Couples Hits Comfort Zone
If Tiger Woods zaps golf courses with electricity, then Fred Couples spreads warmth slowly, like a sip of cognac.
Ahhhhh.
There’s something reassuring about seeing Couples’ name on the leaderboard. Look, it’s Freddie. Perhaps because it’s something for which you hope but don’t really expect. Perhaps it’s because he feels the exact same way.
“I don’t play great golf a lot,” Couples said. “I do it every now and then.”
Friday at the Masters qualified as a now (or is it a then?). He shot a 70, tied for the day’s third-best score. Chad Campbell beat him by three strokes. Campbell also leads Couples and the two other guys tied for second, Rocco Mediate and Vijay Singh, by three strokes in the hunt for the green jacket.
Who knows when the next then (or now) will be. Couples is 46 years old, three months older than Jack Nicklaus when Nicklaus won his memorable sixth Masters in 1986. Couples still has flashes, such as his tie for third in the 2005 British Open and a fourth-place finish in the Nissan Open at Riviera this year.
But as an indication of how up and down he is lately, Couples didn’t make the cut in the tournaments after his third at the British Open and his second at the Memorial last year.
About the only thing you can count on with Couples is seeing him on the weekend at Augusta National. Friday’s round assured the 1992 champion of making his 22nd consecutive Masters cut, the longest active streak.
“When I come here, I feel very good on the course,” Couples said. “I feel like I’m a very good lag putter, and you have to do that here....
“Even though I’m not an incredibly good putter, I feel pretty safe on these greens.”
Safe. Maybe that’s the emotion he stirs within the galleries. You’re not guaranteed of what he’ll shoot, but you know how he’ll be. He won’t toss a club into the trees, as Sergio Garcia did Friday. He won’t break out the big fist pumps, as Woods might on Sunday. He’ll just cruise along, absorbing all the “Freddie!” shouts.
He’s pretty much got it figured out. He is who he is. He likes the way this course sets up for him; if he goes out and hits great shots he has a chance to win it.
“It’s not undue pressure and I’m living and dying with every shot like I did 10 years ago,” Couples said.
Later, he explained his different philosophy: “Because I don’t hit shots as good as I used to. It was a lot more important when I played and played well.
“I expect myself to do well. But I’m not like, ‘Oh, well.’ I’m not in that category just yet.”
So don’t sign him in the Nicklaus nostalgia category. He’s in a much more practical, far less emotional mode.
If anything, he sounded more excited by Ben Crenshaw’s ability to make the cut -- and stay within range of the leaders -- at age 54. Given Crenshaw’s shorter distance and lower trajectory, Couples called it “miraculous” and “unbelievable” for him to be sitting at one-under 143 through two rounds.
Even 68-year-old Charles Coody, who won this thing in 1971, shot a 74 Friday.
Couples even has a rational explanation for that. They haven’t dropped magic powder in the mint juleps or laced the pimento cheese sandwiches.
For one thing, the entry requirements tend to skew the field older.
“There aren’t that many young guys that can get into this tournament,” Couples said.
And experience counts at Augusta National. You learn where to take risks, and where to take a bogey and live with it.
“Here, the age is a huge factor,” Couples said. “I just feel like I can save a shot or two on the course, if everything is going OK and you’re into the round.”
Couples on Couples? He’s just playing golf. He looked really aggressive on holes nine and 15, going at the pins near the front of the sloping greens. The ball rolled off both times, down the hill on nine and into the water on the par-five 15.
The overly dramatic explanation would be that Couples got a glimpse of glory one more time and tried to snatch it.
His rationale: One club too short when he grabbed a five-iron on 15, and a poorly hit pitching wedge on nine.
“I wasn’t trying to get cute,” he said of his 118-yard shot on the ninth.
He doesn’t do cute, he does cool.
He has a chance at another Masters championship. So maybe he’ll get a little more serious -- on Saturday.
Friday, after the news conference moderator excused him so he could “go to supper,” Couples stuck around for another five minutes to take questions.
One thing he said about the course: “It’s really set up to be fun.”
Looking at the leaderboard, with youngster Campbell on top and the likes of Singh, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and, yes, Couples, coming after him, I’d have to agree.
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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more by Adande go to latimes.com/adandeblog.
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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Making the cut
Most consecutive cuts made at the Masters (may include years in which players did not compete):
* 23 -- Gary Player, South Africa, 1959-1982
* 22 -- Fred Couples, 1983-
* 21 -- Tom Watson, 1975-1995
* 19 -- Gene Littler, 1961-1980; Bernhard Langer, Germany, 1984-2002
* 18 -- Billy Casper, 1960-1977
* 15 -- Bruce Devlin, Australia, 1964-1981; Jack Nicklaus, 1968-1982
* 13 -- Ben Crenshaw, 1980-1992; Nick Faldo, Britain, 1979-1996; Raymond Floyd, 1973-1985; Corey Pavin, 1985-1998