For Couples the Laid-Back Family Man, Less Is More

So, just what has Fred Couples learned this year?

1. The right way to trim hedges (keep your fingers out of the way).

2. How to plant trees (hint: the end with the roots goes in the hole).

3. How to be a soccer dad (and love 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. matches the same day).

4. A philosophy so laid back it’s virtually horizontal (pass the sofa).

“I’d have to say that golf has been on the back burner for a while,” Couples said.

Actually, golf is barely on the menu for Couples, who has played in exactly four PGA Tour events since May.

In its place, Couples got married, inherited two children from his new wife, Thais Bren, practiced less, enjoyed his time off and made himself handy at their home in Mandeville Canyon.

But when he has decided to swing his clubs, Couples has been effective. Couples, who will turn 39 Saturday, has won twice, tied for second at the Masters and banked $1.6 million in earnings--the most in his 19-year career.

“I’ve had a lot of ups,” Couples said.

He has played in only 15 tournaments and plans to play two more--at Las Vegas on Oct. 14-18 and the Tour Championship at the end of the month. Couples, whose “Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf” match against Ernie Els will be shown Tuesday night on ESPN, is playing a relatively full schedule of off-season events.

“I know some people like to call it the silly season,” he said. “I call it the fun season.”

It has clearly been a fun season for Couples. He won at the Bob Hope in his first event of the year and won again at the Memorial. He could have won at Augusta, but Mark O’Meara birdied three of the last four holes and Couples tied for second with David Duval.

Couples finished third at the Houston Open and tied for second at the Byron Nelson when he shot a closing 72 to let John Cook pass him.

His aching back hasn’t affected him lately, and neither has his mental outlook after a dangerous period in which both his mother and father died and his fiancee battled cancer. On the course, he’s a force again, which he also has learned to love.

“Hey, I still can win. I know how to win.

“I don’t feel any older on the golf course. I feel like I hit the ball the same. For the next four or five years, if I stay healthy, I really think I’ll do well.”

THAT’S FRED

Couples doesn’t sound as if he’s going to lead the charge for the so-called Tour Players Assn. He said there need to be more big names involved in the movement, which features Danny Edwards and Larry Rinker at the forefront.

“If it was Davis Love or Mark O’Meara, I might pay more attention,” Couples said. “I think my name is closer to them than Danny Edwards and Larry Rinker.

“I’m not trying to bash them, but I can’t follow Larry Rinker’s lead. I’m not going to jump on the Larry Rinker bandwagon.”

GOING CLUBBING

There was a notable absentee Monday when the USGA held its so-called “town hall meeting” with club makers to discuss its proposed testing procedure for golf clubs--Ely Callaway.

Callaway sat this one out, basically because he thought it wouldn’t do any good to attend. There were many people who spoke out against the testing procedure, though, including representatives from Titleist, Cobra and Ping.

But Taylor Made sided with the USGA, which will debate the issue at an executive committee meeting late this month.

Taylor Made and its parent company, French ski manufacturer Salomon, were bought recently by apparel and shoe giant Adidas--and Callaway said that’s the reason for Taylor Made’s position.

”. . . Taylor Made would be able to compete in the golf club market based solely upon fashion, styling and marketing. . . . We think that golf is an equipment and player-performance business and not just a fashion business.”

Meanwhile, USGA President Buzz Taylor decided to put on a happy face about the whole mess: “[The] open forum featured some thoughtful presentations and useful information.”

THE BIG BREAKUP

When Nick Faldo was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in May, he credited his instructor, David Leadbetter, with shaping his golf game into something that would win six majors.

Five months later, Faldo fired him, apparently proving that Leadbetter got dumb in a hurry.

They worked together for 13 years, but with Faldo mired in the worst year of his career, somebody had to go. Faldo couldn’t fire himself, after all.

“Obviously we hadn’t been communicating,” Faldo said. “And in the last couple of months, I have been burning my buns and getting nowhere.”

Faldo hasn’t won in 20 months and has dropped to No. 65 in the world rankings.

Faldo is working now with Chip Koehlke of the Faldo Golf Institute in Orlando, Fla. Leadbetter works with Greg Norman, Ernie Els and Se Ri Pak.

ALL IT’S QUACKED UP TO BE

Hope you took a trout to lunch. Tom Lehman was the honorary chairman of National Hunting and Fishing Day last Saturday.

Said Lehman: “I love playing golf, but I also love the thrill of watching ducks in a marsh at sunrise.”

Absolutely.

PALMER UPDATE

Arnold Palmer is in the fifth week of seven weeks of chemotherapy for prostate cancer and is playing golf every day. He hasn’t officially entered the Pac Bell Senior Classic that will be played at Wilshire on Oct. 26-Nov. 1, but he is expected to commit.

Palmer will be in Los Angeles the Tuesday before the tournament to be honored by the Richstone Family Center.

IS IT A SLUMP?

Poor Hale Irwin, the Cal Ripken Jr. of golf. He tied for 13th last week, which ended his Senior PGA Tour record streak of 19 consecutive top-five finishes. Byron Nelson holds the PGA Tour record of 18 in a row.

HELLO, BRUCE

Next up to hop on board the Senior PGA Tour money train is Bruce Fleisher, who will turn 50 in three weeks.

Fleisher, a journeyman pro since 1970, has career earnings of $1.5 million and one victory in 26 years. He has won $174,486 this year in 22 events.

BIRDIES, BOGEYS, PARS

Motorola is pulling the plug on its sponsorship of the Western Open and the Phoenix Open after 1999. . . . The 10th VNA Foundation Corporate Challenge will be played Oct. 12 at North Ranch Country Club in Thousand Oaks. The event benefits the foundation’s home care service support programs. Details: (818) 242-9108. . . . Elgin Baylor, Jim Brown, Orlando Cepeda, Tommy Davis, Chad Everett, Steve Garvey, Willie Gault, Deacon Jones, Nichelle Nichols, John Roseboro and Fred Williamson are scheduled to play in the first Maury Wills celebrity tournament to be held Oct. 12 at MountainGate Country Club in Brentwood. The event benefits Today’s Fresh Start and Concerned Parents of America. Details: (310) 855-0172.

Norman, making his comeback after shoulder surgery in April, will be paired with Steve Elkington in the Franklin Templeton Shark Shootout, Nov. 11-15 at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks. The rest of the field is Bruce Lietzke, Scott McCarron, Couples, Justin Leonard, John Daly, Fuzzy Zoeller, Love, Brad Faxon, Jim Furyk, Mark Calcavecchia, Cook, Ben Crenshaw, Scott Hoch, Craig Stadler and Tom Kite.

* WAR OF WOODS: Big 2 golf-club makers waging war of words. D1