WATCH ABOVE: The pros are off and swinging, as this year’s Shaw Charity Classic teed off Friday morning. Brendan Parker reports.
Fred Couples loved the Shaw Charity Classic even before shooting a career low round last year to win the Champions Tour tournament.
Having grown up in Seattle, playing at a course called Jefferson Park, Couples has a fondness for Canyon Meadows, which reminds him of the track he played as a child. Winning brought him back to Seattle, but it isn’t the only reason he’s returned.
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“I won last year so I came back,” Couples said. “But I would come back every year. It’s a great event. I love the course. It’s kind of the same old song since I got here. We don’t play a ton of courses that remind me of Jefferson Park where I grew up playing. I like the greens, I like the shape of the holes and I seem to play well here. So that’s it really—the golf course and the fans.”
Couples, 56, was a hugely popular winner at last year’s tournament. He entered the final round of the tournament four shots behind the leaders, but by the time he was finished regulation play, chipping in a remarkable eagle on the 18th hole, the Masters winner had recorded an incredible 9-under par 61. That shattered the course record and vaulted him to the top of the leaderboard. His score would be matched by Billy Andrade, who he bettered in a one hole playoff.
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Couples’ star power belies the fact that back injuries limited him to only 15 wins in his PGA Tour career, including the 1992 Masters. While that sounds like a remarkable career to some, and got Couples elected to the Golf Hall of Fame, many expected more from the man with the cool character and buttery swing capable of bashing balls long distances and earning him the nickname “Boom Boom” in the process.
His casual demeanor, thick head of grey hair and general good looks have made him the golfer women want to meet and men want to be. He’s also a quirky character, a golfer who sat in his rental car last year because he doesn’t like clubhouses, and is a fan favourite, but isn’t at ease when surrounded by autograph seekers. A huge sports fanatic who will talk hockey as easily as golf, Couples has always been characterized as a bit of an enigma.
“Great talent—no goals in life,” is how golf great and occasional TV pundit Tom Weiskopf described a young Couples in the early 1990s. Weiskopf was proven wrong in time, but Couples’ casual laissez-faire attitude can occasionally come across as not being engaged.
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However, truthfully Couples has found a way of being engaged when on the course and not consumed by it when he’s away from the fairways.
This year he’s been away more than he’s played. His back issues have limited him his entire career. He didn’t play for several months after this year’s Masters, simply walking away from golf while waiting for his problematic back to heal.
“It gets frustrating several times a year,” Couples said. “I’ve learned to play around it. When it goes out, I don’t play golf. I was off for three months. I went to the desert one weekend where it was 100 and tried to hit. Then I came back to L.A. and I couldn’t really move. So I thought, well, this is silly so I’m just going to wait until I can’t wait anymore. Then I went back to the desert because it’s 110 and it feels good and I hit for four days in a row and felt pretty good. That’s how I do it.”
He isn’t prepared to call it a day yet, but recognizes that day might not be too far away. He once threw out his back at the RBC Canadian Open by leaning over to remove a ball from a hole on a green. Like a number of injuries, Couples’ problem is delicate and unpredictable.
“But am I worried about hitting a tee shot here tomorrow and having my back go out? No,” he said. “I could get in the car and have it go out. Golf is hurting less than other things.”
In the meantime, Couples maintains his enigmatic personality. He claims he can’t recall many of the shots he hit in last year’s record-setting final round (“To be honest with you, for a hundred million dollars I don’t think I could go over too many of my holes on Sunday,” Couples said. “I don’t even remember a lot of the shots.”), but he’s also a cagey enough veteran to recognize that what happened last year doesn’t matter this weekend.
“Tomorrow we all start at zero and I have to play well to compete with these guys,” he said. “That’s my goal.”
And Couples recognizes that capturing lightening in a bottle—like he did in shooting 61 last year—is a rare feat indeed.
“Golf usually tops you, that’s what usually happens,” he said. “You’re usually the brunt of the top here or there, it’s not the opposite.”
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