Fred Couples vows to return after painful Masters Tournament

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Fred Couples smiled as he walked up the fairways. The sun was shining, and the course was in impeccable shape, even if he was far from it.

Couples, 64, played through intense back pain and will miss the cut after rounds of 80-76.

Was this the end of the line for the 1992 Masters winner?

“No, no, and I'm planning on being healthy and making the cut and telling Fred (Ridley, chairman of Augusta National) I'm coming back the next year, too,” Couples said. “This was really ugly. Yesterday there were several times I should have not played, but I thought I could help these guys that I was playing with (Adam Hadwin and amateur Stewart Hagestad) a little bit even though they're out-driving me by 50 yards with the wind, so I didn't want to quit.”

The problem, Couples said, is his perennially balky back, which forced him to withdraw from his last two planned starts on PGA TOUR Champions, the Hoag Classic Newport Beach and The Galleri Classic. He was in such pain this week, he said, that he was afraid to hit an iron, which could dig into the turf and send a bolt of pain through his body.

“No, my back is shot,” he said. “The longer the club, I'm OK. I didn't have any speed. I was driving it 260, but most of them were going straight. It was fun. It was really difficult. If I'd have had more woods, honestly, yesterday, I probably could have shot 75, but I didn't know – I kind of downplayed how bad I felt.

“I should have had 11-wood to hit 140 yards,” he continued. “I couldn't even hit an 8-iron. I couldn't swing. But I enjoyed it. Now I get to go home and watch some good golf in some tough conditions.”

Had it not been for his short-game prowess, Couples added, he couldn’t have shot 76 on Friday, beating the younger Hagestad, the U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, by two. Hadwin shot 73.

Couples said his troubles at the par-4 ninth hole, where shorter players must hit their approach shots to an elevated green off a downhill/sidehill lie, were illustrative of his week.

“I drove it down there,” he said. “Downhill lie, and first of all, it was a 9-iron shot, but I was trying to hit a 7-iron and I just couldn't swing. The ball went 80 yards in the air and rolled up short left of the green. It's embarrassing. I don't want to embarrass myself. But I chipped and putted so well today most of the time that it was kind of interesting.”

Asked how long he continues to keep playing the Masters, he was optimistic, but with a caveat.

“Well, I've got to get my back fixed,” he said. “I could play forever, but I can't play like this.”