Fred Couples Exceeds Expectations
Couples entered the 1984 Players Championship with low expectations
Join us on our journey through the past as we dive into the 1984 Players Championship. Fred Couples wins his second PGA TOUR title in a place he least expected.
What a dominate performance from Scottie Scheffler in the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. He flipped a 180 with his putting on the weekend to win by five. Scroll down for the Clips You Might Have Missed and the highlights from the week.
This week the tour is at TPC Sawgrass for The Players. This is the 50th anniversary of the tournament. If you’re going, look for the special merchandise to commemorate the anniversary. We’re going back to 1984 for our feature article this week. Scroll down to read.
If you want more stories from The Players, check out our archives. We’ve written about the 1979 event HERE, the 1975 event HERE, and the 1974 event HERE.
We want to hear from you in the Tour Backspin Poll, and we have some music from 1984. Watch the sweet swing of Fred Couples filmed in the Carl Welty golf school studio at La Costa, and then take a stab at a pretty easy WHAT HOLE IS IT?, and of course, some links for you in the Check it Out Section. Remember when ESPN gave us a PGA TOUR show on Wednesdays? Scroll down to view this week’s vintage ad.
In last week’s Tour Backspin Poll we asked if you watched “Full Swing” season two, and what you thought about it. There were 57% of respondents who did not watch any of it, and don’t plan on watching. I think you are missing out, but the 29% of respondents who watched a few episodes and then bailed seem to agree with you. There were 14% of respondents who agree with me, though, as they binged every episode and loved it.
The PGA TOUR has tried to market The Players as a “fifth major” since it started 50 years ago. Do you feel The Players is a major? Let us know in this week’s Tour Backspin Poll.
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Despite Low Expectations, Fred Couples Wins The Players
“I’ll see you Friday night because you never make the cut anyway.”
Fred Couples finished packing and was preparing to leave for the airport and a flight to Florida for the Tournament Players Championship on Monday, March 26th. As he was leaving his home in Palm Springs, CA, his wife Deborah, passed on an inspirational thought.
“I’ll see you Friday night because you never make the cut anyway,” she told him.
It’s not like the comment didn’t have a great deal of truth to it as the best score that Couples had been able to shoot in the four rounds at TPC Sawgrass since it became the home to the Players Championship, had been 79. Couples didn’t think he’d do well that week, either.
TPC Sawgrass was not popular with the touring pros after being introduced as the new home of the Tournament Players Championship, a tournament that Deane Beman, the commissioner of the tour, was trying to make the “fifth major” in men’s professional golf. The players felt the course was too hard with the immense amount of water and the wildly undulating greens. This despite the winning scores in the first two years since it moved there were an eight-under-par 280 by Jerry Pate in 1982, and a five-under 283 shot by Hal Sutton in 1983.
“The course isn’t any easier. Just fairer.”
After the 1983 event, a committee of tour players was commissioned to “recommend” changes to Beman and course designer Pete Dye. The committee members included Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, Jim Colbert, Ed Sneed, and Hale Irwin. The changes that were recommended, and implemented by Dye, included eleven greens that were flattened removing the challenging undulations, overseeding of the greens with rye grass slowing them down, and clearing out of the rough and waste areas. To offset the greens being made easier, the fairways were narrowed, and new bunkers were strategically placed to put more demands on accurate driving.
“The course isn’t any easier,” Sneed said going into the 1984 event. “Just fairer.”
One factor that pointed to the Players becoming the fifth major it was envisioned to be was the strength of the field. The top 125 players on the 1983 money list, 19 designated pros, mostly foreign players, and the leading money winner on the Senior Tour were exempted into the field. The only top name player missing was Fuzzy Zoeller who was at home to be with his wife as she was expecting a baby that week.
Severe weather blew in causing a cancellation of the Wednesday pro-am. Players who were able to fit in a practice round in the blustery conditions said that the course was in good shape despite a few soggy areas.
The weather continued to blow with gale force winds the morning of Thursday’s first round. Jim Thorpe played in the afternoon when the winds began to abate and recorded a solid four-under-par 68 to take a one-stroke lead over John Mahaffey, Johnny Miller, Seve Ballesteros, and Nick Price were another stroke back while defending champion Hal Sutton, Wayne Levi, Bruce Lietzke, Fred Couples, Hubert Green, Jay Haas, Tim Simpson, and John Cook were another stroke back at 71. Only 13 players managed to break par on the wind-swept course and there was a record 64 balls hit into the water at just the 17th hole.
“A lot of funny things happened today. I guess it just took us awhile to get used to this place. I wasn’t planning on shooting in the 60s.”
The weather completely laid down for Friday’s second round and the players took advantage of the perfect conditions. Leading the way was Fred Couples who bogeyed his first hole, and also his last hole, but in between he fit in eight birdies and an eagle to record a new course-record of 64 and took a two-stroke lead over Jim Thorpe. Wadkins and Ballesteros were at 138 while Miller was at 139. Lee Trevino, using borrowed clubs, shot a 66 that climbed him up the leader board to 142.
