Fred Couples missed an opportunity to take advantage of benign scoring conditions on Thursday in the first round of the Masters. While Couples was able to manage five birdies on the day, six bogeys dropped Fred to a +1, 73 in the first round. He is tied for 51st place and finds himself 8 shots behind leader Chad Campbell.
“I don’t think we’re going to get three more days like this,” 1992 champion Fred Couples said Thursday. “They set it up pretty easy. I’m sure now they’re going to put the hammer down.”
For Fred’s sake, he’s going to need to regroup and get a round in the 60s in order to be able to contend and almost certainly will need a round of par or better to make the cut. If Campbell is able to manage a 70 or better tomorrow, the cut will likely go to the top 44 and ties. (The cut rule at the Masters is top 44 and ties and those within 10 shots of the lead.) So the key tomorrow is to watch Fred relative to the field and see if he can improve on that 51st place position. Those one shot better than Couples are currently in 39th place.
Couples regressed from his improved iron and driver play that he displayed last week at the Shell Houston Open. Fred was only able to hit 11 of 18 greens and 9 of 14 fairways. He also had 31 putts on the day – far too many for 7 missed greens. (Leader Campbell, who hit 13 greens, had only 24 putts in his round.)
Friday, Fred will tee off early at 8:55 AM. He’ll need to take advantage of the early tee time as the wind is forecasted to become gusty in the afternoon, including a chance of thunderstorms.
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