Q. I'm here with Fred Couples. You had it to 4 under par on the day, a
couple of back‑to‑back bogeys. Talk
about what happened there.
FRED COUPLES: On the bogeys, well, I took a bad line off
the tee on 16 and pulled it a little bit and then put it in the rough and put
it in the left hand bunker with no green to work with and made bogey.
Then the next hole, I was trying to
get it past the hole, and I hit it on the back edge and had 50 feet with a lot
of break in it and got it down there maybe six or eight feet and missed it.
But other than that, the first 15
holes were pretty good.
Q.
Is it tough to look up at the leaderboard and see 9 under par, at one
point Tom Kite had it to. Is it
difficult to look at that? Does that
change the way you play?
FRED COUPLES: No, not on a course like this. You get an uphill putt for birdie, you try
and make it. You get a downhill putt, if
you're ten shots behind, you still try and lag it down there. So no.
But tomorrow, I look at every day so
it's irrelevant. I needed to finish up a
couple under, and I didn't. But it's a
course where, when the wind starts blowing a little bit and you get out there
so dry, it's going to take you a while to figure out some of these angles when
you're trying to cut corners.
On 18, I hit it perfect, and it went
down there, even though it trickled through, I had 90 yards to the hole. On 16, I pulled it. But if I hit it where I was looking, I
probably would be in the rough, but I'd have a sand wedge to the green, and
that basically was my goal. I didn't hit
a good one there, but I did all right.
I don't feel great. So to be 4 under for a while was good. I got most out of my round.
Q.
My other question to you was it looked like you ‑‑ maybe I'm just
assuming, based on how many times I've seen you swing a golf club, but it
didn't look like you could finish your swing, your back was maybe tightening
up?
FRED COUPLES: I tried to figure it out. No, anything on a tee or a little longer,
like on the 13th hole, is a 220‑yard par 3, I hit a really nice 3 iron, but
then I have a sand wedge, and I was hoping to hit the green. So it's pretty bizarre.
But off the tee, the way I'm hitting
it, yeah. But when I bend over, it's
painful. The rough's not so bad. I'm trying to gingerly play, though I hit a
couple of bad shots out of the rough. I
made a good par on, I guess, No. 11.
But I need to get off these pills. These pills are making me really sick.
Q.
Pills?
FRED COUPLES: Yeah, for my back.