Warming Up with Fred Couples

There’s a reason Fred Couples is one of the most popular golfers in the world. He’s a smooth-swinging, smooth-talking legend of the game who seems like a genuinely good hang. So our Dylan Dethier got a few minutes with Freddie and decided to do just that: hang. We figured you’d like to come along for the ride. From talking divots to texting Tiger to the origins of that smooth, smooth swing, here’s Warming Up with Fred Couples. Enjoy!
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And I’m trying to I’m I’m I’m looking at the flag not really where I want it to land it because that’s the way I do it yep if tiger was here he would tell you or Stricker you know I’m trying to land it right and there’s a little light

Green spot I’m not that good so I’m trying to hammer this down in there low and just get it skipping up to the flight pretty goody now I’m now I’m now I’m starting to look like a this is called warming up and see through this process we’ve kind

Of warmed maybe you should move to the desert forgets Queen Anne and i’ practice a lot more that’s Right tomorrow we’re talking to Fred Couples one of the most beloved I would say iconic figures in golf and what we’re doing with him is well one watching his golf swing two talking through his process and then I think hopefully just getting to know him in a little bit more of a dynamic

Threedimensional way um that’s the idea of warming up we’re literally going to see how he warms up we’re going to nerd out with him but then also it’s like a Vibe check it’s like how does this guy think how does he hang how does he Converse Forget about the cameras they’ll just capture focus on want to start we did we did not get you any ice cream this time but I went down to your I went down to your old stomping ground ice cream did you see that yeah yeah Claire works with

Us right okay you know CLA was phenomenal I went to Jefferson Park and I said I said no no you don’t have to wear it but the only hat they had left was Tiger Woods brand I said you know that’s about perfect for fr I brought this for you no well I wear

How good is that that’s phenomenal only hat they had left in the shop Jefferson Park wow I’m not looking at this is like the office where I know the camera’s not there but I stare at it that is all is that for me that’s for

You I’ll be he will he will you know what three to one odds says he won’t even notice that but we’ll see be focused on the logo on the front um so how are you Fred I’m doing good yeah yeah like what you’re so many different

Things now you’re a coach we see you’re a you’re a captain we’ve seen you over in Italy teaching guys things you’re a guru you’re still a player you’re shooting low 60s now and then I think so okay I feel like I’m a guru to a handful

Of people yeah yeah well how do you see yourself all of all of the above all of those things you’re a competitive golfer you know first I like to be competitive y so I’ll go fast I had hernia surgery in July yeah and that went well but I

Had to get off my anti-inflammatories to take the surgery and the doctor asked if I could get off of them which caused a back problem so I have not played I played the pure yep with Sam Reeves our guy and then I flew to Italy I did that

And I haven’t played any until Monday and then I came to the Bridgestone shoot to see you and all right hit a couple pitches if you would be so so kind all right at this point do you like can you just pick it up I mean I know you got to

Warm your body up if you’re really going to play on this this is probably what I should do more yeah as we all know I have some back issues but I know I don’t want to keep rubbing that in no no no no no

No but it’s the it’s the real if I stood here I try to line up balls so like I walk to them and then hit another shot if I just dug a hole here my back would get really sore is that right you got to yeah but so

The the biggest thing in chipping is some people will say I need to fly it to a certain spot I’m not kind of that guy I am focusing on the flag and here we are in Florida I could tell I’m a little into the grain mhm so it should stop a

Little quicker if you’re if it’s shinier and downgrain and you’ve got to fly at a certain spot but again I’ve done it for 40 years so I kind of know so all right so you’re looking at this red flag yeah how are you thinking about it well right

Now I’m thinking of it’s a little grainy into the ball I would rather be going that way so right now I’m thinking of contact and how I’m going to get down and through the ball boy that’s pretty good yeah and so that was hammered a little bit yeah yeah and

That’s not you’ll make that yeah but see how you’re taking a little divot so if we were to go yeah stand up straight here yeah most of the grass is cut into us but I was just with tiger and he made it look easy over there and he goes no

