Augusta, Ga. (AP) – Fred Couples was so imperturbable during the first round of the Masters that even a sound engineer for one of the programs that walked in the middle of the fairway while the 1992 champion tried to turn him off.
The couples cut for the left straightening of the green in the first. He put on a hybrid of 191 yards for Eagle in the 14th. And after having finished with four consecutive pars, the couples of 65 years signed for a 71-mes Thursday who made him the second older player to shoot a turn lower than the masters. Tom Watson was one more month when he pulled 71 in 2015.
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“I don’t want to be a clown,” said couples, “but I can play golf. I can play here. If time is like that and not hard, I can – as long as I don’t do crazy things – I can shoot 73 or 4. It’s not at all embarrassing.
Difficult to believe that a year ago, the couples wondered if the president of the masters Fred Ridley would like him to continue to play.
His back bored him again, he had just drunk 80 and 76 to miss the cup and it seemed to be much more than 12 months since the couples had become the oldest player in the history of the Masters to play on weekends.
It took a phone call with Steve Etve, the director of the tournament for the Masters, to reassure the couples he was welcome.
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He certainly seemed to belong on Thursday.
Of course, the couples may have been 25 meters behind on the partners Harris English and Taylor Pendrith outside the T-shirts. It has a bag full of hybrids rather than conventional irons. But more often than not, couples had its bright yellow ball who was heading towards the hole, or at least remaining out of problems – perhaps the most important factor to cut the masters.
“Yeah, he was great, just to see how he plays this place,” said Pendrith, who turned 77. “I learned a few things from him for sure to watch him play. He played here, several times. He played great today – 1 under is a fantastic turn. He played very stable.
It was an eventful round, and not only because of the chip and the hole with the hybrid.
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The couples were uniform when he arrived at the ninth by 4, and Harris had hit his journey in the middle of the fairway. The couples were about to get rid of himself when one of the sound engineers of a leakage group wandered like Waldo in the photo.
The couples agitated him. One of the gallery volunteers too. After a minute, couples used jokes.
Once the guy finally moved, the couples fell for his wehaled tee in the middle. He struck his 7 -foot approach, playing it perfectly off the crest that crosses green and rolled in the Birdie putt while spectators roared their approval.
This looked like an echo of Amen Corner in 1992, when the couples ball challenged the gravity in the 12th par-3 and refused to return to Rae’s Creek. He continued to remember Raymond Floyd by two and won the green jacket.
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“It’s a legend in the game and a legend here,” said Pendrith. “It’s his 40th time by playing the masters. People love it. They show him great respect. They are all encouraged for him. It was really cool to play with him in my first and his 40th. ”
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AP Golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
