MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2023

Fred Couples

Quick Quotes

Q. Fred, it looks like you've made history here. What's your secret?

FRED COUPLES: Well, I played really well the last couple days. I've said the word really a lot of times. I enjoy the place.

I hit my tee shot yesterday when the wind was howling, and I had 230 to the hole. All night long, I thought just make a 5. I wasn't even thinking about a 4, and I made a 5. It's probably the best I could have done unless something crazy happened.

There really isn't a secret. Everyone loves this place. That doesn't mean you're going to play well. If I hit it really solid, I'm a good iron player.

Yesterday, a couple of the bogeys I made, I fatted an 8-iron on 7 with a pretty easy shot, thinking maybe I should have hit 9. But it was a little funky little lie. Then I hit it a little too much -- I flew it on 17 about four feet from the hole, and it bounced over. Most people would have gotten them down. I bogeyed both of those holes.

Other than that, besides butchering 13, I hit most of the greens and I actually had a few birdie chances.

Q. Are you okay having to get up this morning and get loose?

FRED COUPLES: I wouldn't want to be on the 10th hole. I think, if I was on the 10th hole, it might be a little different story. Everyone is going to be struggling and trying to make pars.

Again, I had to slice a 3-wood from the fairway, and I thought I hit a pretty good shot, and it went -- I mean, I had 48 to the hole, so I hit it 172 yards. It's just not going anywhere. Then Russell Henley hit a wood and smoked it on the front edge, and Alex Noren hammered an iron into the bunker.

So 18, you would think, if it stays like this -- I'm not being an idiot, but there's going to be a bogey in every group just because it's so hard, and the par-5s are now difficult.

So it is what it is. Am I going to look thrilled to play 18 holes in this this afternoon? No, I'm a wimp. I'm an old wimp, but I'm excited to play. And I don't wear gloves. So I've got a couple of hours to try to figure out what I'm going to try and do if it stays like this all day long.

But I am excited to make the cut. That's why I come here. The last four years have been really mediocre golf. Maybe one year I was semi close to making the cut. But that's my objective, and I did it.

It's not like ha, ha, ha. Now I can screw around and play 36 holes for fun. I'm going to try and compete. Play a good pairing with some younger guys and watch them play. Like I said yesterday, I played with Alex Noren and Russell Henley and couldn't have had a better pairing.

Q. (No microphone)?

FRED COUPLES: Well, that's a good thing.

Q. Oldest one. Did you have any idea?

FRED COUPLES: No, I went to a dinner last night, and the guy said you're going to make a cut. I said, well, I hope. He said it's Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, and then I moved into third place with the most cuts.

I wish I had three wins and ten cuts, but the couple times I had, I didn't. I love the place, and I'm really happy to be playing this afternoon and Sunday.

Q. The record becoming the oldest to make it?

FRED COUPLES: Oh, sure. At whatever age I come here, next year I'll work hard to be -- last year I wasn't fit at all, and the course was brutal. I actually played a really good first round.

This year I drove it really well most of the time. I hit a lot of fairways, and they were out there pretty good.

Now, this afternoon in this weather, I mean, my little green ball may be a third up -- I may have a wood into No. 1, but I got to figure it out.

You compete with Bernhard all year long on the Champions Tour. He's probably been the best player for eight or nine years. He's phenomenal. I feel like here I can compete with myself to make the cut.

I can't compete with Viktor Hovland or Jon Rahm or anybody, but I can compete with myself, and that's really why I come. That's what I like to do is make the cut here at an older age.

Q. Did you have a little chuckle taking away his record?

FRED COUPLES: With Bernhard? No. He's got enough records. He'll probably make the cut next year.

Q. Do you know how much older?

FRED COUPLES: I'm that much younger?

Q. You're older.

FRED COUPLES: I'm older than Bernhard?

Q. Older making the cut by 108 days.

FRED COUPLES: Well, good. Today is another day. If it was Friday, it would have been 107.