Latest news with #RoyalBroughamSportsLegendAward
USA Today
03-03-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Fred Couples says Brooks Koepka wants back on PGA Tour, but not room for other LIV golfers
Fred Couples says Brooks Koepka wants back on PGA Tour, but not room for other LIV golfers Fred Couples has been one of the more vocal PGA Tour players in opposition to LIV Golf. Now, as reunification talks are taking place, Couples is as interested as the next player to learn how things play out. But Couples, speaking on a radio show on Thursday, said he knows five-time major champion Brooks Koepka is anxious to return to the PGA Tour but isn't sure how many LIV players will be welcomed back. 'I talked to Brooks Koepka all the time. I love Brooks Koepka, and I'm not going to say anything extra except I talked to him all the time,' Couples told Dave Mahler and Dick Fain of KJR 93.3 FM ahead of receiving the Royal Brougham Sports Legend Award from the Seattle Sports Commission. 'He wants to come back. I will say that I believe he really wants to come back and play the Tour. But for me personally, there are a lot of guys that are going to be pushed out…I don't know how you get an elevated event with 72 people and bring seven superstars in. What do you tell those other seven? Bye-bye.' Couples makes a good point, and clearly there are details, such as the return of LIV players, that still need to be worked out. Couples, 65, who remains active on PGA Tour Champions, explained why he has toned down his comments on golf's civil war. 'I'm not nearly as vocal as I was because everything's kind of calmed down,' Couples said. 'I want to say Jon Rahm is the last guy to leave here, maybe there's been one or two more. Basically no one, you know.'Couples said he's tight with Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, two stalwarts of the U.S. