Let’s get this out of the way now.
He has tickets to the semifinals Saturday. He’s not sure if he can go. And he wants UConn to go all the way. His caddie Joe LaCava does too.
Yes, we’re talking Fred Couples. All-round sports fan. Former Shell Houston Open champ. Former Houston Cougar. And, no, he isn’t going to be able to make any of the Guy V. Lewis/Phi Slamma Jamma goings-on this week, even though he’d like to.
“If Guy Lewis was in the Final Four on Saturday would he be out here Saturday morning watching me play golf? I’m in the same boat,’’ Couples said. “ went to Houston, I love Houston, but got to play golf, and, I mean, there’s not enough time on my feet, you know, to do all that. I think they know. But, it’s a hard thing.’’
Yep, Couples is here to play golf. He won the Administaff Small Business Classic here last fall and now he’s back playing the SHO with the kids and getting ready for next week’s Masters. Two years ago, he tied for third here, then missed the cut at the Masters. Last year, he shared 55th here, then finished sixth in Augusta.
Rhyme? Reason? It always comes back to, well, his back. And it’s been worse than usual for the past five months.
“I’m excited to be here and there and then we’ll see what happens,’’ he said. “I think I’m going to take some times off after these two events. You know, I’m so stuff and tired right now that it’s – I don’t know. It’s been like this since October and it’s now – having a bad back is okay. Having pain and a bad back is like a double whammy.’’
Can’t shake it? “It ain’t going away,’’ he said, before shuffling off to tape a few commercials for the Administaff folks.
And, yes, he’s feeling every bit of his 51½ years.
“I’ve been out here since 1980,’’ he said. “It’s hard to believe, yeah, 30 years, you know. What I can’t believe is that I’m still playing. That’s what I can’t believe. Why, I’m not really sure. I love to be here, but, you know, this isn’t — this is an old man’s course. I played with Emmitt (Smith) and Sec (former Secretary of State and former Treasury Secretary James Baker) and Marvin (Odum) from Shell, so we had a great time, but I need to play like that tomorrow and get a little momentum going into Augusta.”
If not for Augusta next week and his ties to Houston – the city embraces him as one of its down — Couples might be teeing it up at the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic.
“To me obviously I just played at Newport Beach in the Champions Tour, and this golf course is probably ten times harder, but it’s all golf,’’ he said. “ You know, I mean, honestly if I wasn’t going to school here and didn’t play here every year, you know, there’s a tournament in Mississippi this week that I probably should be at, but going to school here and I love the tournament, there’s no way I was going to not come here, and it’s a better tune-up for Augusta. But, you know, I belong on the Champions Tour, but every now and then I come out and enjoy it.’’
With an eye on Final Four.
And a VCU-UConn final.
“After that, hope for a great game because I’ll be sitting with my feet up watching it Monday night,’’ he said. “Maybe a double overtime. You know, we’re rooting for UConn to go all the way.’– Melanie Hauser
FedExCup Update: Shell Houston Open
This week is once again a big week for Augusta, Ga. native Vaughn Taylor.
This week offers a lot of opportunity for movement by those who have played well at Redstone Golf Club in the past.
Of last year’s top 30 finishers at the Shell Houston Open, 24 return to this year’s event with 23 eligible for FedExCup points. Of that group, 19 are currently outside the top 50 in the standings and 10 are outside the top 100.
Defending champion Anthony Kim checks in at No. 58 this week, while runner-up Vaughn Taylor enters the week in 79th. It’s an especially big week for Taylor, who is trying to accumulate more FedExCup points while also searching for a victory that would send him to his hometown of Augusta, Ga. next week.
Other top finishers from 2010 that are in need of a points boost are Shaun Micheel (5th last year, 165th in FedExCup points), Jeff Maggert (T6, 177th), James Driscoll (T14, 151st), Josh Teater (T14, 218) and John Rollins (T25, 157). A repeat of last year’s performance from any of these competitors would go a long way in helping them move up the FedExCup standings.
BEST NEW ARRIVAL: Daniel Chopra’s T47 finish in the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard allowed him to enter the FedExCup standings at No. 206. Chopra made the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup in 2007-09, but missed out for the first time last year, when he struggled to just eight cuts made in 28 starts.
