Two months after being touted as a lock to win the Masters, Fred Couples is almost an afterthought at the U.S. Open.
The winner of more money and more tournaments over the last calendar year is nowhere to be found on the lists of most-likely winners of this year's Open at Pebble Beach. Instead, guys like Nick Faldo, Raymond Floyd, Payne Stewart, Tom Watson, even Seve Ballesteros are put up over and over again.Couples makes it sound as if USGA officials need not bother with printing up his nameplate.
"At the Masters I was better than I ever have been, so it really didn't matter what everybody else thought," Couples said Wednesday. "Here, I think you'd be making a mistake if you put any money on me. ... As far as being someone to beat, I'm just like a qualifier, really."
Couples has dominated more than his share of leaderboards so far in this, his 12th season on the tour. He finished first or second in five of six tournaments this spring, capping the stretch with a two-stroke victory over Floyd in the Masters.
"From LA to the Masters, I was in the last group on Saturday and Sunday in almost every tournament," Couples said. "The wear and tear, it sounds pretty stupid, but it was pretty tough on me."
And so Couples has been on a downer ever since. In four tournaments since his Masters victory in April, Couples finished 22nd and 59th, missed two cuts and lost his patience.
With Pebble Beach offering rock-hard greens, fairways narrower than driveways, rough up to your ankles, winds in your face and scenic views that gobble up golf balls, the 1992 U.S. Open adds up to a test of golf too difficult for someone at a lowpoint - even one as good as Couples.
"It could come down to who doesn't snap," said Davis Love III, who along with Couples, is a three-time PGA Tour winner this year. "You can go crazy out there. If you hit two or three balls in the rough and start thinking you have to make some birdies, you can lose it.
"Guys like Raymond (Floyd) who are good at hanging in there will do well."
The aim of the USGA has been to identify the best golfer as its U.S. Open champion, and the tournament it has been expert in doing so. In its first two U.S. Opens in 1972 and 1982, Pebble Beach has done that two better - crowning the best golfer of a generation as champion, and bringing out of him a shot as memorable as any other struck in U.S. Open history.
Jack Nicklaus won the 1972 U.S. Open, and cemented into history a final round played in a freezing windstorm with a one iron on the par-3 17th hole that hit the flagstick and wound up inches away from the cup.
In 1982, Watson came to the 17th tied with Nicklaus, who was seeking an unprecedented fifth Open title, and hit his tee shot into ankle-deep rough behind the green. With Nicklaus in the scorer's tent thinking he had it won, Watson holed his chip shot and took the title.
A field of 156 players tees off Thursday and Pebble Beach will do the rest. It comes down to a dozen or so players who can win the tournament.
"I think the golf course this week will produce a winner who is someone with a lot of experience," Nicklaus said. "It will be someone who has won a lot of tournaments, someone who has played well and has had success in the U.S. and British Opens before.
"I think it will be someone you have heard of."
Couples, maybe?
To go with his five victories since last year's U.S. Open, Couples finished third in last year's U.S. Open and followed that with a third-place finish in the British Open and three Ryder Cup match victories. In nine U.S. Opens since 1982, Couples has three top-10 finishes and twice finished with sub-par 72-hole scores.
"To do well in the U.S. Open I have to drive the ball extremely well," Couples said. "And that comes with a lot of confidence. ... Beating a U.S. Open course is what you are trying to do. That means hitting it in tight fairways with a lot of rough, and hitting greens that are hard as rocks."
Couples plans to try and muster up his confidence during the early rounds. If he is successful and plays his way onto the leaderboard, he will by no means be an afterthought.