Couples Feeling Much Better After Opening With 63

Fred Couples left the Phoenix Open in a huff. He pulled out of the Hawaiian Open and went straight back to La Quinta to ponder and practice.

Put two shots in the water on the 18th, the last one on the deciding hole of a sudden-death playoff, and you, too, might want to sit at home and brood for a while.

“After what happened in Phoenix, I withdrew from Hawaii,” Couples said. “I didn’t feel like going. I just went home and practiced.”

The rest must have worked, because Couples could not have been feeling any finer Thursday after he shot a 9-under-par 63 to take the first-round lead in the Shearson Lehman Hutton Andy Williams Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course.

One shot behind Couples was Phil Blackmar with a 64 on the North Course. Tom Watson was alone in third place at 65, but he played his round on the longer and tougher South Course.

“On the North Course, it seems like if don’t shoot about a 68, you’ve lost a lot of ground,” Couples said. “But I really enjoyed myself.”

Which is probably just what Couples needed after his collapse at Phoenix two weeks ago.

Couples had a one-shot lead on the final hole, but he hooked his tee shot in the water and had to settle for a bogey. That forced him into a playoff with Sandy Lyle. After playing the first two holes of sudden-death match even, Couples again faced the water on 18 and again put his tee shot in the lake.

Lyle won the tournament with a bogey. Couples took a double bogey.

“That was same club I had hit all week on that hole,” Couples said. “I still feel it was the right club. If I had to do it all over again, I’d use the same club.

“But that was two weeks ago. I’d rather talk about today.”

Couples, who has won three tournaments in eight years on the tour, had 10 birdies and one bogey Thursday.

Playing the back nine first, he started his round birdie-bogey but birdied Nos. 13, 14, 16, 17 to make the turn at 4 under.

He birdied the first two holes on the front nine, then closed with birdies on the 7th, 8th and 9th, all on putts of between 3 and 5 feet.

“It didn’t seem easy,” Couples said. “But I just stayed aggressive, and I made some putts.”

Seven players shot 6-under 66, but only Hal Sutton made his on the South Course. San Diego’s Jack Renner, Willie Wood, Dave Barr, Mark Calcavecchia, John Cook and Gary Koch, the 1984 Andy Williams champion, shot theirs on the North.

Koch’s round was helped by a hole-in-one on the 185-yard 12th hole.

“I hit it about 8 feet from the cup,” Koch said. “It took two bounces and went right in.”

Among the five players tied at 5-under 67 was U.S. Open champion Scott Simpson of San Diego. George Burns, the defending Andy Williams champion, was tied with 15 players at 68. Simpson and Burns played the North Course.

Only 50 of the 154 players who completed their rounds failed to shoot par 72 or better on either course. But among them was Seve Ballesteros.

Ballesteros, making his 1988 PGA Tour debut, shot a 73 on the South Course after making the turn at 3-over 39.

The players will switch courses today before the field is cut to the 70 low scores and ties for Saturday and Sunday. The final two rounds will be played on the South Course, which at 7,021 yards is 362 longer than the North Course.

That difference in length, however, might not have been as significant Thursday because of an unusual wind from the south. That meant three of the four par 5s on the North Course played into the wind.

“Usually you tear up those par 5s,” said Renner, who lives two miles from the course and played it frequently during summers in San Diego while growing up. “I don’t think I’ve ever played the course with the wind like it was in the morning. I’ve seen a few winds here, but this was a little usual.”

Whichever way it was blowing, the difference between the two courses still was considered important enough for Simpson to joke, “Here comes the real leader,” when Sutton, who finished ahead of Watson, entered the interview area.

And when Watson was asked if he felt like the true leader after posting his 65 on the South Course, he smiled.

“No, Fred Couples is the leader,” Watson said. “He has got the $50,000 zero coupon bond in his pocket (that goes to the leader of each round). I don’t see that bond in my pocket.”

Watson, who had seven birdies and no bogeys, said he felt fortunate to have such a good round after a scrambling first six holes.

“I started off a little shaky,” he said. “After four holes, I’d missed two greens, and I was 2 under par. I said, ‘Well, maybe this is my day.’ ”

Watson made a 30-foot putt for birdie at the 2nd hole, chipped in from 35 feet for a birdie at the 4th and made an 8-foot putt for birdie at the par-5 6th after placing his second shot in a bunker.

“I really got away with a lot of mistakes on the opening six holes,” Watson said. “That in essence made my round.”

He played the back nine in 4-under 32, making consecutive birdies at 13, 14 and 15 and two-putting from 70 feet for a birdie at the par-5 18th.

Watson, who won this event in 1977, said the South Course played easier than usual because the fairways were hard and fast, and the greens were in good shape.

“You can hit the ball a long way on the South Course; the ball is rolling for ever and ever,” Watson said. “Actually, it equalizes out the two courses.

“It used to be a lot different. The South Course played a lot tougher. But with the quality of players today, the South Course doesn’t play quite as tough as it used to. I used to feel if I could break par on the South Course, it was a great round.”

Tournament Notes

The 63 by Fred Couples was one shot more than the tournament record for the North Course, set last year by Andy Bean and Craig Stadler. . . . Gary Koch’s hole-in-one was the fourth on the PGA Tour this season and the 10th of his career. . . . Bob Eastwood, who tied for sixth at the Hawaiian Open last weekend, withdrew Thursday morning for medical reasons.