MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 5, 2021

Fred Couples

Quick Quotes

Q. Can we just start with how you're finding the course?

FRED COUPLES: Yeah, well, I just played the back nine, and I watched on TV yesterday. I mean, it's beautiful. The fairways are perfect. The tees are perfect. I thought the greens -- the last two or three holes got a little faster than they were on 10 and 11, which I thought was perfect.

If it stays dry, it'll be as difficult as the course has played in a long, long time, and that's what I think we need to have. We need to have the course firm, fast, and hopefully there won't be much rain.

Q. Was it easy to sort of forget how November played because it was such a one-off and remember exactly how --

FRED COUPLES: Well, I mean, I'm old, so I've played the course a million times. I'm actually trying to forget last year's Thursday and Friday. I played very well Friday. I really did. But it was long, and it was cool for me in the morning.

You know, it was still fun, but this is more where I have a chance to play. I can hit the ball high, even though I'm hitting a lot longer clubs. I just played with Homa and X-Man and Cantlay, and they're all bombing it, and I'm hitting 6-irons and they're hitting 9-irons. So it's not a competition for me. It's really the competition is for myself to play the course the best I can, and when that becomes havoc, then I will have probably played my last Masters.

But at the moment, even the last two years, I've had two bad rounds but I've had two really, really good rounds. So I've just got to play it and relax and have fun.

Q. What keeps bringing you back?

FRED COUPLES: Well, the fact that they let me. You know, that's an honor to be here. I can still play. Last year Mike Weir played well. Larry Mize had a great first round, Bernhard Langer plays well almost every year, and up until the last two times, I felt like I played well all the time.

Now, what is doing great golf here for me might be 70 or 71, whereas 20 years, 18 years ago, it might have been 69 or 68. Whereas for Bryson it's going down, the score, for me it's going up, the average score, but I'm okay with it, and as long as I can compete, I will come back. I don't know if that'll be two more years, four more years or what.

But a lot of older guys have done well here and they're the best players ever, Ray Floyd, Tom Watson. So I look at that like I still have a chance to play well.

Q. What was your impression of the Augusta National Women's Amateur?

FRED COUPLES: Well, it's always -- impression, two years ago or whatever it was when Kupcho won, we had her on our radio show the next day, and she was phenomenal, and people loved it. And I watched this year, I thought -- it reminded me a lot of Masters championships where it comes down to the last couple holes and you have people ready to get in a playoff if they slipped a little bit, and the two girls that played off played really, really well.

I think 70 -- I think either they both shot 70 or they were right there. That's a phenomenal score. After what I just saw for nine holes, that's a great score.