Fred Couples last week at the Boeing Classic.
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Fred Couples and Ed Evans, after a pleasant exchange, went to work. Evans, Consumer Cellular CEO, plays the Boeing Classic pro-am, Couples is one of the most sought-after professionals, and is listed at The Club at Snoqualmie Ridge, about half an hour east of Seattle, The couple’s hometown.
Evans’ hits.
“It’s nice,” said the couple.
Evans strikes again.
“He’s beautiful,” said the couple.
Evans strikes again.
“Wow, what is your disability,” asked the couple.
“Especially my swing,” Evans said.
A tried and true golf line, if ever there was one. But the couple asks again, and Evans says it’s 12 – and at the next turn, some evidence comes out. Evans is lucky, though. Shown in a video recently shared by the PGA Tour Champions social media team, he was “a little quick” on his swing, and Lovers, the tempo champion, had a thought.
It included “the dance.”
In the video, the exchange went like this:
“So, soon,” said the couple. “I say this a lot this time. If you can – can you count while you beat?”
Evans said he could.
“Can you go, one, two, and contact three?” The couple asked.
Evans said he thought he could. He hit.
“One, two. It’s good,” said the couple. “Now, beat them all like that, except for the one who pointed them out. But if you get slow – no, only if you get fast and all that…”
“I have to count,” Evans said.
“There’s about a foot and a half left on the ball,” Couples said, “and I do it, too, and I try to go as slow as possible and tear it up in practice. But for you, if you just give a little like you’re dancing. A little bit one two three.”
Evans struck again.
“That’s perfect,” said the couple. “It will go another two or three meters.”
Editor’s Note: And in the Boeing competition, the couple ate preparing for his social media group, and that story can be read. by clicking hereor scroll down. Its headline: “Why Fred Couples ‘loves life’ – and ‘old man’s wallet'”
***
Fred Couples, the last time I saw him, was injured. In April, at the Masters, the backstory once spread, and brought trouble.
He couldn’t hit the iron, a shocking thought for one of golf’s greatest swings.
“I went, all the woods I hit were really strong, but they howled,” he said. “But the iron, as soon as I hit it, I—on the 7 I hit a 6-iron because I didn’t know what else I was going to hit, and I carried it about 100 yards. No. 9, I hit a big drive and I had 125, and I had 50 yards left on third down. I can’t ring the bell. My body won’t let me do it.
“It was true, I don’t want it to be fun because it’s Augusta, but swinging was work.”
After shooting rounds of 80 and 76 to miss the cut at Augusta National, he broke down in tears in his session with reporters.
“My back is shot,” said the 1992 Masters winner. “I have a lot of things to play. If the club goes on, I’m good. I had no speed. I was driving the 260. But most of them went straight. It was fun. It was really hard.
“If I had more wood, honestly, yesterday, I could have shot 75, but I didn’t know – I underestimated how I felt. I had to have 11 woods to hit 140 yards. I couldn’t even hit an 8 iron. I couldn’t swing.”
With that, we go this week with The Club at Snoqualmie Ridge, where the couple is back. The course, about half an hour east of his hometown of Seattle, hosts the PGA Tour Champions’ Boeing Classic, and Couples was all smiles.
In his bag at the beginning of the week there were all kinds of covers. He had a driver. And 3 woods. And 5 wood.
And 4-recue. And 5-recue. And 6-recue. Those seemed to have replaced the pesky bells.
A PGA Tour Champions social media worker saw the setup, and started this exchange with the couple:
“He has an old man’s bag.”
“I have six pieces of wood,” said the couple. “Driver, 3-wood, 5-wood, 4-salvage, 5-salvage, 6-salvage.
“And I love life. It will finish me in these three days.”
A decision in two stages? Two people under 70 on the first day. A 71 on the second day. He was arguing.
It also backed up the pledge he made back in April at Augusta.
The 64-year-old will return to the Masters in 2025. And in 2026.
“I plan to be healthy and tell Fred [ANGC chairman Fred Ridley] I’m also coming back next year,” said Couples. “This was really bad. I shouldn’t have played this many times but I thought I could help my teammates a little bit even though I was blown 50 yards by the wind so I didn’t want to. stop.”
Did he have any idea how long he would continue to play?
“Well, I have to fix my back,” said the couple. “I can play forever, but I can’t play like this. I withdrew from Newport [the Champions’ Hoag Classic]I withdrew from Palm Springs [the Champions’ Galleri Classic]and I’m not backing down here, and I feel better in those areas I’m trying to make sure I come here. I played nine holes in the practice round and played with it, I didn’t really hit an iron. Then I come out here and you’re competing, you hit a good shot and you’re a little bit further now you’ve got 160 yards. I can’t hit wood, so I hit iron.
“Yesterday on the 17th hole, I thought I wouldn’t be able to go, I just took my time and birdied 16, 17 and 18 to finish. But everything is fine.”
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