By Garry Smits
Florida Times-Union sports writer
Morris News Service

PONTE VEDRA BEACH - Rarely had the balance of a Players Championship swayed so precariously on one shot.

Wet or dry? Fred Couples prepared for the worst.

``I thought it was in the water for sure,'' he said.

He was wrong. And a near-disaster at the 16th hole Sunday in the final round at the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass turned into one of the most stunning moments in the tournament's history as Couples went on to become the first repeat winner of the Players in nearly two decades.

The 1984 champion when he was only 24 years old, Couples turned a fortunate bounce off a mound into a 25-foot eagle putt off the fringe at the par-5 16th and went on to complete a dazzling 64 to rally from four shots back and win the $3.5 million Players with a four-round total of 18-under par 270.

Couples tied the second-lowest score in the event's history and won $630,000, the richest payday for a PGA Tour event in history. It catapulted him to first on the 1996 money list with $777,923 and boosted his career earnings to more than $7.9 million, third on the all-time list behind Greg Norman and Tom Kite.

``That's a lot of money,'' Couples observed. ``Probably a lot more than I deserve.''

Couples' eagle vaulted him past Colin Montgomerie of Scotland and a birdie at No. 17 proved to be the punctuation on his 12th Tour victory and first since 1994. Despite the 1992 Masters title on his list of accomplishments, Couples called yesterday's triumph: ``right up there as the best I've ever had.''

Montgomerie (68) faded from contention with bogeys at the 16th and 18th holes after briefly holding the lead, and finished in a second-place tie with third-round leader Tommy Tolles (72) at 14-under par 274.

Jacksonville's David Duval (71), who was playing with Tolles in the final group, never got closer than two shots from the lead and fell into a four-way tie for fourth with Rocco Mediate (66) of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fuzzy Zoeller (67) and Kenny Perry (69).

Tolles and Duval were bidding to become the fourth consecutive first-time winners in a Tour event but with as many as 10 players in contention, it was the 35-year-old, 15-year pro Couples who broke from the pack with his salvos at Nos. 16 and 17.

One shot behind Montgomerie at the time, Couples launched a 2-iron shot from 212 yards away in the 16th fairway, with the ball slicing toward the water. But he can thank course designer Pete Dye for his quirk of building large mounds of grass-covered earth around greens, because one of them stopped the ball from going into the water and it trickled onto the fringe 25 feet from the hole.

From there, Couples drilled what he called ``an easy, dead-flat'' putt into the hole for a two-shot swing and the lead.

``It was not a very hard putt,'' he said. ``It was flat as flat could be.''

At the 17th, Couples said he was just trying to play for a par and hit a 9-iron that he termed a ``semi-safe'' shot. He made that putt also and could afford the wild yank to the right off the tee at 18. He still scrambled to hit a cutting 2-iron shot that landed on the fringe to the right of the hole, and he got up and down with a good chip and 2-foot putt for par to seal the victory.

Couples had trailed Tolles by four shots to start the day but mixed short birdie putts at the fifth and eight holes with two in the 25-foot range at Nos. 3 and 6 to cut the deficit to one shot on his front nine.

Couples applied additional pressure with a birdie at the 12th hole that made it a three-man race with Tolles and Montgomerie. That set up his heroics at No. 16.

``I climbed my way up there and finished off strong,'' Couples said. ``To win here is a tough turning point. I won here before when I was not a great player but I think getting the 10-year exemption (to all Tour events) helped me become a better player. I don't plan on playing until I'm 46 but another exemption is nice.''

Tolles stumbled by shooting 2-over on the back nine but accepted the blame for his own misfortunes.

``I thought the best score out of the pack would be 5- or 6-under and Freddie proved me wrong,'' said the former University of Georgia player. ``But when I had the lead, I didn't bother with who was behind me. I had the butterflies today, but their (Couples and Montgomerie) play didn't affect my play.''