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If you are 64 and have a long history of back problems you need all the help you can get.
Fred Couples, winner of the 1992 Masters and former World No. 1, manages it by packing his bag full of covers.
This season we've seen very little of the American but he's back at Pebble Beach this week for the PGA Tour Champions – and his long iron is now a 7.
We could all do with a little help at the bottom end of the bag but, even at the average golf club level, a six seems like a lot of wood in the bag. But it's an important lesson for all of us that many of us would be better off with more mixing, more help, and less metal.
In Couples' bag these days there is a driver, 3-wood, 5-wood as well as 4, 5 and 6 hybrid which means, with his putter, half of his clubs have headcovers.
The reason for all the wood is simple: it makes the game much easier for him given his physical condition.
“Everyone keeps talking about them. My long iron is seven. Who cares? I'm not strong enough anymore. I hate to say that,” he said.
Fred Couples' longest iron in his bag is a 7 iron.
He takes us to his teams when he played number 8 at Pebble Beach.
Stay until the end for a classic Joe LaCava story @PUREFirstTee. pic.twitter.com/HEzhojSP44
– PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) September 21, 2024
Augusta is struggling
We last saw Couples at The Masters where he struggled 80-76. His average driving distance was 254 yards on the first day, 40 yards down the stretch, and 261 yards on Friday.
At Augusta, Couples admitted that he really had trouble hitting his irons which would seem unimaginable for one of the greatest golfers of all time.
“My back was shot. If the club goes on, I'm good. I had no speed. I was driving 260 but most of them were going straight. If I had more wood, honestly, I could have shot 75 (Thursday).
“I underestimated how I felt, I had to have 11 woods to hit 140 yards. I couldn't even hit an 8 iron. I couldn't swing,” he admitted after his miss.
“On 7 I hit a 6-iron because I didn't know what I was going to hit and I carried it 100 meters. I can't ring the bell. My body won't let me do it. It was really, I don't want to say it's not fun because it's Augusta, but the swing was work.
“On the 9th I drove it down there, the downhill lie, and it was a 9-iron but I was trying to hit the 7-iron and I couldn't swing. The ball traveled 80 yards in the air and rolled to the left near the green. It's embarrassing.”
The good news is that Lovers was able to get around three days in California this week, opening with a one-under 71 at Spyglass before rounds of 70 and 71 earned him 22nd place alongside Ernie Els.
READ MORE: Clubs, shoes and gloves: the best ways to clean golf equipment and make it last longer
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