Thursday, June 03, 1999
Golf, family divide Couples
Defending Memorial champ more homesick than hungry
The Associated Press
DUBLIN, Ohio — In the last year, Fred Couples has gained a family and lost the fire that made him one of the top golfers in the world.
He is back at Muirfield Village Golf Club this week to defend his title in the Memorial Tournament. He's talking as if he's more homesick than hungry.
“I'm not into it right now,” Couples said Wednesday after his final tuneup before the Memorial. “I love playing still. I'm still going to play 16 or 18 tournaments. I'm not quitting. I just don't feel like going home at this time and beating my brains into the ground.”
At 39, he says his time is “semi-passed.”
Couples married Thais Bren in September. He and her two children from a previous marriage live in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Two weeks after Couples met Bren, she discovered she had breast cancer. After weathering months of treatment, Couples finds it hard to get panicky over a few hours of playing golf.
“I have a ball when I go home,” Couples said. “I have chosen to stick around and have fun, because, really, that's what I want to do. It's a lot of fun to go to softball games and to go to soccer games and to the park and to the zoo.”
As a result, Couples has never been happier — or more erratic in his profession.
He has played nine tournaments in 1999 and has missed two cuts and made four top 10s, making him No.50 on the money list.
“I played yesterday and today, and every shot, you know, it was a struggle,” he said. “If I don't hit a good one on the 12th hole, on the 13th tee I'm thinking of some kind of thought to make sure I hit a good one that time, whereas before, I teed off on Thursday and I knew I was going to play well.”
It is a battle that many golfers lose. You can spend all of your time with your family and lose your edge, or you can hit thousands of balls and lose precious time with your family.
Couples' solution is to pick his spots.
“Every week is very important,” he said. “I never just want to go like I am now, just to show up. That's a waste of your time.”
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