The Week: It Ain't Over Yet

Fred Couples revived his career with a victory in Houston

By Alan Shipnuck

Couples was all smiles during his first win in five years. Jim Gund GOLF PLUS EXTRA Big Play: Gerald McCullagh TRUST ME Karrie Webb's Sunday meltdown is another sign that her days as a dominant player are over. Webb admits she's too lazy to chase Annika, and the rest of the LPGA has caught up with her power. NEXT UP PGA Tour: HP Classic of New Orleans Champions Tour: Bruno's Memorial Classic LPGA Tour: Michelob Light Open European Tour: Italian Open INSTANT POLL Which 2003 major was the best? The Masters The U.S. Open The British Open The PGA View Results

Fred Couples has movie-star cool and plays an outsized brand of golf that earned him the nickname Boom Boom, but what makes him so endearing are his Yogi-isms. Couples is the unwitting philosopher king of golf, and he made a profound statement at last week's Houston Open, despite his zany press conferences. Couples won for the 15th time on Tour, with a personal-best 21-under-par performance, and along the way he became the first University of Houston player to win in his old college town. Asked how life has changed since he was a Cougar, Couples said, "Well, we're a lot older than we were in the late '70s." Who can argue with that? But with age comes wisdom, of sorts, and Couples, 43, has finally refound his focus and is intent on finishing an up-and-down career with a flourish.

Even a decade ago, when he was the biggest star in the game, he was never accused of caring too much. But over the last two seasons Couples did little more than go through the motions, finishing 131st on the money list in 2001 and 103rd in '02. After the turbulence of the mid-'90s -- during which Couples went through a divorce and then a busted engagement and lost both his parents to cancer -- he was more than content to hang out with his wife of 4 1/2 years, Thais, at their spread in Santa Barbara, Calif., where he could prune roses, tool around in one of his vintage Mustangs, and play Mr. Mom with his stepchildren GiGi and Oliver.

Those closest to Couples -- Thais and his longtime caddie, Joe LaCava -- have been nagging Couples for years to try to live up to his potential, but at the start of this season he was as sluggish as ever. A particularly passion-free 38th at Pebble Beach left LaCava steaming. Driving down the coast to Santa Barbara with his boss, "I was so mad I don't think I said two words the entire trip," says LaCava. "I knew with just a little effort on his part we could beat the guys out here." It took the silent treatment for Couples to finally get the message.

Shortly thereafter he began working on his swing with Butch Harmon, and his explosive game began to come back. Last week, at the new 7,508-yard Redstone Golf Club, he opened 65-68 to tie Mark Calcavecchia and Hank Kuehne for the lead. Asked last Friday if he still remembered how to win, five years after his last W, Couples responded in vintage fashion, "Anyone who tells you it's like riding a bike -- it's not like riding a bike."

That was obvious on Saturday, when he dumped his approach to the 7th green into a hazard and made double bogey. But Couples responded with a newfound fight. Like the Boom Boom of old, he birdied all four par-5s, and a closing rush of four birds in the final six holes gave him a one-stroke lead heading into the final round. "It's going to be a slugfest or a puttfest, however you want to say it," he said.

Indeed, Couples struck the ball with authority, but he won with his putter. (He led the tournament with only 106 putts, the first time he has topped that category at a Tour event since 1997.) Couples coolly birdied four of the last five holes to ice the victory, but when it was over he dissolved into a sobbing mess on national TV when he tried to acknowledge Thais, who was back in Santa Barbara. Moments later he shared a sloppy hug with his college roommate, CBS's Jim Nantz. "I think today belies all the stereotypes," said Nantz. "Fred does care, and he does get emotional."

A big part of Couples's appeal has always been that everything seems to come so easily to him, but it was the struggle that preceded this win that made it so compelling. Something he said earlier in the week resonated, however unintentionally. Asked what he was working on, Couples said, "The path, you know. Getting the path better."

He was talking about his swing, but he could have meant so much more.

O.B.: A New Bag for Sir Charles

•Charles Barkley committed a major breach in caddie etiquette when he parked his Bentley on the clubhouse lawn, but the hoops legend was otherwise on his best behavior during a cameo on Kris Tschetter's bag at the Chick-fil-A Charity Championship outside Atlanta. Barkley, who has has been buddies with Tschetter since they played together in a shootout 10 years ago, "did a great job," according to his boss, who finished 57th. "I was surprised, but he got the greens right pretty much every time." Barkley, however, was stumped by the intricacies of the yardage book. "I knew skipping all those classes was going to come back to haunt me someday," he said.

•The other star of the week was Michelle Wie, who played on a sponsor's exemption. The 13-year-old bombed her drives so far past her playing partners' that by Saturday's 18th hole, Barb Mucha had seen enough. After Wie flew a drive 301 yards, Mucha handed her driver to Wie and said, "I can't watch this anymore. Here, you hit it for me."

•David Lundstrom didn't get off to the best start at the Houston Open. Lundstrom, 56, who teaches at Hackberry Golf Club and qualified for the Open as the local PGA sectional champion, was minutes away from teeing off on Thursday when he had to rush to the locker room to answer nature's call. He sprinted back to the 1st tee -- only to discover that he was scheduled to begin on number 10. By the time he had covered the 300 yards between tees, his partners were already in mid-fairway. Lundstrom was assessed a two-stroke penalty, and he shot a 76 en route to a missed cut.

Issue date: May 5, 2003