Speaking of Fred Couples, he’s currently atop the leaderboard at Riviera by one shot at -5. He’s two holes into round two, 20 holes into the week. There are 10 players currently one shot behind Freddy.
Fred was quoted as saying he’d crawl to this tournament if he had to. Can his back, his 51 year old putting stroke and his patience hold out through the weekend? I doubt it but I’d like to see it happen.
Furky wins PGA Tour POY
Congratulations to Jim Furyk, winner of the PGA Tour player of the year. Well done. Bravo! Bravo! I predicted Jim would be the man a while back. Isn’t it great that you can make predictions, but only brag when they’re right?
Kuchar wins Vardon and Palmer awards
My friends at Bridgestone Golf must be very excited. Their man Matt Kuchar won the Vardon Trophy (for lowest scoring average on the PGA Tour) and also the Arnold Palmer Trophy (winning the most money at $4.1 million, on the PGA Tour).
Matt Kuchar must be feeling the mojo of having me stand three feet behind him at the Tuesday Masters practice round on #15. That’s why he played so well from that point on. He had HOG mojo. I’ll take the credit.
Speaking of awards, give the Byron Nelson to Freddie Couples
Speaking of awards, another notch in Bridgestone’s cap is credited for Fred Couples, who won the Byron Nelson award. That award is for the lowest scoring average on the Champions Tour. Freddie shattered the old scoring record of 68.58 by averaging an amazing 67.97. It must have been the shoes.
While watching the Tuesday practice round at the Masters this week we followed Fred Couples around on hole #9 and hole #10. We noticed the Ecco shoes and that he was wearing had no spikes. In fact my dad popped some pictures of the shoes (left). He does this to help reduce the impact of walking on his bad back.
On hole #9 we watched Freddie bomb his drive far past three flat bellied younger players.
What can we learn from this? Are spikes or regular golf shoes overrated? Perhaps. I know if I don’t wear spikes I slip all over the place because my weight and balance is shifting so much. Freddy’s balance and center is so good, that he doesn’t slip.
I’m trying to watch the finish of the Northern Trust Open on my DVR without finding out who won… Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Rory Sabbatini and Fred Couples are battling it out. Stricker is looking good (especially since he’s on my fantasy team).
I’ve never realized how bad Freddy’s putting can be on short putts. His real stroke is nothing like his practice stroke. I can now understand why he switched to a belly putter. Unfortunately I saw an incoming link to HOG which spoiled part of the outcome stating that Freddy came up short. However it didn’t say who won so I’m still not completely spoiled…
Alternate titles:
“If Freddy could putt, he might have a 2nd green jacket”
“If Tiger could putt, he might have his 5th green jacket”
“The ‘Phil Slam’ is only two major wins away”
Remember when everyone called Lefty “The best player to not have won a major?” Those days are long gone.
Phil took his TWO drivers and won is 2nd Masters with a well played 69. There’s a rumor floating around the web that one apparently isn’t on the USGA conforming list. More info on that later. His only bogey of the day was on 18 when it didn’t matter since he had a 3 stroke lead.
Nuggets
Rocco Mediate was in the hunt until he carded a 10 on #12 en route to a meltdown 80.
Fred Couples was very close to winning and would have been the oldest Masters champ had he done so. If only he could have made some putts today he and Eat would be happy.
Press Room
Press to Fred Couples: “Is there an optimum age for golf”
Freddy: “For Tiger it’s 16 and on…”
Press to Phil: “What do you think of the lengthening of Augusta National”
Phil: “I like it.” DOH!
Press to Phil: (paraphrasing) “Like Arnold and Jack you are trading Masters championships with Tiger.”
Phil: (paraphrasing) “I’m not interested in trading.”
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