Couples thinks Masters offers major possibilities
Fred Couples doesn't seem like a Toby Keith kind of country music fan, but Keith's recent hit single could be Couples' new mantra.
"I ain't as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was."
If there's a 46-year-old guy in the field with the potential to summon a Nicklausian revival at the Masters Tournament, it's Couples.
Augusta National - where he's never missed a cut in 21 tries - is one of a handful of courses where Couples still believes he can win.
"Well, I do," he said of his waning major possibilities. "It never happens but for one tournament, either that or the British Open, I just feel like it can."
If his often-ailing back is willing, Couples considers himself on the final full ride of his career. Participating in the Presidents Cup last fall and beating Vijay Singh in a critical singles match inspired the former No. 1 player to pursue another Ryder Cup spot.
"I'd like to be on any team," he said. "You can't be stupid in golf. People see what you do. So I'm very smart. I can tell you really good players and I can tell you guys who are not that good anymore, and I'm in the middle."
In the right places, that middle ground is still pretty darn good. Couples finished second last year at the Memorial, where he won in 1998. He finished third in the British Open at St. Andrews. He was in the final pairing and challenging to the end in February's Nissan Open at Riviera, where he won in 1990 and '92.
Why not Augusta, where he won his only major in 1992 and nearly won again in 1998? That he can't always summon the game he once could is frustrating but hasn't dimmed his will, even if he thinks his goals sound a little "ridiculous."
"I think I play better now than I used to. I just don't have the total game to do it four days in a row," he said. "That's a stupid thing to say, but I get a little more excited to play now, whereas before I kind of took it for granted I was going to play well almost every time I played."
To reach his recalibrated goals, Couples is playing more golf. He played in 22 events last year, more than he had since 1992.
He plans to try that again this year in a bid to make the Ryder Cup team. The Masters is his seventh start this year and he's currently 13th in Ryder Cup points.
"The Presidents Cup team, being picked for that was a thrill and it gave me a lot of juice and a big boost," he said.
The qualification by elder golf statesmen Fred Funk and Jay Haas for the last U.S. team also inspired Couples. Experience always has its place in golf.
"My age, I don't feel it's a factor. I feel like my back is a factor," he said. "When my back acts up, I go home and rest. But really, you know, I hit the ball solid. I hit a long ways. I don't feel like the game is passing me by. Now it may two years from now."
It didn't seem to have passed him by at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, where he helped the U.S. team beat the international squad by a point last fall.
Couples requested a singles match with world No. 2 Singh and won the point with a birdie on the last hole. He said asking for Singh had nothing to do with cockiness.
"I knew if he went out and played well, for me to lose to him would not kill us," Couples said. "For him to go play Davis (Love) or Tiger (Woods) or (Jim) Furyk, and they lose one down, that would be a huge loss. If I went out and got pummeled, it was expected to be that way.
"It was not, 'I sought Vijay,' I'm not stupid. But I happened to beat him because I just was a little more excited about the whole thing."
That excitement - Freddie style - has carried over. He may not be as good as he once was, but he can be as good once as he ever was.
Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.
