All of a Sudden, Fred Couples, at 32, Is Best in the World : Golf: He’s won twice this year, finished second two more times and is favored this week to win the Masters, the first event in Grand Slam of Golf.

Fred Couples rested on his haunches on the first green. For about 30 seconds he stared at the golf ball in his hand, as if to ask, “What dirty deeds will you perform today?” About halfway through a 15-foot birdie putt, he found out.

The ball hit a spike mark, arresting its gentle left-to-right arc toward the hole. It rolled past an empty cup, and Couples had a short putt for par.

It was an inauspicious beginning to a mediocre round for the man who now is judged as the best golfer in the world--or, as defending British Open champion Ian Baker-Finch calls him, “the superstar of the moment.”

One day earlier, a golf-weary, half sick Couples shot a 1-over-par 73, breaking a string of 22 consecutive subpar rounds. One day later, he would break his own record over the Stadium Course at TPC-Sawgrass with a 9-under 63.

On this day, though, he shot a 71 to barely make the cut. He eventually would finish tied for 13th in the Tournament Players Championship, only the sixth time in his past 22 tournaments that he was worse than sixth.

The 1991 Player of the Year and Vardon Trophy winner as the lowest scorer on the PGA Tour, Couples has won twice this year already and finished second two more times. His most recent victory came March 22 in the Nestle Invitational, which he won by nine strokes.

That victory solidified him as Golf Digest’s pick to win the Masters next week at Augusta, Ga., and also shot him to the top of the Sony world rankings. In the six years the Sony rankings have existed, he is the first American to be No. 1 and only the fifth player to occupy that position, following Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam, Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros.

“The world rankings can get a little wacky at times,” Faldo said, “and it’s nice to have somebody doing well ranked No. 1, so nobody can argue with it.”

Except maybe Couples, although at any given time it’s hard to figure out what he’s thinking. At first, Couples said flatly that he didn’t think he was No. 1, then he recanted--sort of.

“I think that I’m a very good player and I’m getting better, but as far as ranked No. 1, I guess I am from points,” he said.

MRS. COUPLES:

He’s No Scatter-Brain!

Couples walked alone down the fairway on the par-5 second hole. There was a brief wait while the green in front of him cleared, so Couples wandered into the woods, emerging on the other side in front of two country-club mansions under construction. He gazed up at the unfinished buildings for a moment, then walked back onto the course.

“What’s he doing?” one spectator asked.

“He’s looking at those houses,” another said.

“I sure wish I was a real estate agent,” the first one said.

Couples put his second shot 12 feet from the hole, missed the eagle putt and made birdie.

Part of what makes Couples such an enigma is that, after 11 years on the tour, he all of a sudden is the world’s best golfer at age 32. And he doesn’t seem to know it. Some people think he’s an air-head, and they have strong circumstantial evidence.

According to Sports Illustrated, he showed up at the Queen Mary Open in Long Beach, Calif., in 1980 and was told he couldn’t play because he was an amateur. So, he turned pro on the spot. Talk about planning. Then, at Doral last year and earlier in his career at the Houston Open, he apparently showed up to play, only to be told he’d forgotten to enter.

“I can guarantee you he’s not a scatter-brain,” his wife, Deborah, said. “He’s just not an I, I, I type of person. He likes to focus on other people. He’s not self-centered. He doesn’t think the world revolves around him. He’s casual.

“I’ll tell you what Freddie is. He’s an average guy with an enormous amount of talent. He enjoys being one of the guys.”

MR. COUPLES:

I Do Care!

On the third hole, Couples missed a 20-foot birdie putt, then turned up the palm of his right hand as if to say, “Break that way, not this way.” A deep frown creased his face.

As he walked to the fourth tee, a boy wearing a red baseball cap over his close-cropped blond hair was stalking Couples.

“Hey, Mr. Couples,” the boy called.

“How are you, kid?” Couples asked, smiling.

“Fine, Mr. Couples,” the boy replied, and Couples signed an autograph.

Couples made birdie on the fourth and fifth holes, going 3-under-par, and the gallery began to chant his nickname, “Boom Boom.” Couples walked down the sixth fairway, cracking his knuckles.

The early part of Couples’ career was marked by inconsistency and a seeming lack of ambition. Even this year, Couples said before the Los Angeles Open that he would be satisfied with third. At that, Jack Nicklaus remarked: “I don’t understand.” Couples won at L.A., anyway.

