Tiger Woods and Fred Couples trade shots

US Tour
  • February 13, 2019

Fred Couples is a legendary US golfer, a 15-time winner on the PGA TOUR and known to be a good friend of Tiger Woods.

Henni Zuel from GOLFTV interviewed the pair, who had some great answers about their superstitions…

Henni:

I’m very happy to be joined by Freddie Couples and Tiger Woods on today, the first day, the inaugural Celebrity Cup in honor of your foundation. You guys are both captains — you’re also great friends which we’ll get into in a minute — but how competitive are you going to be today with each other?

Tiger:

Oh, we’re going to win.

Fred Couples:

Yeah, he’s already set it up. My guys don’t know this yet.

Henni:

I touched on your friendship, and you’ve mentioned that Freddie is like a tour dad to you. Tell us about the first time or the first memory you have of when you met.

Tiger:

I think the first time I actually met Fred was probably at Augusta, playing with he and Raymond. I was 19, playing my first Masters. I mean. I had seen Boom-Boom around this place as a kid; my dad would bring me up to the L.A. Open and we’d watch a lot of the SoCal guys. And the next year I got a spot and I think I was 17 back of Davis after two rounds, and he ended up beating Davis in a playoff.

Fred:

Yeah. Seventeen back. Not anymore, Henni. Those times are long gone.

Henni:

How times have changed.

Fred:

Abruptly. Abruptly. We’re very close. I live in California and he lives in Florida but we have a great sense of, you know, picking each other up. I used to text R-E-L-A-X, “RELAX,” “RELAX”.


Tiger:

All the time.

Fred:

…because he works so hard, I mean all the time. Sometimes that’s all I’d put. You know, sometimes he’d say, “Hey dude, I just got out of the weight room for three hours,” and I’m, like, it’s just unbelievable. But again, that’s the mentality of great players and he’s by far the best.



Henni:

Any weird phobias or superstitions that you guys have?

Tiger:

No, I hate spiders. I don’t know if it’s a phobia, I just don’t like them.

Fred:

I’m not big on anything moving on the course besides the guys I’m playing with and the gallery, I don’t want to be around, whether it’s snakes or alligators or whatever. You see some of these clowns go up and tap these alligators on the tail — I think they’re nuts.But in golf, I used to use a 1967 penny, and I lost it and I literally lost my mind. Now, I — white tees, now I use any tees. Silly stuff; I don’t know if you…

Tiger:

My daughter asked me this maybe about two-three months ago, if I’m superstitious, and I said, well, I guess I am. Or maybe I’m a creature of habit, because I always carry a 1932 quarter—that’s the year my dad was born. He taught me how to putt, so my dad’s always there with me when I play. I always carry three tees in my right pocket. If I have a yardage book, it always goes into my back-right pocket. But if I just have a pin sheet, it’s always in my front- left pocket. I always carry Chapstick in my front-left pocket and I always carry my glove in my back-left pocket.

Fred:

One of the worst things for my caddie Joey who caddied for 23 years for me, he drove, everywhere

we went, Joe got to drive.

Tiger:

Never.

Fred:

Caddying for him, he’s never driven…

Tiger:

Never. Never. Ever. No, no one ever drives for me.

Fred:

But for me, I never drove. The first time we were together, he stayed with me in Palm Springs for the tournament, he got, I don’t know, he just went to the car and drove it to the course and he did it for 23 straight… I never drove, and this guy never lets him drive. So for me it’s really fun to pick on these two.

Henni:

I love how this started out with you two being, like, “Naah, we don’t have anything,” and then the list comes out. All golfers are a bit mad.

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