Trouble on greens makes Couples' dream putter out
Web posted
Monday, April 10, 2006
Freddie Couples shrugged. He slumped. He laughed. He left.
Just like that, the 1992 Masters champion loped away from Augusta National Golf Club the same as he arrived - a little older but not the oldest champion of all time.
That history had eluded him once more seemed to bother him about as much as a waitress bringing him chips instead of fries.
"It's pretty simple to figure out," Couples said after letting a second green jacket slip away and onto Phil Mickelson's shoulders. "Somewhere, I needed four putts out there to beat him, and I didn't have it in me."
It's really that simple. The reason Jack Nicklaus remains the oldest Masters champion is because of the putter. Nicklaus found the bottom of the cup and the magic. Couples couldn't ... over and over and over again.
"I'm 46; I don't really feel 46," said Couples, who is 110 days older than Nicklaus was 20 years ago when he won the most memorable Masters ever played. "I didn't hit the ball like I was 46. I putted like I was 66."
Truth be told, Couples played every bit as good as Mickelson - maybe better. He consistently outdrove even Lefty's long driver. He hit more fairways Sunday and more greens in regulation all week than anybody in the field. He was all over the flags.
And he lost.
"I watched a great player win his second Masters, and I felt like at least from tee to green I was close, or if not, maybe a little better today," Couples said.
When it comes right down to it, Couples belly-flopped on the greens with his belly putter. He three-putted three times Sunday afternoon. The last time - from less than 4 feet on No. 14 - ultimately killed his chances and robbed the Masters of the dramatic finish it seemed destined to have.
"It really came down to one minor, minor casualty," Couples said of the birdie miss and comeback par yip that turned what could have been a one-stroke gap into a three-shot gaffe. "That really is a putt where it would have been a heck of a lot more fun to make and see what would have happened."
Even Mickelson agreed that the "mishap" on 14 changed everything: "If he knocks that first putt in, we would have had one heck of a time that final four holes. As much as I wanted to win this tournament, I was sorry to see that happen."
That was only one mishap. Couples left the course littered with them all week. Short putts haunted him at some point every day. Of the 47 players to make the cut, he tied for 44th in putting. He called them his "exhibitions."
"You cannot miss putts and try to win tournaments, whether it's the Atlanta Classic or the Masters," Couples said.
That's why, in the end, Jack was Jack in 1986 and Freddie is Freddie in 2006. Who knows how many green jackets Couples might have collected if he could putt half as well as Nicklaus could on his worst days?
"You're going down the 12th hole and you're saying, 'This is kind of crazy; I should be here,'" Couples said of the strokes he let slip away. "But you can't really do that."
In hindsight, you can. The great Masters story for the aged didn't happen Sunday. With two of the most likable and popular Masters champions strolling the fairways of Augusta National with history at their fingertips and a host of major threats on their tail, it ended up all wrong.
One walked away with a second consecutive major title and third overall, ratcheting up his legacy another notch. The other walked away the oh-so-close oldest Masters winner in history, calling it all "fun."
"Fred's so easygoing," said Lynn Roach, Couples' manager. "He'll think about it, handle it well and it will be out of his mind before you know it. He's not one to look back that much."
When you're Couples' age, however, how can you not look back? Time eventually runs out on everyone. It did Nicklaus. It did Arnold Palmer. It did Ray Floyd.
Was this Freddie's last run, or can the man who's never missed a cut in 22 Masters appearances find the magic again?
"This tournament means a lot to him," Roach said. "He always wants to be at the top of his game for this tournament. He always wants to win when he comes here, and I still think he can win. He's not out of it yet."
Who knows? The course that everyone feared had grown too big to allow the unlikely to happen almost drafted a new tale for the ages.
Freddie Couples made losing look easy, but behind the shrug he knows this will be a hard act to follow.
Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.
