There have been a host of great champions who were disliked or even hated by their rivals or the public - Hogan and even the great Tiger come to mind. But if someone says they don’t like Fred Couples, chances are they just don’t like golf ...

 

If you think golf is a good walk spoiled, then you’ve probably never had the good fortune to walk 18 holes with Fred Couples. It’s a stroll in the park with birdies and thunderous drives mixed in, and all the while Couples goes about his work whistling a tune that’s stuck in his head that only he can hear, and twirling his golf club like a dapper city gentleman might twirl a walking stick or a umbrella.

 

Success often breeds resentment in quarters, as Tiger Woods is only just finding out despite his massive popularity. But for a period in 1991 and ’92, Fred Couples was the world’s most dominant - and nobody could think of a bad thing to say about the guy.

 

Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated once wrote: “Couples is like chocolate: nearly everybody likes him, and most people like him a lot.”

 

Couples’ career arc and achievements would probably be Hall of Fame-worthy were it not for the popularity. In ‘92, he was the first American to go to the top of the fledgling World Golf Rankings and stepped into the void in the US golf scene, which needed a new hero after the declines of Nicklaus and Palmer.

 

It built to a climax when Couples won his only major title, the 1992 Masters. Three rounds in the 60s set up Couples for a charge at leader Raymond Floyd, and when he caught the legend, Couples got the lucky break that sometimes makes champions.

 

On No. 12, one of the most intimidating par-3s in the world, Couples’ tee shot barely cleared Rae’s Creek in front of the green - and almost by magic it stayed dry, hanging up in the long grass instead of rolling back off into the water. Today’s generation of young pressers (Sergio?) could learn a thing or two from how Couples converted his good fortune: Freddie just shrugged, smiled, and put it on cruise-control for the last six holes to collect his Green Jacket.

 

In his prime, nobody hit the ball as easily and purely as Freddie did – and that includes the god-like figures of Jones, Hogan and Nelson.

 

Brought up in suburban Seattle by Tom and Violet Coppola, Freddie got his good looks from a mixed Italian and Croatian heritage that makes his legions of female followers swoon. The men in Couples’ galleries are transfixed by the swing - a swing of such beauty it makes grown men sigh.

 

Couples’ swing is beautiful in the way a Spitfire is a beautiful aircraft: A seemingly effortless and deadly blend of harmony and timing. Time Magazine once called his long swing “liquid”, which is fitting. Couples’ follow-through has this lithe droop of the shoulders that one golf writer compared to a man falling asleep after the point of impact. The sweet violence of it all produces shots with a special ‘fizzing’ sound - a sound only heard when a ball is struck by a player like Tiger Woods today - or like Fred Couples in his prime.

 

Couples has never worn gloves, but because of his amazingly light grip pressure, he’s never had callouses on his hands, either, unless they have come from his hobby of gardening.

 

The other hallmark of Couples’ career is its loveable silliness. Couples loves to play golf, and he has done it so well in the so-called Silly Season of which he is King: He counts 26 “other” wins - including five World Cup titles with his old buddy Davis Love III - and more than $4 million in earnings from Skins Games alone.

 

The silliness often extends to Couples’ interview sessions, where Freddie is the undisputed king of the mangled quote. Journalists eagerly flock to him, waiting for the next twisted words of wisdom that inevitably drop from Freddie’s free-swinging speech.

 

“I don’t like to answer the phone – there might be somebody on the other end,” he once famously said. (We’ve collected a few more pearls on a separate page of Freddie-isms).

 

It hasn’t all been roses of course. Couples endured a difficult marriage and messy divorce with his trophy blonde first wife, Deborah – who tragically took her own life years later in a suicide leap from a chapel roof.

 

Happily re-married now, there are the lower back problems. The slippery action of Couples’ swing disguises the fact that there is often great pain involved in the process. Couples is still making a run at it in 2008, at the age of 48, but it may eventually be the aching back that forces him to shut down.

 

No one can say how many more times Couples would have won with a sound back. But it was good enough in 2003, when Couples won the Shell Houston Open with ease at age 44, which brought tears of joy from Freddie and yet another classic quote from the master word-mangler: “I’m always emotional when nice things happen to nice people.”

 

And in 2006, there was another late Masters run. At 46, he was tied for the lead in the final round at Augusta. His hair had gone mostly gray, but still perma-tanned and handsome like a finely aged rock star, Couples made a real run at becoming the oldest Masters champ in history. His putter let him down and Phil Mickelson took the title.

 

That may have been a last hurrah. Couples has been making increasing noises about retirement. The back just won’t let him compete anymore like he wants to. Says Couples: “I’m not the kind of guy that wants to half do it … and if the time is coming then so be it.”

 

If that’s the sad truth, surely Couples will walk away the way he walked in, with a chilled-out, zen-like cool serenity.