NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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Age is undefeated. Even Boom Boom is not immune.
After years of fighting with his bad back and an excruciating missed cut at the Masters in April, Fred Couples finally succumbed to the reality that every golfer who lives long enough must accept. Couples – who turns 65 this week – now unapologetically plays with an “old man’s bag” of clubs
“I have six woods,” Couples said when he got called out on his setup laden with head covers. “Driver, 3-wood, 5-wood, 4-rescue, 5-rescue, 6-rescue. And I’m loving life. It’s going to get me through.”
Couples was not loving life in April when he suffered through rounds of 80 and 76 in the turbulent winds at this year’s Masters.
“My back is shot,” said the 1992 Masters champion. “The longer the club, I’m OK. I didn’t have any speed. I was driving it 260. But most of them were going straight. … If I’d have had more woods, honestly, [Thursday], I probably could have shot 75. I kind of downplayed how bad I felt. I should have had 11-wood to hit 140 yards. I couldn’t even hit an 8-iron. I couldn’t swing.
“On 7, I hit a 6-iron because I didn’t know what else to hit, and I carried it about 100 yards. … I just can’t hit an iron. My body won’t let me do it. It was really, I don’t want to say no fun because it’s Augusta, but swinging was a chore.
“No. 9, I drove it down there, downhill lie. First of all, it was a 9-iron shot, but I was trying to hit a 7-iron and I just couldn’t swing. The ball went 80 yards in the air and rolled up short left of the green. It’s embarrassing. I don’t want to embarrass myself.”
Two weeks ago in the PGA Tour Champions event at Pebble Beach, Couples showed off his old man’s bag on social media. The longest iron he has in his mixed bag – which is filled with brand names including TaylorMade, Callaway, Ping, Titleist, Bridgestone and Bettinardi – is a Bridgestone J15 Dual Pocket Cavity 7-iron.
“OK, let’s … here we go,” he said. “People have been talking about my woods. There they are. Everyone keeps talking about them, like, so I got my longest iron is a 7. Who cares?”
He then proceeded to hit “a little 6-rescue for the boys” from 177 yards to the front edge of the green. “I couldn’t hit that with a 6-iron,” he said. “I’m not strong enough anymore. I hate to say that.
“Very soft. My old caddie, Joe LaCava, what would he say? A lot of ‘toos.’ Too weak. Too this. Too much rough, not enough time. How many balls you want to hit? Not too many.”
Couples actually has eight non-irons he mixes and matches these days depending on the course – a Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond driver, TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver, Callaway FT I Squareway 3-wood, Ping G425 MAX 5-wood, TaylorMade Stealth 4-, 5- and 6-Rescue and 21-degree Callaway X-Forged utility. He just uses the 7-PW of his Bridgestone iron set and keeps a pair of wedges (TaylorMade ATV 54 and Callaway Jaws Raw 50). His putter is a Bettinardi SS28.
Couples promised he would return to Augusta for at least one more Masters go-round as a 65-year-old in 2025, and his cobbled-together setup should help him get around the course he could once bring down to size with his “boom-boom” power game.
“I’m planning on being healthy and making the cut and telling Fred [Ridley, the Masters chairman] I’m coming back the next year, too,” Couples said before leaving Augusta early last year.
Scott Michaux