HIS KIND OF PLACE
Couples knows Augusta layout well
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Fred Couples isn’t concerned about 57.
Not when he’s shooting 2-under-par 70 on another challenging day at Augusta National Golf Club.
Showing he can still keep up with the kids, Couples put himself in contention Friday at the site of his only major championship a quarter-century ago.
His favorable position should not be surprising to anyone. The 57-year-old has been a perennial challenger at the Masters since becoming eligible for the PGA Tour Champions, the senior circuit for professional men’s golf.
Couples led after the opening round at Augusta in 2010. He was on top at the midway point in 2012. He was second heading to the weekend in 2013.
Now, after sitting out a year ago because of a chronic back problem, he’s back in that familiar spot again — just three shots off the lead, even as another dose of swirling winds made life miserable for a bunch of younger players.
“I really know the course very well,” said Couples, who has 15 wins on the PGA Tour and 12 on the 50-and-older tour. “I feel like my age is still OK, because I can drive it far enough. I’m not long like I used to be on this kind of course, but it still plays where I can reach a lot of these greens with shorter clubs to make the ball stop around the hole.”
Couples made six birdies Friday, the last of them at No. 18 to close his round with a flourish.
After a 272-yard drive gave him a peek at the green around the towering Georgia pines, he stuck his approach to two feet from the flag for a tap-in. It left him at 1-under 143 through 36 holes, within striking distance of the lead pack: Rickie Fowler, Sergio Garcia, Charley Hoffman and Thomas Pieters.
That final hole was especially important because it came after back-to-back bogeys.
“I had what I thought was really good yardage, and the only problem was that I made two really bad bogeys in a row,” Couples said. “I was kind of thinking, ‘Where do I want to hit this?’ It hit in the flat part of the green and went up the hill and was circling back toward the hole, and the crowd was kind of going crazy. Very nice to finish with a birdie.”
The challenge for Couples is to keep it going through the weekend. Over his past eight Saturday and Sunday rounds at Augusta, he has broken par only one time. That’s not surprising, because no one in their 50s has won a major golf championship.
But it’s clear Couples still knows his way around this place, where experience is such a huge factor.
“I’m a competitor, so I like to believe in myself,” Couples said. “I’ve had a lot of good finishes here, and my goal is to keep fighting with these guys.”
In addition to his victory, Couples has 10 other top-10 finishes in the Masters, most recently a sixth-place showing in 2010. Can he win another green jacket?
He’s not ready to go there. Not yet anyway. “I’m not going to be thinking about winning the tournament until Sunday or the back nine on Sunday,” he said. “I’ve got a long way to go before I worry about that.”