Couples’ first tour victory was the Kemper Open in 1983, and he won the prestigious TPC the following year. He was just 24, and he wouldn’t win again until the Byron Nelson Classic in 1987.

Again, however, his career quickly soured. He lost the Phoenix Open in 1988 on the last hole, and his collapse on the last day of the the 1989 Ryder Cup cost the United States the title.

Around that time, he admitted he wasn’t practicing much, just watching TV.

“Great talent. No goals in life,” Tom Weiskopf told Golf Digest.

No way, says Couples.

“Six years ago, I tried just as hard as I would last week or any other week,” Couples said. “I just wasn’t as good. People say they think I care more now. It’s just that back then I wasn’t as good as I am now. It’s fairly simple.”

In any case, Couples practices now. His wife and friends attest to that, as do his scores, but sometimes he still leaves the impression he doesn’t much care.

“I play golf, and when I go away, I don’t play golf,” he said.

MR. & MRS. COUPLES:

No Pedestal, Please!

Couples bogeyed the par-4 sixth hole after a long wait in the fairway. He made par on the next hole after missing a 4-foot birdie putt, and he finished out the front side with a par and a bogey, putting him 1-under for the day.

Two elderly gentlemen happened to be walking to the 10th tee when Couples came along. One turned to the other and said: “That is the world’s greatest golfer, Harry. You are that close to him.”

Couples put his drive into a deep sand trap and made bogey on 10. He was now even for the day.

Couples met his wife while they both were students at the University of Houston. She started the relationship by flirting with him at a football game. If opposites attract, they must have collided like nuclear particles in an atomic accelerator.

While Couples is a little shy and unassuming, she is outgoing and gregarious. She’s a world-class polo player who owns and trains eight of her own ponies, she teaches tennis, and she owns and runs an interior decorating business.

When informed that a big story on her husband was in the works, she replied: “Good. You ought to do a big story on him.”

And she quickly added, Freddie is having fun.

“He is not convinced that he’s the No. 1 player in the world, but it’s been enormously fun, this streak he’s been on. Obviously, there’s a lot of pressure, but Freddie just wants to play well and enjoy himself, make the streak last,” she said.

“The one thing we’re fighting very hard with is the idea

Couples made routine 5 on the par-5 11th, a birdie hole, and he walked up the 12th fairway with a scowl on his face. “I think Freddie’s getting a little mad now,” one of the gallery whispered.

He parred the 12th and the 13th holes, then threw his golf bag in the middle of the fairway on No. 14. He sat down on the bag, pulled out a package of cookies and ate them. He washed them down with a soda on the 15th fairway, and he came to the 16th still at even-par for the day.

On the 16th, another birdie-able par-5, he hit his drive down the left side, about 315 yards--10 yards longer than John Daly hit his in the group behind Couples. He had 180 yards left to the hole. Couples put an iron about 50 feet left of the flag stick, missed the eagle putt and made his 4. He parred the final two holes for 71, stopping on the 18th fairway to pull up his socks, tie his right shoelace and tip his visor to the gallery.

The next day, Couples had a 30 on the front side, eagling the par-5 ninth by holing a 102-yard wedge, and word spread quickly that Freddie was back in form. This dance was for Couples only.

“We’re playing for second place most of the time when we’re playing against Freddie now,” Tom Watson said.

Phil Blackmar said that by the time he and his buddies were eating lunch in the clubhouse, Couples was 8-under-par.

“We were all in there laughing, wondering what he was going to shoot,” Blackmar said. “Then we heard that he had been a little sick the first two days of the tournament and didn’t say anything about it.”

Deborah Couples confirmed that he was sick besides being tired from playing in seven straight tournaments. She had planned to come to the TPC from their home in Palm Beach, Fla., earlier in the tournament, “but I caught a little of that flu Freddie had.”

Couples skipped the tournament this weekend, giving him plenty of time to rest up for the Masters--and to avoid questions about it. Last year, he finished tied for 35th, but he was fifth at Augusta in 1989.

“I really wish people would quit asking Freddie about the Masters,” Deborah said. “It’s just another week, even though it’s a big week. It’s so many hours away. He’s played very well there in the past, and he’ll do his best. But, to say he’ll win is ridiculous.”