Dude it’s just the contact so I’m using that term yeah so so you’ve got a grainy lie here you trying to hit ball first or you’re just trying to make that perfect crisp contact I’m I’m trying to hit the ball first okay and because the grass is

Growing against you you’ve got to go down and through it so I’m going to take a little bit of a divot every time if the grass was laying like that was good yeah that’s going to it’s still going past but if the grass was laying with me I wouldn’t

Take any divot at all cuz I’m I’m shallowing through and I’m actually using the turf to go with me but again this is not a hard shot if the grass was really really cut yeah and it was firm see now that’s from not practicing so that grabed well that was more kind

Of skinned mhm and I need to get issue correct okay so that was picked up meaning like this I need to get the Club away from my body and follow through and then the rest is the contact yeah so again let’s say this a par five and I hit my second

Shot and the trickles here I should be getting this up and down for me seven out of 10 times tiger would say probably eight or nine yeah but you’d have to make a five six eight footer this is not a difficult shot and here’s the funny thing because of my technique yeah I

Have a stronger grip the harder the shots let me how would I I made look easier so if I chipped here and people were watching they’d probably go and say wow that’s not that good but you give me this shot here put you in a corner yeah

Yeah yeah you know we’re 20 yards ago where it takes sure look at this white one here you’re a little short sided right and it’s crazy and and you know today I would bounce it in there but I just open it up a little bit and I try and get the club to

Go left of the flag yeah isn’t that crazy that could go in now these right are cake yeah and I’ve got a 12-footer a 10 footer a eight footer a 20 footer yeah that one you can pick up over there yes and a lot of

It you know I’m not a bashful guy a lot of it is tension like you’re watching a group you’re following people you would say wow he didn’t get it up on on up and down on nine for birdie that killed him if if a guy didn’t get this up and

Down you go well he left himself in a bad spot yeah so the tension’s there because expectations are there yes yes on this you know you’re going to get this up and down four out of 10 times maybe three but my visually I just think it’s an easier

Shot isn’t that funny that had some good grab on it too yeah yeah Fred how is it that you’ve sort of transcended generations the way you’ve have tiger seems to be a good buddy of yours JT seems to be a good buddy of yours you said Xander and Klay those are two guys

You’ve spent time around yeah how what is it about you that is that’s ageless well I I think I think one of the things that I really really like and people can kind of see is that I guess the easiest answer would be is I don’t like

Everybody and I’m not helping a lot of PE I mean JT I talk to and I tell him when he’s playing great how easy it looks and all that tiger we just have fun we usually talk about his kids or what school they’re going to go to or

How he’s doing but it’s very rarely a question of something I shouldn’t ask him it’s it’s just simple and then we get going and we start laughing so hard at each other but I I I think with Klay it’s more when we played at home a

Little bit in Orange County he’s a shot maker and so we would play and he’d ask me some things and I would tell him you know well you already do this you know you you work the ball towards the flag you don’t hit it straight up so we hit

It off mainly because he he loves to play golf when he was at home and I like playing with him and then ex and he are buddies yeah but you know for guys on tour um I mean Davis love has been a friend forever he’s a little younger but

I I I have no problem I’m not a guy who’s worried about you know how much money this guy makes from a contract or how good they are I really like to see them all play well and and sometimes it shows and then yeah you know they hit on

That like wendam Clark at the Ryder Cup I just I stared at him a lot you know I don’t never met him yeah saw I went to the US Open for a couple days I only saw him hit off the first te on Friday I think and I just really really liked him

I mean I like them all but I could see his mentality and his brain just going and then he played with Klay when they won the match against Ricky and I mean Ricky with Rory and Fitzpatrick so I saw him 18 holes and I saw him grind I could

Tell things were going through his brain like you know slow down but I didn’t know him well enough so most of the stuff I was doing was patting him on the but or walking with Klay yeah cuz I you know I don’t want to say the wrong thing to him

They never even played a practice round together so the duration of his all and a little bit was learning from really Lee trino Floyd and Watson and they all gave me time Floyd probably the most trino um if he was he was with brid stone for a while if he was here today

