MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 11, 2025

Fred Couples

Quick Quotes

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Q. How would you sum up your tournament?

FRED COUPLES: Well, today was not -- I drove it great except for 18. I obviously needed a birdie and I cut it in the trees, and then I almost whiffed it on 15.

I never missed a drive, and all of a sudden I was going to hit a low bullet up the fairway, and it didn't matter. I was going to lay up no matter if I popped it up, and I hit a toe-hook into the pines up against the pine, and I had a putt for par.

But it wasn't really -- I never got it close. I wasn't off, but it was not really a good round of golf like yesterday. I was in most of the fairways. It played long. It was windy.

Maybe a couple times I was thinking if, if, if I could just get in -- I knew 2-over -- I don't know if it's going to stay at 2. It says projected, but I don't know if that means from the 10-shot rule or other people.

But I bogeyed 18 anyway, so it doesn't matter for me.

Q. You had a decent number of good looks for the first 11 or 12 holes.

FRED COUPLES: Yeah, I wedged it over the green on 3. That's not that hard of a shot, but I've done it before. And if you go over the round, I hit a good shot on the par-3, 4, but the bunker shot, I left it six feet above the hole.

It was not a very hard shot. You're not going to make that -- really a bummer on No. 8 was I laid it up perfectly and I hit it about eight feet behind the hole and you're just putting straight downhill.

To keep it interesting, I made a couple of 10-footers for par on 11 and 12, and then I had a chance on 13, and just kind of misread it, and then it was a fat 9-iron. Easiest shot on the course.

Maybe it would have trickled over on 14 because it was blowing 30 straight downwind, but I just fatted it to the front edge and bogeyed there. That was really a bad shot.

Then obviously on 15 I hit the worst drive I've hit in 20 years.

Q. You obviously proved you can play here still.

FRED COUPLES: Well, I didn't prove much today. But again, Harris, he played well. I think he shot even. That's the only one I can go by. I'm playing with he and Taylor. I thought it was really hard.

I don't know what people are shooting. I just pay attention to myself and I'm watching my playing competitors.

But it's not easy.

Q. It seemed like the wind picked up and that made it harder.

FRED COUPLES: Oh, it blew. This place is hard when it blows. I mean, it wasn't -- it was not good. It was not awful. I could have shot 73 and I could have shot 80. How about that? And I kind of shot right in between because I made a couple putts.

But I'm not upset about anything. I tried as hard as I could, and let me tell you, it's a hard course. If you're out of position -- I will say this: On the 7th hole, it was downwind, and I may have played a soft shot there. I hit my mini-driver and I smoked it, and it rolled about this far and it had mud on it, and then it squirted to the right of the green and it wouldn't trickle back so I could clean it.

Then when I putted, I don't know if anyone saw, I left it 30 feet short, and I don't know why so much mud on that hole. Other than that, I never had a mud ball in two days.

I should have hit driver there. I might have even had a 9-iron, and I had 7-iron.

That was a weak effort, hitting a 3-wood there, because I'm driving it great. I just wanted to hit the fairway so bad, and I get down there and it's got a chunk of mud on it and it went that way. I needed to par that hole.

Q. Do you feel like you'll definitely be back next year?

FRED COUPLES: Well, sure, I'm playing next year for sure, yeah. I made that -- they made that clear they wanted me to come back, so I'm coming back next year.

Again, as soon as I get in that car and drive out Magnolia Lane and come back tomorrow and have a nice lunch, I'll be fine. But I'm not out there to -- the goal is to make the cut at my age. I didn't, and I'm kind of spinning my wheels thinking just why it was so mediocre.

It had nothing to do with, oh, my God -- the shot on 15, I've never hit a -- I don't even know what happened. The wind was blowing as hard as it was blowing all day, and I think I just kind of leaned into it and I barely made contact with the ball.

But it is what it is. Right? It's like when the Sonics lost to Denver, a 1 and 8 seed. It is what it is. No one fired me. The gang is over there. Mike Malone or whatever his name is, the Denver coach -- I'm a big Nugget guy, so in golf, you're all by yourself. I made one birdie, right? I birdied 9.

Q. Are there any spots -- maybe not today, but any spots out there that are your favorite when you get there and you think, yeah, I'm glad I'm here?

FRED COUPLES: Yeah, every hole. I don't particularly play -- dominate any holes and I butcher a lot of them over the years. Seriously, there are holes that I just struggle with, and there aren't any holes where I go, man, I just -- the first hole I kind of play very, very well out of the box, which helps, but No. 2 -- now it's different, I can't reach so I lay up, I lay up again.

I had about an eight-footer for birdie there. But again, straight downhill. But yeah, every shot is a challenge. I'm not saying it was howling out there, but it was blowing.

Hell, the 11th hole I barely got to the fairway. I had 250 to the flag, and I hit a shot right where I wanted, and I made a nice 10-footer for par.

But every shot -- you walk around. You know golf. It's beautiful. I mean, 13 is probably the greatest par-5 in the world; 15 is highly unique; and then all the other par-4s.

Again, the 14th hole I'm 142 yards to the top of the ridge. If I was really pumped up I thought I could hit a wedge and I thought, well, it's going to hit the hill and spin back, then I get cute and I fatted it and you're walking away with a 5, and it was really an easy second shot if you drive it well for me. They're hitting sand wedges.

But it's a great course. It's amazing to play it. I'll come back next year.

Q. Obviously you've changed a lot since you first came here. The course has changed a lot. Has anything stayed the same since your first visit?

FRED COUPLES: You know what stays the same is the patrons, the people who come out and watch. There's 30,000 of them every day we play. The egg salad sandwiches I think are still $2. That's my favorite sandwich. The greens are still lightning fast and they're going to get them rock hard tomorrow. They lengthened it about 400 yards or more, give or take, so that's changed.

But for me, when I get in Saturday night, everything starts to spin in a good direction. It's not any tournament -- the British Open is very fun, but nothing is -- for me. Other people can say, hey, I'm from Scotland, the British Open is the greatest. The Masters is the greatest tournament of all time. It's just so unique.

Unfortunately I'm going to come out and watch a little bit tomorrow. I don't know who I'm going to watch, but I just -- I'd like to say I wasn't good enough. That's really kind of -- I just came up short. 77 was not a great score.

But again, 74 would have been a hell of a score. It was hard. I don't know what Harris shot. Again, he's the only guy I know. He shot even? Yeah, he made a lot of birdies.

The guy to watch is DeChambeau. He's going to -- I know Rory, all of them. But DeChambeau, if it's not blowing, I think he's going to make 13 birdies the next two days. If it's not blowing. So he can offset a few bogeys with the way he plays.

Then Rory. Look at what Rory did today. Everyone was picking on him after a couple doubles. He says, you know what, here's what I'm going to do the back nine. Did he shoot 30? 31. So there you go, folks.

It's fun to watch. Scheffler has been battling, and Tyrrell Hatton, and I don't know McCarty very well, but that's what I enjoy. Some guy got 2-over, now he's 5-under with a bogey on 18. I don't know how you do that. I don't know how you make 8-under. I don't get it.

But I sure as -- one birdie ain't going to get you to 8-under.

All right, I'm out of here. Go Kraken.