Are you watching what Freddie is doing? It would have been the question Tiger Woods asked Justin Thomas the other night, as he glued to the television and watched his friend Fred Couples write another piece of golf history.
Thomas himself revealed this during the CJCup pre-tournament press conference in South Carolina. During his session with reporters on Wednesday, Thomas was asked if he had followed Couples ‘historic winning round at the SAS Championship’, where 12 under par and a total of 60 strokes, were described by Couples himself as the ” best round he had ever played ”.
Thomas admitted that he wasn’t watching golf, but the Buffalo Bills-Kansas City Chiefs game (“I planned the full day of training because I couldn’t wait to watch it”). But then JT’s phone rang and the person he called was someone who couldn’t be answered: Tiger.
Tiger Woods, statements
“I think Fred was at 17 or 18 and Tiger called me,” said Thomas. “And he said to me, ‘Are you looking at him?’ I replied, ‘Yes, a good game.’ ‘No, I mean Freddie is 11 under and playing 18.’
” “The last time I looked it was 9 or 10 below, by now it was done ..” , recalled Thomas. “No offense to Fred, I love him for a good soul, but he was about to win. I was more interested in watching football ”.
It was only after he answered Tiger’s call that Thomas changed the channel again to follow golf. This is the funny part of the story, the most intriguing one is given by the statement made to reporters some time ago by Fred Couples.
“Yes, another Champions Tour win and I’ll probably stop playing,” he said. “I’ll play Augusta again and probably a couple of other tournaments including Sea Island.” Couples added: “I know I’ve covered a lot of miles, it takes a lot, a lot of work [to play at this level].
I hate playing mediocre golf. I no longer have the body (especially the back) to practice regularly, so I do it when I can, and sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. But I don’t want to do the Champions Tour and finish 40th.
That’s not why I play ”. And now? Will he keep his promise at 63 or will the sacred fire start to burn again and make Tiger jump in the chair?