Yeah every free minute I would be sitting with him that right he just is a trip to me and he’s always wanting to know how I’m doing and what kind of shots and you know doing this and that but Floyd was more who taught

Me I guess how to save a shot around and it wasn’t like let’s go Chip and Putt all day it was mentally you know he noticed I played par fives and I would try and go to back left pin or go to the right and I’d shorts side myself and

Make a par and we were at the shark shootout in Thousand Oaks at Westlake and we won but I butchered a couple times and so he looked at me says how how many Eagles you make this year because it was in season’s over yeah I

Said I don’t know not many maybe 12 and he goes yeah 12 you play 25 tournaments you’re making 12 Eagles you’re trying to Eagle every part five make a four and it just stuck so now when I hit a two iron from 230 and I don’t cut it to the flag

And I hit it 40 feet I’m happy with it CU sometimes you know a shot that looks pretty good and all of a sudden it trickles over and you’re in rough and you have no green and you make par you’re livid yeah so just little things

But I’m not a teacher I I I couldn’t teach can’t lay or when I couldn’t teach him anything but I can get them pumped up yeah oh I can get him them pumped up well yeah and there must be some you know no one has ever said oh tiger he’s

Such a chill guy or can’t L he’s such a do you think there’s a part of your personality that they draw from that they draw a certain energy that maybe I think so I know Klay is very relaxed yeah um we do I mean last winter with

With uh Ricky Fowler we played like five rounds and I wasn’t feeling that good but they were there for several days and we have lunch and and it’s a very laidback Patrick is kind of laidback but he’s not tiger I think that makes a lot of sense I think is laidback

Now and I think he see I don’t ever ask him for anything but when he was dead in his prime 30 35 winning all those events we still knew each other but we really started like at night hey I call him kid Hey kid what are you doing and he’d fly

Right back and then because you know he doesn’t sleep that much I’m on the west coast he can text me till 10: at night so we just go back and forth I’ve noticed that about living on the west coast it’s like I talk to my friends that are like night owls more right

Exactly or you wake up because they’re texting you at 4 in the morning when it’s 7 there and he loves to do that but yeah I I I think it’s who you want to latch on to and for me I went to Watson’s house one time spent a week

With him but Floyd I was always around I loved his wife uh Maria was so nice to me I stayed at their house a couple times throughout like the Honda or Dural and then of course trino is someone who just always comes up um and and is very helpful he’s

Amazing coming up the first Fairway with Patrick so I’m I’m in Patrick and x-man’s pod and Patrick always likes me really right next to him so we’re walking up the Fairway and he looks at me he says wow our match is pretty important isn’t it and I said well all

The matches are important he goes well Fred as he calls me Fred we’re three down in the first match we’re two down in the second match and we’re one down we haven’t tied a hole yet so I would say our match is pretty important well three hours later they got dusted too

But yeah it just was shocking it was shocking you were I mean you were there I was also at Whistling Straits yeah when I was watching Klay and X beat Rory and pter six and five and we won every match and that wasn’t shocking but this was like wow how are

We going to win a point or who’s going to win a match but they you know they played hard and then obviously the you know the Joe laava thing got blown out of proportion or at least I think it did but do you think it’s gotten harder to

Play in front of a crowd was always that way I honestly don’t I mean uh I don’t really have a huge problem with that and the first te is always exciting I mean you you know it was pretty brutal they were booing us and luckily we had a lot of Americans go

Because of Italy right but if there were not many Americans in that first te you would have it’s hard to get booed it’s really hard to get booed especially when you haven’t hit a shot yet you’re not used to it it doesn’t happen a lot inl

No if if if you and I were playing at Augusta and we were tied and you were from Ireland and I was from the states and we went to the first tea and there were 50,000 people it wouldn’t change your life or mine at all you go to the

Ridder cup and you’re looking at a few Americans there and you got 49,900 yelling at you it it it becomes a harder Thing let’s send you to this blue flag all the way back there okay so this is this is the third so you get this one over here which is just a little bit of a release this one is cutting releasing okay and I hit two good on and this is

