Fred Couples’ Troublesome Back Could Make Him Call Quit Competitive Play

Smooth swinging Fred Couples has battled back issues seemingly forever. Well, now those balky back is getting so bad that he may have to give up competitive golf.

GolfWorld’s John Strege has the report that Freddie may be at the end of a long and fruitful career. Bummer.

“I’m 58, and I’ve said I’ll play as long as I can,” Couples said at the American Family Insurance Championship last week in Madison, Wis. “And I think my time’s running out.”

The senior event was only his third professional tournament this year. He played in the Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Hawaii in January and the Masters in April. This week’s U.S. Senior Open at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., will be his fourth, provided he reaches the starting gate.

It might not be a last hurrah, but then again …

Couples played the Hawaii event in obvious pain, notably on Sunday. “I kept playing and then it was just, I couldn’t bend over,” he said.

He did not play again until two days before leaving for Augusta. “I felt like I won the tournament by making the cut,” he said of his time at the Masters, where he finished T-38. “Augusta, I played because I told myself if I had to crawl around, I would.”

“It’s really just bending, and in golf you bend a lot. As I got to 57 and 58, it’s become not much fun. [So] I don’t play.”

The trials of bending are evident in the makeup of his golf clubs. The longest iron in his bag is a 5-iron, for now. “I no longer have a 4-iron,” he said. “I have five woods in my bag [three of them hybrids] and the next one to go out will probably be my 5-iron, because [hybrids] are just a little longer and they’re easier to hit and I don’t have to bend down.”

To test his back, “to see if I could play,” in advance of the senior event last week, Couples played in the member-guest at his home club, Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach, Calif. “I played a practice round and three days, and I didn’t move very well Sunday or Monday.