made his Champions Tour debut in the 2010 Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai in Hawaii and nearly won the tournament, finishing a close second to Watson. “I had a wonderful time. I think I was 21 under par and didn’t win a tournament. That hasn’t happened too many times,” he said graciously, and before moving up a gear to win on his next three starts. Naturally, he was a shoo-in for Champions Tour Rookie of the Year award at the end of that season. Couples was sidelined by his back problems once again for most of 2011, but after undergoing some revolutionary treatment in Germany these eased sufficiently for him to resume playing. And in typical showman’s fashion, he promptly won his first senior Major, the Senior Players Championship, on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff against John Cook. Couples currently takes Anatabloc to keep his back in check and is a brand ambassador for the anti-inflammatory supplement, wearing its logo on the left arm of his golf shirts. Away from playing, he has worked on 15 courseconstruction projects worldwide since 1992 with his design partner Gene Bates. These include several award-winning layouts, including Carolina National (in Bolivia, North Carolina), San Juan Oaks (in San Juan Bautista, California), and Westfields (in Clifton, Virginia) as
well as designs in Japan, China and Canada. Couples is also a good friend of Michael Jordan, who served as one of his vice-captains at the 2009 Presidents Cup, and he is a season-ticket holder for the Charlotte Bobcats where Jordan is the majority owner. In 2007, he was inducted into the National ItalianAmerican Sports Hall of Fame and in May this year his position in the game’s pantheon was confirmed when he became a World Golf Hall of Famer. Twice he choked up with tears during his acceptance speech when he described how he had gained the motivation to pursue a career in golf while attending a clinic in Seattle at the age of 14. “An unbelievable PGA Tour player was doing the clinic, and I got up front and I was staring at him,” Couples recalled. “I wasn’t really a person who said, ‘That’s what I want to do, I’m going to be a PGA Tour player.’ But I knew I wanted to really, really get involved in golf. And the gentleman’s name was Lee Trevino, who has been a mentor and someone I love.” The emotion welled up again at the end of his speech. “Thanks for taking a kid from Seattle and putting him into the Hall of Fame,” he told the distinguished gathering of the game’s great and good. “This is the coolest night of my life.” The coolest night in the life of golf’s coolest dude? It must have been some party afterwards.
“An unbelievable PGA Tour player was doing the clinic... the gentleman’s name was Lee Trevino, who has been a mentor and someone I love”
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