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By Brett Avery
PGATOUR.COM Contributor

It was one of those pass-the-baton moments that arrive every so often as experienced players give way to a youngster bearing immense talent and a gallery's fascination.

Fred Couples (WireImage)

Fred Couples had one title to his credit by the spring of 1984, his third full season on the PGA TOUR. It was a Kemper Open he as much as won in a five-man playoff as accepted when more experienced contenders played worse than he did in an uneven final round.

Couples was a 24-year-old promising prospect out of the vaunted University of Houston program when THE PLAYERS Championship came around to the TPC at Sawgrass for a third time. Some of the fire had been tamed in Pete Dye's creation but the Stadium Course still required a level of play generally produced only by the most experienced competitors.

It came as quite a shock, then, when Couples not only produced a second-round 64 but withheld late challenges by a handful of veterans, chief among them Lee Trevino, and gained what was then the largest prize in TOUR history: $144,000.

You see, Couples didn't make the cut in the first two tournaments at Sawgrass. In fact, he'd broken 80 just once in four previous rounds.

"Coming here after eight days off without picking up a club, I wanted to play well. But my wife told me I'd be seeing her Friday night at home because I'd probably miss the cut.

"Personally I don't like these type of courses. They're just too hard."

Couples liked Sawgrass plenty in 1984 -- he won again in 1996, but that's another story. Although "target" golf did not appear so it was ideally suited for his game, allowing for a bit of wildness off the tee but rewarding well-struck approaches and keen putting.

That week he tied for 128th in fairways hit (57.1 percent), 16th in greens in regulation (68.1 percent) and third in putts per round (27.5). No one bettered Couples in subpar holes --15 birdies and an eagle in the opening 36 alone -- and the trio of 71s that went with his 64 made him the only one cracking par daily.

On paper there were plenty of players who had an inside track that week. Trevino may have spent most of his time in the broadcast booth with NBC and nursing his sore back in recent years, but he still had the ability to get the ball in the hole.

Tom Watson had his five British Open titles, the U.S. Open from two years earlier and 34 of the 39 TOUR titles he would claim.

Even Seve Ballesteros and Craig Stadler, only a few years older, already had loads of experience and Masters titles to their credit.

But once started, Couples couldn't be caught. There were some expectations he might crumble Saturday, as he had in contention a few earlier times. Although he bogeyed the fourth, seventh and eighth he bounced upright with birdies at the 13th, 14th and 16th.

Lee Trevino (WireImage)

Starting Sunday he was two ahead of Ballesteros, three ahead of Watson and four ahead of Trevino and Stadler. "I'm looking forward to playing with Tom and Seve," he said. "It isn't every day you get to play with those guys. The better you get, the better players you play with."

Couples later admitted he'd had a tougher time that Saturday night watching the Cougars play the University of Virginia in the semifinals of the NCAA basketball tournament than playing the final round.

He was jumpy early in the round, three-putting the fourth hole and then scrambling from the trees to par the sixth.

But Couples settled down and responded when Trevino became the only contender making a run at him. Couples neared aced the 213-yard eighth, ripping a 2-iron that missed the hole by an inch going past before trickled back down a slope to finish 18 inches away. He also made birdie 4 at the ninth after Trevino made birdie there, too.

Couples managed to keep Trevino at arm's length across the back nine, successfully finding the island green at the 17th to preserve a two-shot advantage. Even a three-putt at the last could not spoil the celebration although it reduced his margin to Trevino to one.

"Winning this tournament should be a big stepping stone in his career," Trevino said. "I think we might see him at the top a lot in the future."

It took a few years but Couples did realize the potential Trevino saw in 1984. Couples did not win again until the 1987 Byron Nelson Classic, then began his love affair with Riviera CC with the 1990 Nissan Los Angeles Open. He became a World Cup stalwart with Davis Love III, winning four straight years, and now counts the 1992 Masters among his 15 TOUR titles.

These days Couples is much like Trevino during 1984: a tender back has sidelined him for much of the season and his expectations when he can play are meager. But he remains one of the few players to capture the sense of Sawgrass, a feat that displayed his emerging talent against a backdrop of veterans.