TOUR Insider: Perfect storm brewing for 50-year-old winner?

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Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

Fred Couples has won three straight Champions Tour events; will he continue that streak on the PGA TOUR?

HUMBLE, Texas -- Take it from Paul Goydos.

Fred Couples is simply the coolest.

"He was the coolest at 22 and he's the coolest at 50,'' Goydos said. "That's sustaining it. ''

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Fred Couples (U.S.) and Greg Norman (Int'l) will return as Captains at the 2011 Presidents Cup. Click here to read more.

The swing. The walk. The skater shoes. The way he pulls at the left shoulder of his shirt before he addresses the ball. Those neck pops and torso twists to keep his back loose. The unflappable one-of-the-guys way he captained the 2008 Presidents Cup team; the way he'll do it again next year. The way he still makes everything look easy.

Even winning. As in three in a row on the Champions Tour. Would have been four if Tom Watson hadn't one-upped him at the season opener.

"He's been refreshed by playing the senior tour,'' Goydos said. "I don't think this is a big surprise. People aren't going, 'Oh, Fred Couples?'. ''

They expect it.

"He's been hitting the ball good,'' Davis Love III said. "It's just a matter of his (sometimes balky) back and that's been good. It's been exciting to watch him. I joked at a (PGA TOUR) board meeting the other day that I'm watching more senior events now.''

The next two weeks, though, Freddie is teeing it up against the kids. This week at the Shell Houston Open; next week at the Masters. Yes, he's won both of them. Yes, he could win them both -- or at least one of them -- again.

And if he does, that would make him just the seventh player in history to win a PGA TOUR event at age 50 or older. The last time it happened was three years ago when Fred Funk won the inaugural Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya. It's happened just one other time since 1975.

Maybe this week is the perfect storm for it to happen again. Couples comes in as arguably the hottest golfer on the planet (although Ernie Els might take exception to that). He'll have plenty of fans in his corner, thanks to his college days at the University of Houston. And he's won at Redstone before, on the Member Course in 2003. That's his last TOUR win.

Freddie laughs when someone mentions he's a favorite, especially at Augusta. "Let's say I'm not going in as one of the favorites,'' he said. "Let's say I'm going into one of my favorite places playing well.''

Fred Funk was the last 50-something to win a PGA TOUR event, pulling off the trick in 2007 in Mexico.

Very well. Extremely well.

In addition to his Champions Tour streak, Couples tied for 37th at the Northern Trust Open and shared 14th at the Waste Management Open. It would have been a top 10 if he hadn't bogeyed the final hole.

And here? Even though the Shell Houston Open has been played on the Tournament Course, not the Member Course, for the past five years, Couples has played well. In last year's blustery conditions, he tied for third. The year before that he tied for fourth.

No wonder he feels comfortable going into Thursday's first round.

"This is not a big week for me to come here and finish fifth or third or 10th or whatever,'' he said. "It's a big week for me to feel like I can step into a PGA TOUR event and feel like I did at Cap Cana.''

Freddie knew he would play well as a Champions Tour rookie because, well, he was still competing out here with the guys. What he didn't know was how those wins would pile up.

"For me to be quite honest, I'm the youngest guy out there,'' Freddie said grinning. "I played well on the TOUR last year. Did I think I was going to win three times and finish second? No. Did I think I was going to do well? Of course, because I play well in the PGA TOUR. I should be able to go out there and play well. It's just been more than I ever expected.

"But I must say that when you start making putts, it becomes easier. And for a long time, the putting on here became a problem because as I got older, I felt more pressure to play well and it all went into putting. That's where you win and lose in this game.

"But for me, I got mediocre because I put so much pressure on myself. I always hit the ball pretty well. Now out there, it's coming the other way where I'm starting to putt better. Why? I don't know. I'm more relaxed. It's just weird. ''

Couples more relaxed? Not weird. Just scary.

Goydos called it the one percent difference.

"If he wanted to play out here full time right now, I think he could contend for THE TOUR Championship,'' Goydos said. "He's a great player and nothing that he does surprises me. Period. End of sentence.''

What's amazing is that, for the most part, Freddie's still comfortable on both tours. But, yes, Sunday's final round at Cap Cana was a seriously easy pairing with Nick Price and Corey Pavin. This week he drew Daniel Chopra and Michael Bradley for the first two rounds.

"When you come on the PGA TOUR, you know, I don't know a lot of their games that well, and when I get paired with them on Sunday, if it's someone that hits it 330 yards and putts like a mad man, you know, you kind of look at that, and it kind of shakes you up a little bit,'' Freddie said.

"For instance, on Sunday playing with Nick Price and Corey, it was a no-brainer on Saturday night. I knew Corey was going to play well because of his short game and way he hits the ball. I knew Nick Price was going to play well because he hits the ball so pure. When we went out there, that's what happened. Corey made a 40-footer on 2. He holed a 50-yard sand wedge for eagle on 6. He made a 30-footer for birdie on 9. You expect that.''

Out here, the players and fans just expect Freddie to be Freddie.

"Every girl out here between 18 and 70 wants to date him,'' Goydos chuckled. "He goes across generations in his coolness factor.

"Everyone out here wants to be Freddie."

Or at least close to being cool.

Which brings us to Phil Mickelson, who couldn't be happier to see Freddie coming back for a second turn as Presidents Cup captain. Ditto for his great start.

"He draws people out to watch,'' Mickelson said. "Not only is he winning, he's winning with flair.''

But can he win a TOUR event after passing his 50th birthday? No one would be surprised if he pulled it off this week.

Perhaps that, more than anything else, speaks volumes about the state of Couples' golf game right now.

Melanie Hauser is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. Her views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.