Couples' game, personality suitable for Champions Tour

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Fred Couples will serve as the Presidents Cup captain for Team USA and wants Michael Jordan to help out.

Dec. 22, 2008
By Lauren Deason, PGATOUR.COM Editorial Coordinator

Some of golf's favorite names and most familiar faces will be joining the Champions Tour in 2009. Over the next three weeks, PGATOUR.COM will take a look at the former PGA TOUR winners who turned 50 in late 2008 or who will hit the half-century mark in 2009 and likely make their Champions Tour debut.

Has there ever been a player more perfect for the Champions Tour than Fred Couples?

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Couples will turn 50 in early October.

The Basics

NAME: Frederick Steven Couples

HT: 5-11 WT: 185

BIRTHDATE: October 3, 1959

BIRTHPLACE: Seattle, Wash.

RESIDENCE: Scottsdale, Ariz.

TURNED PRO: 1980

TOUR WINS: 15

Photo gallery

Click here for a look back at Couples' PGA TOUR career.

Throughout his entire career, pro-am guests clamored to play golf with him, regular guys wanted to drink a beer with him or women followed him on the course.

Like the Golden Bear, the King or the Shark, he's in the league of golf stars with a nickname. Say "Boom Boom" and everyone will know you're referring to Couples, who used to crush the ball off the tee.

He's definitely one who puts the "Champion" in Champions Tour, as well. Couples is a Masters champion, two-time PLAYERS victor, and winner of 15 PGA TOUR events. If unofficial victories counted -- like the Skins Game, Shark Shootout and team competitions -- he'd have 26 more titles. That's more than Tiger, Jack or Arnold.

His life off the course? Well, that's another story. Couples is currently dealing with back problems, undergoing his second divorce and was diagnosed with a blood clot in his right arm in 2006. His mom, Violet, died of cancer on Mother's Day in 1994, and his father, Tom, passed away from leukemia in 1997.

Couples is also a private person and, despite his fan-friendly nature and penchant for making crowds smile, he can be fiercely shy, low-key and emotionally detached. Still, he has that "je ne sais quoi" that makes fans flock to follow him.

Even Tiger Woods used to be in his gallery. As a kid, Woods thought Couples was cool and wore oversized shirts to match his attire.

"A lot of things about Freddie are special, but the best thing is, he's so genuine," Woods once said. "The way he treated me when I played practice rounds with him as an amateur, I'll never forget. He can be hilarious rambling about nothing, or he can just stand there and make people feel good."

Couples turns 50 on Oct. 3, but he has something else to take care of before he can turn his focus to beating his fellow 50-and-over competitors.

He'll coach Woods and his fellow Americans at The Presidents Cup, which will take place at Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco next October. In fact, Couples will turn 50 just days before his team tees it up against Greg Norman's International squad.

After that, it's time to hit the Champions Tour circuit.

"I'm really looking forward to it. I've talked with Mark O'Meara and Jay Haas about it and my goal is to be healthy once I turn 50," Couples said. "The great thing is I'll be able to play in a few Champions Tour events right after I serve as the captain of the U.S. team at the 2009 Presidents Cup."

Five things you may not know -- or may not remember -- about Couples

1. The University of Houston alum had an impressive group of roommates while attending college. Couples roomed with future TOUR pro Blaine McCallister -- he joined the Champions Tour in 2008 -- and also CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz. While in their dorm room in 1977, Nantz and Couples used to pretend they were interviewer and interviewee in the Butler Cabin on a Sunday at the Masters. In 1992, that dream came to fruition when Couples won at Augusta National. Nantz said Couples couldn't even look at his longtime friend because the tears would well up in his eyes.

2. Couples grew up in Seattle and still returns to his hometown to host the Fred Couples Invitational charity tournament. Because of the wet and rainy climate in the city, Couples would wear out golf gloves as a youngster. When he eventually ran out of money to replace them, he realized he didn't really need one. "If your grip is fundamentally sound, you hold the club lightly and regrip your clubs from time to time so they're fresh and tacky, you'll find your hands won't slip," Couples said to Golf Digest. "What's more, you'll have better touch on all shots. A glove tends to dampen the vibration that transfers from the shaft through your hand at impact. I don't like that. With my left hand bare, I get a better sense of what happens when the clubhead meets the ball."

3. His father's ancestors carried the last name Coppola, so naturally Couples has some Italian in him. In 2007, the golfer was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago. Couples said it was a thrilling night which was made especially meaningful when Yogi Berra, one of his father's favorite baseball stars, gave him the induction medal.

4. His father was a groundskeeper at the Woodlands Park Zoo and Couples picked up gardening tips from his dad. He thinks gardening is very therapeutic -- except for the time he nearly chopped off his leg with a new chain saw. "I was cutting a branch, and the chain saw just dove down and through it and missed my thigh by four inches," Couples said to Golf Digest. "I put the thing right back in the box and gave it to a friend. I've left the dicey stuff to the gardeners ever since. I stick to pruning and weeding."

5. Couples switched to a cross-handed putting grip at the 1992 TOUR Championship and promptly finished fifth there. He said the new method made it easier to keep his hands ahead of the ball and swing the putter straight down the target line. As he said to Golf Digest in 2000, "Going cross-handed taught me another lesson: the importance of having an open mind. If your putting has gone sour, experiment with your grip, ball position, whatever. Play your hunches. Don't feel so locked in to a specific method that you overlook a good alternative. That's a good rule for life, too."