Couples also set the 36-hole scoring record for a Players Championship at 135 breaking the existing record, a 138 shot by six players.
“A lot of funny things happened today,” Couples said after his round. “I guess it just took us awhile to get used to this place. I wasn’t planning on shooting in the 60s.”
On Friday evening, Deborah Couples packed her bags and booked a flight to Jacksonville.
The fact that Couples went into the third round with a two-stroke lead and came out of the round with a two-stroke lead doesn’t tell the whole story of a wild and wacky day at TPC Sawgrass. Couples had to scramble and scratch his way around the course while losing, and then regaining, the lead. He was over par during much of the round before fighting his way to a one-under 71 and a 206 total.
Ballesteros provided the biggest threat to Couples during the day as he shot a 70 and trailed Couples by two shots. Watson fired a second-straight 67 as he made his way up the leader board to 209 and Lee Trevino continued to surprise even himself with a round of 68 putting him in a tie for fourth place at 210, tied with Craig Stadler and Mark O’Meara.
“This golf course played altogether different today because the wind was coming out of the opposite direction.”
Couples made the turn at two-over 38 before getting the cheese back on his cracker on the back nine with birdies on the 13th, 14th, and 16th holes.
“I made a couple of poor chip shots for bogeys on number seven and number eight,” Couples said after his round. “I didn’t putt too well either, but I was able to make some good ones on the back nine.”
While the wind was not blowing as hard as it did in the first round, it still presented a challenge.
“This golf course played altogether different today because the wind was coming out of the opposite direction,” Watson observed after his round.
Ballesteros said, “If the wind is the same tomorrow, I would be happy with another 70.”
“I was nervous but I was lucky to have a shot there.”
Couples did not hang out with the press as he was anxious to get back to where he was staying to watch the NCCA Final Four semifinal match-up between his alma mater University of Houston and Virginia.
Couples, who was chasing down his second TOUR victory having won the Kemper Open in 1983, hooked his tee shot on the first hole of the final round into the woods.
“I was nervous,” he admitted about the tee shot after his round. “But I was lucky to have a shot there.”
If he was nervous, nobody could tell as Steve Lewis of The Tampa Tribune described Couples as having “astonishing casualness” and he was “free-spirited” in the final round.
But Couples knew the other players would be gunning for him.
“They’re going to want to put some heat on me,” he said before the round. “But I’ve got to put the heat on them and I’ll be alright.”
Couples hit a 7-iron from those trees on the left at the first hole and was able to hit the green and then two-putt for his par. He bunkered his three-wood at the second hole but blasted out and made the birdie putt. He was not derailed by a three-putt bogey at the fourth and came back with a bounce-back birdie at the fifth.
“I was just hoping to make a good swing and make par. That would have been an accomplishment after bogeying the seventh.”
Couples bogeyed the seventh while Trevino, who had three birdies on the front nine, closed to within one shot. Ballesteros was two strokes behind. The turning point came in the next two holes when Couples flushed a 2-iron at the 215-yard, par-3, eighth hole, to two feet and made the birdie putt.
“I was just hoping to make a good swing and make par,” Couples said later. “That would have been an accomplishment after bogeying the seventh.”
With his two stroke lead re-established, Couples nipped a 60-yard pitch shot perfectly to within six feet of the cup at the ninth hole and made the putt for a birdie and a three-stroke lead.
By the time Trevino rolled in a 15-foot putt for birdie at the 12th hole to trim the lead back down to two shots, the tournament had boiled down to just a two-man affair as Ballesteros, Watson and O’Meara all faded.
Couples birdied the 12th hole to go back up by three shots, and when both Couples and Trevino bogeyed the 14th hole, he remained in front by three. Trevino cut that lead to two with a birdie at the 16th hole, but it was too little, too late. Couples played flawlessly from tee to green over the last three holes, even though he missed short, makeable birdie putts at the 15th, 16th, and 17th holes. Trevino could not take advantage with any birdies of his own.
“This was a stepping-stone for Fred.”
A safe iron off the tee at the final hole and cautious 197-yard 7-iron approach to 25-feet from the hole and Couples accepted his three-putt bogey for the win. He earned a check for $144,000 for his efforts and firmly established his place as an elite player on the PGA TOUR.
“This was a stepping-stone for Fred,” Trevino said after the round.
It was quite a week for Fred Couples, one that started with very low expectations, but ended with his wife in his arms on the 72nd green after capturing his second victory on tour. And as Pat Summeral of CBS said at the conclusion of the final round broadcast, “I guess they’ll go home in first-class”
Watch the final round here:
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BONUS STORY I
The PGA TOUR has been keeping statistics on how many balls go into the water at the 17th hole in the Players Championship since 2003. The tournament moved to TPC Sawgrass in 1982, so there are 11 years that are not accounted for in the PGA TOUR database.
The number of balls that went into the water missing the island green at the 17th hole in 1984 was massive. There were 64 balls that got rinsed in the blustery first round alone. Through the first three rounds of The Players, there were 89 balls that went to a watery grave at the 17th hole.
