Fred Couples Is New Boss of Champions Tour

I’M STILL TRYING TO get my mind around Fred Couples being 50 and eligible to play on the Champions Tour. Meanwhile, Freddie is absolutely loving it. Shooting 21 under (for 54 holes) is fun. Winning is fun. Collecting about a million for a month’s worth of work is fun.

Couples won his third tournament in four starts on Sunday at The Cap Cana Championship in the Dominican Republic. (What a gorgeous golf course and setting. I watched some of the tournament on Saturday and was ready to check airfares.) He put together a 62 in the final round and nipped Corey Pavin (68, 63, 66) by two shots. Fred had a 67 and 66 in the first two rounds.

“I had a great stretch of golf in 1992,” Couples told the AP, “but I must say that these four weeks on the Champions Tour I’m not missing many shots.”

We’ve seen this before. Some of the 50-year-olds come out as rookies and manhandle the golf courses and competition. Players like Loren Roberts, Jay Haas and Bernhard Langer come to mind. There are a bunch of new “youngsters” out there—Couples, Pavin, Russ Cochran, Tom Pernice Jr., Tommy Armour III, Bob Tway and others. Not all will win a lot, but they’ll enjoy the gravy train. Even though the purses are smaller it’s still very good money on the second-chance tour.

Fred will be playing against the flat bellies the next two weeks at the Shell Houston Open and Masters.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Image: Erik Anestad/Flickr)