Duval and Couples Know a Good Day When They See It

Fred Couples and David Duval took their scheduled victory lap, bombing drives and draining putts and routing an overmatched field that didn’t have Tiger Woods with which to defend itself.

And so the last round of Franklin Templeton Shark Shootout played at Sherwood Country Club was an awful lot like the previous two, ending Sunday with Couples and Duval winning with methodical, heavy-lidded ease.

With Couples hitting leadoff, they scored a scramble-format 61, and a three-day 184, for a six-shot victory over the cheery Scotts, McCarron and Hoch, at the Thousand Oaks course.

To many, this was a championship built months ago, when Duval inquired of tournament host Greg Norman if Couples had a partner for the event, and then Friday, when the duo posted an alternate-shot 61.

Of the pairing, Norman shrugged and said, “Guys like to play with their friends.”

As a result, pals Couples and Duval will divide $350,000, the winners’ check.

“When I heard the teams, I knew he had stacked the deck,” Hoch said with some amusement. “But they still have to play well and they came out and blistered everybody the first two days.

“If we looked back the whole week and tried to find six shots--we would have had to play the whole tournament . . . “

“Perfect,” partner McCarron finished.

Only the Couples-Duval party was capable of that over the better part of three rounds, a tournament title they will defend next year in Miami, at Norman’s Great White Course.

“We felt like it was going to be a fun day for us,” said Couples, whose team matched the tournament record for margin of victory. “There was never a doubt we were going to win and, obviously, that doesn’t happen very often.”

There were better rounds on Sunday; Duffy Waldorf-Glen Day shot 58 and John Daly-Chip Beck shot 59, for instance. But Couples-Duval didn’t need astounding. They needed their usual games. So Couples flipped his three-wood safely off the tees, allowing Duval to thunder his driver into pitching-wedge range.

“Every time I hit a bad shot he probably hit his best shot,” Couples said of Duval, who insisted Couples do most of the talking, “which basically tells you a lot about the way he plays. We team very well and we had a great time.”

At one point on the back nine, McCarron turned to Hoch and said, “Look at these guys. They make it look so effortless.”

The Hoch-McCarron team got up and down for par out of a green-side bunker on the last hole to preserve second place, a finish McCarron laughingly referred to as their “second-place win.”

“The consolation tournament,” Hoch corrected. With their grinding par and an eagle on 16, they held off by one stroke the team of Peter Jacobsen and John Cook, which had a final-round 61.

For Couples, it was his first win--granted, a very unofficial one--since the 1998 Memorial. A legend in golf’s exhibition season, Couples replaced the late Payne Stewart in the Skins Game, to be played Thanksgiving weekend at the Landmark Golf Club in Indio. Duval also is in the field.

Asked if a win in November, between Tour seasons, still felt like a win, Couples laughed and said, “It did on 18. I don’t know how to say it properly, but we pretty much knew we were going to win. It’s a pretty loosey-goosey day. A win’s a win, as they say. It always feels good to get a trophy.”

In celebration, Couples patted Duval on the shoulder. That was it in the glee department. After all, they saw this coming, if not from the moment Duval picked up the telephone, then at least from Friday. “They wanted me to play, and I wanted to have fun and play with somebody I enjoy being around,” Duval said.

That was Couples, whose long drives and silly-season reputation made them fast friends.

“I didn’t mind getting the call,” Couples said, smiling.