AUGUSTA, Ga. — Fred Couples put on an ageless performance in Thursday’s opening round at Augusta National, posting a 1-under par 71.
The 1992 Masters champion, at age 65 and playing in his 40th Masters, is positively ageless, becoming the second-oldest player to break par in a Masters round.
“He’s a legend in the game and a legend here,” said Taylor Pendrith, one of Couples’ playing partners. “I learned a few things from him, for sure, just watching him play. He’s played here many, many times. He played awesome — 1-under par is a fantastic round. He played really steady. Just kind of missed it in the right places and pecked away.
“It’s his 40th time playing the Masters. People love him. They show great respect to him. They’re all cheering for him. It was really cool to play with him in my first and his 40th.”
Thursday was the 141st career competitive round at Augusta for Couples, who’s made the cut in 31 of the 39 Masters he’s played.
“I’ve been saying it for 40 years, I just love the course,” Couples said. “I played pretty well. I hit most of the fairways and drove it well.”
The highlight of his round was the par-4 He holed out for eagle from 186 yards with a 6-rescue to go from 1-over to 1-under.
“When I hit it, it was hit really, really well, and it did just carry that ridge where Harris [English’s] didn’t and spun back,” he said. “I thought I had enough to get over there and then [the patrons] went crazy. It was fun. I don’t know if I’ve ever had an eagle on the par-4 here.”
When Couples was told that his friend and former University of Houston golf teammate, CBS announcer Jim Nantz, predicted he was going to have a good week, Couples joked, “He’s been saying that since I turned 50, and he [was] right a few times.”
Bernhard Langer, a two-time Masters winner playing for the 41st and final time, shot a 2-over-par 73 at age 67.
When Couples was asked how long he plans to compete in the Masters, he made it clear he’d stop if he felt he was embarrassing himself.
“I really shouldn’t use the world ‘clown,’ [but] I don’t want to be a clown,” Couples said of overstaying his welcome to compete in the tournament. “But I can play golf. I can play around here. If the weather is like this and not hard, as long as I don’t do crazy things, I can shoot 73 or 74 or 75. That’s not embarrassing myself at all.
“If can come back with 70 or 71 tomorrow, the goal for me is to make the cut. When I was 50, 51, I actually thought I could do really well, and did a lot of times. Today [was] a hell of a round. I am exhausted.”
Couples said he “can’t answer” when he thinks he’ll hang it up at Augusta.
“It will be when I know that I can’t tee off on No. 1 and do really good things and shoot a nice score,” he said. “It’s not how old I am, because I’ll tell you, I hit a few drives today that were pretty good. I’m not even going to guess. Might be next year. Might be 70.”