Ten Years After Masters Win
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Description: Extensive background information, anecdotes and quotes about Fred Couples and his 1992 US Masters win.
Ten years after Masters win, Couples retools - seattlepi.com Quick links to other pages on this site Ten years after Masters win, Couples retools By DAN RALEY, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER Published 10:00Â pm, Tuesday, April 9, 2002
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| Page title: | Ten years after Masters win, Couples retools - seattlepi.com |
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| Description: | Fred Couples is here somewhere, recharging his soul among the pines and azaleas, losing himself in his favorite place. Ten years ago, he won this grand-slam event -- the single greatest achievement by a Pacific Northwest golfer. [...] as sentimental as this annual journey has become, Couples won't allow himself to celebrate the anniversary of the crowning moment of an often-spectacular PGA Tour career. Why not join college roommate Jim Nantz in the CBS broadcast booth or rest up for the PGA Senior Tour? [...] faced with this inevitability, he has responded in a most surprising manner. A decade ago, brave and bold also would have described his four magical trips around golf's only stationary major site, bringing him a two-stroke victory over Raymond Floyd, a $270,000 paycheck and a traditional green jacket about three inches too short in the sleeves. Couples' brother, Tom, had to wait more than 24 hours to see CBS footage of his younger sibling walking up the 18th hole and into the Butler Cabin as an emotional champion. Tom and his wife, Cindy, were at Washington State University for the weekend, visiting their daughter Angela, excitedly receiving Masters updates. [...] this wasn't the first time Tom Couples had seen his brother post a Masters victory. When they were kids, Fred would hold court in the yard at the family home at 4328 13th S., a few blocks from Jefferson Park Golf Course. Just as a young child who plays baseball dreams of hitting the game-winning home run in the seventh game of the World Series," Tom Couples said, "Freddie would be playing in his imaginary Masters, dreaming about the day he would make the putt to win the Masters. [...] he would line up his eagle putt and knock that putt right into the cup -- the fire hydrant. Nantz, the erstwhile CBS broadcaster and Masters host, also had witnessed Couples win the Masters before. Nantz would make Couples sit down and share in an imaginary moment in Butler Cabin, just the TV personality and the high-profile golfer in the making, doing dry runs of the ultimate Masters moment. When Couples was on the 17th hole, just minutes from making everyone's dreams come true, Nantz started to panic a bit. Couples and his first wife, Deborah, stayed in a rental home on Sussex Road, sharing it with Bracken and Marchand and their wives. Thunderstorms kept Couples from finishing his third round, forcing him to play four holes in the morning on Sunday before the all-important final 18. After his morning warm-up holes, Couples returned to the course well before a 2:30 p.m. tee time. The defining moment of his Masters victory would come on one of golf's most famous holes, the 155-yard 12th, a par-3 tucked behind Rae's Creek. In real life, the smart play was to hit the ball to the middle of the green. After Butler Cabin, a visit to the media center and the champions dinner, a tired Couples retreated to his rental house. Everybody tried on the green jacket, which hung noticeably short in the sleeves on the winner. "If somebody had walked in and said, 'Who won this golf tournament?' Fred would have been the last player that guy would have picked," Nantz said. Couples won five more times after his Masters breakthrough, giving him 14 career victories. Nantz won't let him forget what's on the PGA Tour schedule in August -- the World Golf Championships-NEC Invitational at Sahalee Country Club, another trip to Couples' back yard. |
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