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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 6, 2017

Fred Couples

Augusta, Georgia

FRED COUPLES: It was hard. It was windy. I've never seen it like this. You have to putt well. To shoot even par was a really good score. It was really, really difficult. I was telling him that what I did well was I judged the shots into the wind exceptionally well today. And that was just getting the ball up around the greens, you know.
But I played well. I hit it well. And I couldn't have really shot much of a different score. I two‑putted a couple of times from 90 feet and I three‑putted 16 from really not a very difficult spot. I left it about six feet short.
But other than that I made a couple of good pars from where I didn't think I would. And I shot 1‑over which is very, very good.

Q. What is an example of it being the hardest you've ever seen?
FRED COUPLES: I think when you play some of these par‑5s and you're trying to layup, I wanted to get closer to the green on 15. And I have these rescue woods, and you can't hit those or you're just going to go straight up. And I ripped a 4‑iron and I felt I had a little too much yardage into the pin. I wanted to get it close to the green and felt like I hit a good shot.
No.1, right out of the hoper was very difficult, a lot of shots are left‑to‑right and you hit them right into the wind and they just go forever in the wrong direction.
11th hole is probably the hardest hole.
12, not so bad unless you get a gust, and that can be on any hole.
But the 11th hole is incredible. We all made pars and we did it all different ways.

Q. Can you talk about the third shot, and where you ended up, I'm assuming over?
FRED COUPLES: Yeah, Paul and I both laid up and he hit first. And I waited on a lot of shots today, too. And he waited for it to calm down. And it kind of was howling at that time, and then he hit this shot and he's longer than I am, so I stepped up ‑‑ I didn't rush the shot, because I was standing watching him back off a couple of times. And I stepped up and hit a good shot, and it flew over‑‑ if it hits on the green it might be a little easier chip shot‑‑ but you can't float it a little bit and have it spin back in the water. And I may have hit it a little harder. But that's a brutal hole. A really, really tough hole.

Q. What was your third shot yardage?
FRED COUPLES: 94 yards. But it's downhill, so it's probably playing 88 yards. And the wind is going‑‑ there will be a lot of funny scores on that hole. But there are some birdies, too. They did us a favor on a couple of tees, some of the pins, but then they have some pins out there that I'm going to go back and watch and see what happened.
But it's drying out. I teed up at 10:00. It was really a semi‑nice day for Augusta. To come and play in this at 2:00 is going to be brutal.

Q. Is there any year that compares to this?
FRED COUPLES: I don't remember. And I did have a really good score one year. I may have had a good score and it was really, really windy. And personally, I don't want it to be like this for four days, if I'm here four days. But it was good to have it really blowing hard for me, because I felt like I'm not hitting it great. And if it was calm and nice, a 73 or 4 would be a not very good score. I don't feel I'm capable of shooting‑‑ I'm now learning, this is a long, hard course for me. It's coming fast, these driver, 5‑irons and 4‑irons and the holes, they're a lot harder than 7‑irons.

Q. Do you think your experience got you around here today?
FRED COUPLES: Well, I made a few putts, yeah. But it's hard to experience that. I know you watch, it's brutal.
But, yeah, I think a lot of stuff helped me just kind of figure out where to miss a shot and hit a shot, there were a lot of shots that didn't end up where you were hitting them.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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