One of these years Couples Fred and his tortured back will say, “Enough.”
Sufficient heating pads. Enough cortisone shots. Enough suffering.
This year, it seems, is not that year.
Couples, 66, is doing well. . . back at it this week, at PGA Tour Champions season opener in Hawaii. Plenty of familiar faces are soaking up the sun alongside Boom Boom — Ernie Els, Stewart Cink, Jim Furyk — but not many of Couple’s peers have struggled with the kind of chronic restlessness that has dogged him since the mid-’90s.
He’s had plenty of painful landings during that stretch, but perhaps none more somber than the Masters two years ago, when he couldn’t hit his 7-iron more than about 80 yards and called his play “disgraceful”. However, a year later, he returned with a bag full of hybrids and made two birdies and an eagle in his opening round en route to a cool 71. It’s the same with Fred: ups and downs, ups and downs.
And in Hawaii this week?
“My body hurts,” he said (groaned?) Thursday.
But it’s not Fred’s back that’s bugging him. He is coming off a bad flu that caused a cough for three or four days. All that hacking, he said, has left his body aching.
“It makes my back look like nothing,” he said.
When Couples’ caddy, Mark Chaney, appeared on the range before the opening round at Hualalai, Couples was shocked.
“Where’s my cart?” he said.
The couples were in such bad shape, he said, that no hole could walk. However, he is making it.
“As long as I feel like this, I’m just tired,” he said. “I haven’t done anything. I’ve been laying in bed trying to make sure I don’t go anywhere too fast so I get sick again. I wanted to come to Hawaii kind of fresh. Looks like it worked.”
Anyway, it happened on Thursday.
Pairs opened with a poor (but par-par) drive followed by a “bad” 9-iron bogey and three shots at 2. “Here we are starting 2026 on a course that I absolutely love at high levels,” he said.
But then he found something. “I birdied 3 and eagled 4, which kind of gave me a nice ‘let’s go.’ I drove it well, hit a couple of good irons, and when I got close enough, it looked like I was putting it away. It resulted in a seven-under 65 that left him one off Stephen Ames’ lead in the first round.
It was a classy round for Couples, and not just his shot. This week’s launch represents just the couples second in his role as a model for Malbo, the lifestyle brand that has brought streetwear-inspired fashion to the golf course. The couples haven’t gone yet Jason’s full day with his outfits, instead opting for the company’s more conservative options.
“I wear a lot of white shirts and I wear a lot of slacks,” Couples said.
Could we see couples competing in hoodies at some point?
“You can, but it will be cashmere,” he said. “It’s not going to be anything else. And they know that, and that’s why I signed. They were very understanding. One of the next couple of days I’m going to wear some different pants, but they fit me nicely.” He added: “Or I can wash these clothes and wear them again.”
With Fred, it’s hard to know what to expect.