Using the PGA TOUR statistics since 2003, roughly 12 balls are hit into the water at 17 each day of the tournament. If we use this daily average to fill out the missing fourth round numbers from 1984, that will give us a total of 101 balls in the water at the 17th.
From 2003 to 2023 there haven’t been 100 balls hit into the water in any one year. The most water balls were at the 2007 event when 93 balls splashed down into the drink. No doubt, the gale force winds that players had to negotiate in the first round of the 1984 Players Championship contributed to the ungodly amount of balls that missed the island green and wound up in the water.
The Tour Backspin Show Book Club with our guests Jim McLean and Craig Welty has just dropped for our premium subscribers (it will be available to free subscribers in two weeks). Upgrade to a premium subscription today to listen early. We talk about Craig’s dad, Carl Welty, about how he used video to study the golf swing.
Listen to The Tour Backspin Show podcast on Substack with the above links, or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or iHeart Radio.
WHAT HOLE IS IT?
Are you on the leader board?
Congratulations to David Rihm who correctly identified #5 at Bay Hill Club and Lodge, Champions Course, in Orlando, FL, in last week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? contest. David beat out four other correct answer in the random drawing. Submit your answer for this week and get yourself into the race for the Herbert C. Leeds Trophy, our new perpetual trophy for the annual winner.
PGA TOUR Wrap-Up | Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by Mastercard
It was common to think that if Scottie Scheffler could putt just average that he would be a force to be reckoned with and he proved just that on Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard.
Going into the event, he was 144th out of 186 in Strokes Gained: Putting. On Sunday, in the final round, he ranked first in the same stat. He made 13 one-putts in 16 holes over Saturday and Sunday. He converted around two-thirds (67.4%) of putts from 4 to 8 feet, a distance that has perplexed him this season.
What made the difference? A change to a new putter.
Also the work that he has been doing with putting guru Phil Kenyon (that’s him standing behind Scheffler in the photo above).
Once this putting performance was matched up with his aggressive attack with the driver and his laser sharp approach shots at Bay Hill, he was able to run away from the competition. His final round total of 66 gave him a five-stroke victory over Wyndham Clark.
The top ten shots from the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard (and the Puerto Rico Open:
Read a recap of the tournament HERE.
Clips You Might Have Missed
This guy just needs a good fourth round to bust into the winner’s circle.
This was the good from Rory off the tee.
And this was the bad from Rory off the tee.
Make it stop!
Tour Backspin Quiz | Fred Couples Trivia
Who did Fred Couples beat, as an amateur, in a playoff for the 1978 Washington State Open at Glendale Country Club in Bellevue, Washington? How old was he?
Scroll down for answer
Swing Like a Pro
Fred Couples swing captured by Carl Welty. We talk with Carl’s son, Craig, and Jim McLean on The Tour Backspin Show podcast that is now available for paid subscribers. Not a paid subscriber? Upgrade today!
Blind Shot
Click for something fun. 👀
There was another rules controversy at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Of course, Brandel Chamblee has something to say about it. Read it Golf Digest.
Joel Dahman was a breakout star of last year’s Full Swing on Netflix, then his game went south on him. He, and caddie Geno Bonnalie, again steal the show in the second season. Golf is hard. Read more about the episode and the dynamic between Dahman and Bonnalie at Golf Magazine.
Dave Shedloski of Golf Digest has a lot to say about the Signature Events on the PGA TOUR.
Max Homa roasts a troll who brought Homa’s wife and child into the discussion for why Homa isn’t winning majors. Learn more from Golfweek.
Tour Backspin Music
The first time “Let’s Go Crazy” is performed live by Prince and the Revolution.
Uncorked, The Life and Times of Champagne Tony Lema tells the story of one of the tour’s biggest stars in the mid-1960s. A fascinating glimpse into the traveling caravan that was the PGA TOUR during an era where the fields were full of “Mad Men” era personalities. From a hardscrabble youth spent on the “wrong side of the tracks” in the Oakland suburb of San Leandro, to the temptations of Elko, Nevada, to the bright lights of the PGA TOUR, Uncorked tells a story of determination, redemption and, above all else, a love story that documents how Betty, Tony’s new wife, provided the direction and motivation for him to become a top star. Order on Amazon.
WHAT IS HIP?
From brunch to the golf course in these cotton sweaters from 1984.
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
As a 19-year-old amateur, Fred Couples beat PGA TOUR veteran Don Bies in a playoff to win the 1978 Washington State Open at Glendale Country Club in Bellevue, Washington.
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Final Thoughts
That Fred Couples swing video, shot by Carl Welty, is just beautiful to watch and what a setup Carl had at La Costa.
Lee Trevino finished second in the 1984 Players Championship, at 44-years-old, with a bad back, and borrowed clubs. That was quite the performance.
Phil Kenyon had to have as much to do with Scheffler’s putting turnaround as changing to a TaylorMade mallet putter did. Learn more about Kenyon HERE.
I like the desperate grab for grass in this week’s Blind Shot.