BIGGEST MOVERS: It didn’t take Sergio Garcia long to get back into the flow of things. He’s had two starts – both top-15 finishes – and moved up 71 spots last week to No. 95 in the standings.
Rod Pampling’s T12 at Bay Hill allowed him to jump 63 spots into No. 224, while David Toms (T3) made his way from No. 108 to No. 52. Also making a 50-plus spot jump: D.J. Trahan from 182nd to 129th, just five points out of the coveted 125th spot.
NOTABLE DROPS:That 125th position is now held by Bobby Gates, who slid from 120th last week, but stayed inside the cutline. Those falling out of the top 125 were Scott Gutschewski, Paul Goydos, Jason Bohn, John Cook and Ben Curtis.
Cameron Beckman and Ryan Palmer took the biggest falls of the week, each of them dropping 10 spots in the standings. Beckman missed the cut at Bay Hill and dropped from No. 57 to No. 67 while Palmer was idle and dropped from 29th to 39th.
MORE ON LAST WEEK’S WINNER: Martin Laird’s victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational netted him 500 points and allowed him to move to No. 4 in the standings – tying his highest ranking ever during the regular season. Laird opened 2010 with a T4 at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, but lost his position the next week. Laird spent a week at No. 3 in the standings during the Playoffs last year, when he lost a playoff to Matt Kuchar at The Barclays.
Laird has made eight starts in 2011, making seven cuts and finishing inside the top 25 six times. -Chris Dunham
Roger Clemens on the bag this week
HUMBLE, Texas — Seven-time Cy Young award winner Roger Clemens is no stranger to pro-ams. He is, however, new to being a caddie.
He served as Ryan Palmer’s looper as part of the Caddy for a Cure program and, well, let’s just say he might be a better player.
Palmer chuckled, noting that, according to his PGA TOUR caddie James Edmonson, Clemens pulled the wrong club three times and didn’t wash the ball and … well, you get the idea.
“We played together at the (Bob) Hope,” Palmer said. “He’s a fun guy to be around. But we did have to give him a hard time.”
Ironically, one thing that didn’t come up was the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry. Palmer is an Aggie; Clemens a Longhorn. “We really didn’t talk Aggies-Longhorns. We talked baseball and golf,” Palmer said.
As for basketball? Palmer caught the last three minutes of the Lady Aggies’ win over Baylor and, yes, he’s pulling for them in the women’s Final Four. “I know (coach) Gary Blair a little,” he said. “It’s neat to see. First time in school history.” – Melanie Hauser
Ryder Cup captains paired in Houston
2012 Ryder Cup captains Jose Maria Olazabal and Davis Love III will tee it up together in Rounds 1 and 2.
HUMBLE, Texas — No bragging rights. Really. None.
That’s what European Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal said about his Thursday-Friday pairing with U.S. captain Davis Love III. Just fun and golf. Nothing else.
What will he be paying attention to at this week’s SHO? Just about everything.
Slowly but surely, Olazabal is returning to form after being sidelined much of last year with a recurrance of his rheumatoid arthritis and a back problem.
“Well (I’’m) not a hundred percent,’’ he said. “Still the right arm hurts a little bit, but the rest of the body is feeling better.
“At this point it’s more down to, you know, practice a little bit and play a few events, you know, to, again get the feel of competition, playing in tournament conditions which are completely different to what we practice on, obviously tougher conditions being in a tournament. Just get back to the playing rhythm of competition. I think that will help as well, first of all, to know where my game is and to improve from there.’’
Nothing specific, he said. Rather everything in general.
“I would say pretty much everything needs a little bit tuning up,’’ he said. “Kind of really, you know, one day could be the driver, next day could be the putting. That’s how it’s been last three, four weeks. It’s not one particular area that is really weak. I think overall it’s everything is a little bit off.’’
As for the current world rankings? With Europeans in the top four spots and five of the top seven? He grinned, but said it’s all cyclical. It wasn’t long ago, he pointed out, that he, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle and Nick Faldo were all in the top.
Plus, he said, the Ryder Cup is a year and a half away. He still grinned. — Melanie Hauser
Read this article:
Tour Report: Couples playing in pain, picking UConn (PGATOUR.com)