Golf, the feat of Fred Couples: 60 hits at age 63

Some say that golf is a sport for old people. Obviously this is not true, but it is a sport that even the elderly can face with satisfaction. And then we should agree on the concept of old age: when does one become really old? In golf it has been established that the border is 50 years. First you are young, after you are not: amateurs see an odious “S” – which stands for Senior – added next to their name while professionals can participate in circuits dedicated to them: in America it is the Champions Tour, in Europe it is calls the Legends Tour. These are not bachelors and wives or bored retirees, American races have millions of dollars in prizes. Phenomena such as Pedraig Harrington, Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer participate. The last American tournament of the Champions Tour was played in Cary in North Carolina, with a prize pool of 2 million dollars, and was won by Fred Couples. He is 63 years old, he boasts 15 successes on the Pga Tour including the 1992 Masters, he was # 1 in the world, he has a backache that has tortured him for years, two delicate hands, gentle manners and a gentleman’s smile. On Sunday he finished the last lap in 60 strokes, 12 under par on the pitch. That is, at 63 years of age he delivered a score lower than his age than him. Something that has probably never happened in history.

Italian origins

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Fred Couples has a very soft swing, with a perfect rhythm, smooth and effortless. Everything looks very simple and natural. Who looks at it wonders “And what does it take to do it again?” but in reality it must not be so easy if there are very few who are endowed with such delicacy. He is self-taught, he has never had teachers, he learned to play because next to his house in Seattle there was the Jefferson Park Golf Club. At the beginning of his career they called him Boom Boom because he shot the ball far away and Boom Boom remained For all life. His origins are Croatian on his mother’s side and Italian on his father’s side: as soon as they arrived in America his grandparents weren’t called Couples, but… Coppola. They changed their names to integrate more easily. His married life with three wives and many dramas was tragic and troubled. The first, Deborah, committed suicide about ten years after divorcing Fred. The second, Thai Baker, died of cancer in 2009. The third is called Suzanne Hannemann and the wedding was celebrated last February – precisely on 22/2/22 – and we hope everything goes well. Golfically speaking, Couples’ heyday dates back to the 1980s and 1990s. The first tournament he won was the 1983 Kemper Open in Washington, the last the 2003 Shell Houston Open. In the middle shines the 1992 Masters, his only Major, a success that still guarantees him entry as a player to the Augusta National . This year he baptized our Guido Migliozzi, on his debut in the hills of Georgia, who after two days of playing with Boom Boom was admired: “He has so much elegance that he doesn’t even seem to walk on the lawn, he doesn’t seem to touch the ground “.

Five years dry

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He has been on the Champions Tour since 2010, where he had won 13 tournaments until last week, but he was dry since 2017, almost two thousand days. He’s the fault of a back that has been making him suffer for some time, but last weekend the miracle happened instead. Couples finished with 12 birdies in the last 14 holes for a total score of 60 strokes, the first time in his entire career, after 2,492 laps played between the PGA and the Champions Tour: «It was simply an unreal day. The putt worked very well, but most of all I approached in a fantastic way. It was the best round of golf of my life, I had already done 58 or 59, but never in the competition ». No one had recorded such a low score on the final lap in the 43-year history of the Champions Tour and he became the third oldest to put his name on the roll of honor behind Bernhard Langer and Scott Hoch. He is wrong who says that golf is a sport for old people, but it is true that there are old people who play it divinely. Like Fred Boom Boom Couples.