Couples retains lead in Senior Players

HARRISON, N.Y. -- If Fred Couples holds on to his lead and wins the Senior Players Championship Sunday, the official Champions Tour records will say he has won a major. Couples will say that it was a huge relief.

It is inevitable to question just how major a Champions Tour major is. The crowds at Westchester Country Club have been warm but modest, the buzz has been more of a hum. But for Couples, who heads into the final round at 11 under par, one ahead of John Cook and Peter Senior, the question is irrelevant. The biggest tournament you can win is the one you're playing this week, especially if you're in his (back-friendly, rubber-soled) shoes.

"I've done nothing the whole year," Couples said after he made three birdies on the front nine and shot nine pars on the back for 3-under 68. "Tomorrow is a big day, just to get back in and see if I can win a tournament."

In Couples' case, the season has not been so much a drought as it has been a hiatus from contention, caused by a bad back. The back is much better, thanks to a revolutionary treatment in Germany. Still, the blood-work procedure could not give him an infusion of confidence. He won't know until the end of the round Sunday whether he has what it takes to finish a tournament.

"Winning is winning," said Couples, the 1992 Masters champion who has yet to win a senior major. "It's hard to win Augusta, hard to win the U.S. Open, hard to win the British Open. Any golf tournament is hard to win."

He was diplomatic when he was asked if this feels like a major, saying: "This is so new to me on this tour. I know it's a major because they say it is, and it's a great course. I'll take a win on any tournament."

What he does know is that he probably will have to shoot lower than 68 to beat Senior, who won a big event in his homeland last December by beating Geoff Ogilvy and other current PGA Tour players in the Australian PGA, and Cook, who has won three times on the Champions Tour this year.

Couples and Cook have played many rounds together, during their primes on the Tour and in practice rounds when they lived on the same course in Palm Springs. "The best thing for John is he has played well the whole year. If he plays like he has been, I'm going to have to play really well," Couples said.

Both of them love playing Westchester, an annual and popular stop when they were on the PGA Tour. Cook said that he and Ben Crenshaw observed as they played together Thursday and Friday, "We've spent half our lives here."

"The good thing about this tour is we're getting to play again with guys we used to battle with," Cook said after his 66 tied Bernhard Langer for best round of the day. "Just being out with Fred will be a walk down Memory Lane, kind of. Westchester with Fred Couples, you'd think it was like 1984."

The key will be remembering how to win.