Just more almost like the first two I hit it’s a little more hit through the ball and I’m trying to I’m I’m I’m looking at the flag not really where I wanted to land it because that’s the way I do it yep if tiger was here he would

Tell you or Stricker you know I’m trying to land it right and there’s a little light green spot I’m not that good so I’m trying to Hammer this down in there low and just get it skipping up to the FL pretty good Prett now I’m now now I’m

Now I’m starting to look like a golfer this is called warming up and see through this process we’ve kind of warmed maybe you should move to the desert and forget Queen an and i’ practice a lot more that’s right but again this talking into um this is not difficult but what I

Would what I would not want to do is on my next one try and do do something you know and hit it like that o even though that’s a good shot but but the idea is you like to groove something I like to visually hit the ball in the same height

Okay so now if you throw a bunker up there yeah you know then I got to go a little higher this this shot here is all kind of feel and cut but it but here I got all the Green in the world so I’m always going to try and just get it

Bouncing in there and that was a little too much right hand but I mean it’s still the right High though yeah five fourt how how it’s similar when you think about the guy that was sneaking on to Jefferson Park or picking the range there how much how similar is that guy

As a golfer to who you are right now I I think I’m you know I was called a flippy wristed college kid I was called flippy wristed when I was 10 11 and 12 yeah I didn’t have the John daily but I had the

You know to just pick it up and go and you know you’re now I mean the ground’s So Soft I could take the biggest divots and so it was just a knack of going through the ball where if I had a sandwich in Seattle I could just come

You know and had that long loose swing y be it was really because of the turf you know so if you’re in Florida which a lot of people live the grounds fmer the grass is different and you’re not going to take as big a divots although some

Some people can but in Seattle it’s just the way I would go through the ball I wouldn’t stop because of the big divot then go but it’s the way I would go through the ball and so when I when I teach people chipping that I I I can tell by what

They’re doing I wouldn’t really teach them you know my way cuz I’m just trying to throw the club through here most people wouldn’t follow through to here right like they’re going to follow through to there all my feel is really from about here here to here yeah and and I’m just using this

Club and it’s throwing it I’m not a guy at any part of my career where I could just spin the hell out of it really I mean I could I could if I had to cut it like up there and spin it a little bit

But my goal was to get it you’re smooth customer yeah and and a lot of times chipping I would chip you know one hand really yeah and I actually chipped at the Houston open I lost by a shot and chipped one handed the whole week well I

Used to work with I now work with Paul maram but back then I was working with dick Harmon who has passed away Butch’s brother and he says you’re not going to chip one handed there’s no way I I I missed the 10th green yeah little dog

Leg left I had easy chip and I chipped it one-handed and I chipped it the whole week one-handed um all right let’s hit let’s hit one more to this uh let’s hit one more of this white one let’s see if you can repeat this magic so that’s a

Let’s just let’s see how good I am if I this is where my ball trickled so I would come up here and I would address the LIE yeah you see yeah that’s the first thing you kind of observe it yeah yeah I mean again you can tell right

Here where the this is light color that’s what that’s where I want it that way it’s going that way when you go here it’s going right it’s going right at you so that’s why this shot isn’t ridiculously hard I if I hit 30 of them I would probably fat a couple and they

Would get halfway up the hill but the idea for me is just visually is to look to the left but then swing the club over there and I would probably take that six out of 10 times with a lie now if a lie got better like this now I would you I

Would want it a little closer but you are a guy that’s kind of I mean tiger talks about you know hooking chips or slight you unbelievable you think about that in a similar way it seems like you’re spinning it yeah he he he can go

Both ways so I have this strong grip so it it it it helps me and hurts me because I’m coming in this way the weaker the grip tiger can get it going that way to draw a chip shot yeah it’s a lot of work for me so with a

Stronger grip it’s easier to hold hold the club that’s why you can hit that nice Cy spinny thing correct so let’s let’s say I’m going to go to the blue one and I I’m going to hit a shot that I don’t want to roll in there this becomes

