimenez, for starters. Jeff Maggert’s on double- Major form. Kevin Sutherland’s coming off a second at the 3M. Andrade has some major incentive mojo backing his bid, obviously.
Put it this way: Couples would prefer not to have to conjure up a 61 this Sunday to win.
“Golf,” he reasons, “is golf. The golf on our tour is very, very good and strong. They don’t hand these scores out. They don’t make the courses pitch- and- putt. Last year was a really, really good round. I putted really well. I didn’t knock flags down. But I hit ’ em close and when I did, I made ’ em.
“I knew I was moving up the leaderboard. To be honest, when I chipped it in I didn’t know I’d shot a 61. I just knew I’d had a good round. I haven’t shot many 61s in my life. And it was a good one here.”
The Shaw marks only the sixth Champions start of the season for the 50- plus tour’s marquee man. The issues with his problematical back are well documented. Yet he isn’t, he insists, yet at a point where sporadic discomfort and hassle are overtaking enjoyment.
“You know, not yet, but it gets frustrating several times a year. I mean, I’ve learned to play around it. When it goes out, I don’t play golf. I was off for three months. I went to the desert one weekend where it was 100 ( degrees Fahrenheit) and tried to hit.
“Then I came back to L. A. and I couldn’t really move. So I thought, well, this is silly, so I’m just going to wait until I can’t wait anymore. Then I went back to the desert because it’s 110 and it feels good and I hit for four days in a row and felt pretty good. That’s how I do it.
“But am I worried about hitting a tee shot here tomorrow and having my back go out? No. I could get in the car and have it go out.
“Golf is hurting it less than other things.
“You’ve got to be healthy to compete every single hole, and sometimes I’m not quite there, but I slash it around and I compete pretty well.”
With Round 1 in the offing, Fred Couples repeats that he has no intention of trying to top his comefrombehind Sunday dramatics.
That’d be a fool’s game. Besides, it’d be like trying to follow Sinatra at the Sands or the Beatles on Sullivan.
Eagle chip- ins on 18 and competitive closing 61s are, as he mentioned, unexpected and wondrous gifts, but not anything to be counted on.
He’d be happy as a lark, quite frankly, to experience a similar Sunday satisfaction, if not the same level of sorcery.
“To be honest with you, for $ 100 million, I don’t think I could go over too many of my holes on Sunday,” Fred Couples admits. “I don’t even remember a lot of the shots.
“I came from way back, I was free wheeling it, and then I got a pretty good break on 18 where I drew a good lie and I chipped it in to finish off a great round. There were some key putts made.
“Again, ( Friday) we all start at zero and I have to play well to compete with these guys. “That’s my goal. “I feel like I should play well here and I want to play here every year and hopefully in the next few years win it again ... ”
Slight smile. “... before I get too old.”