Really easy too and the further I go back I always want it falling to the right now that’s a little a full swing right there and that might come in so and see and that some guys will look at that and they’ll go no no no and so look

I have a great I’ve had a teacher since Paul my college teammate yeah so he would want me looking like this honestly on this shot he would want me to take it here really yeah short to short yeah and that’s how the ball but that works too

Oh thought you made it but if you’ve never done that it’s easy to do it now and I would go see him in Houston and do this and I’d go to Augusta and i’ go just like this I it’s it’s like is that what happens to you at

Augusta in general I was just looking at it you’re one for one in made cuts on the PJ tour this season right I’m batting a thousand um and it seems like you go there and you find the magic no matter what else is happening no matter

What your health is no matter how long it’s been since you’ve played there’s just something in the grass there for you yeah I mean I it was so nice to make the cut and the weather was horrible I mean I really struggled but I putted great but you

Know I I that was a big help I think I missed the cut maybe four years in a row I haven’t really looked maybe five the last eight but I had made some Cuts in my 50s late 50s but yeah it’s my favorite spot so it

You know I played nine holes with tiger and JT Y and then I played with Rory and it’s an unbelievable week um and I didn’t know if I didn’t really have those guys as friends you know like I play with see Patrick takes it like you

Don’t want to play with me and I say Patrick you already know this I play if if you lose X you can come in well he wants to play with X so I get it but I will probably play with them this year yeah nine holes cuz that’s all they want

To play and for me honestly if I was feeling really well I just like to walk so I I I actually like to walk 18 holes I what what am I going to go do bang balls for two hours on the Range I don’t think so you know that’s what they want

To do so the chipping part Paul always comes and we go to that green that’s to the left of the range and spend time on it and then when I get on the course I always go back to this flippy it’s not good don’t get me wrong I used to be

Much better but you know how iconic your Tempo is right yeah this this is like such a thing that but I’m telling you right now I don’t have this on video but chipping onehanded well erase try that again the first one I did well but you did that’s no good either expectations

Again but but see even that he wants me to stop here and even one handed I I go up there like that hands on there and so he’s he’s given into that but that’s what he want a Shor back swing and that’s when Tom Watson Ray

Floyd was a little longer but Tom Watson was really short and a I mean he he just went from here to there and he would he would sit here he probably already chipped in two and you know he would do that too like that’s not anything unreal but for me

It’s visually an easier shot we amateurs I mean they get a little freaked out yeah what’s the thing you love most about golf now um I I I really love competition yeah uh like this year was a bummer I mean I you know some of the finishes were you know

Felt good about a 15th Place finish on the champions tour but I love the the pairings you know going there and I’ll get Ernie El’s and I’ll get Stricker or I’ll get Davis Love and furick I can’t beat that but the compe you know sometimes it’s the competition but it’s

Then hitting a shot so let’s say there’s a PGA Champions toward Augusta we’ll end with this y right and there’s a lot of hard shots there yeah but you have number 12 at Augusta which if there’s a little wind and I’m hitting an eight iron it’s hard uh the fourth

Hole is hard t-shot on 10 for me is hard 20 years ago I could probably hit 75% of the hard shots good like if you were to go around you’d say at Durado you know you got to do this I I would handle those now it’s

50% and the old days if I got it up and down a lot the one bad shot I hit as long as it didn’t go out of bounds or in a hazard I could make par and those are costing me so instead of shooting on the

Champions tour you know like 69 it’s a 70 instead of really going well and shooting 66 it’s a 68 and I gotta I I have to play more it’s all I got to do and and I keep telling myself and then you know last year I was all ready to

Roll I practiced pretty well in December and January and I and I had a hernia and I played with this thing until I finally couldn’t do it anymore so next year it’ll be hopefully some practice nice and you know play and get in a little rhythm it’s a pretty good walk off there

Yeah thanks all right thank you I appreciate it this consider this your first practice session of uh the new year it that’s actually more chipping than I’ve done in in the whole year well maybe not at Augusta okay don’t let me forget this Todd Yes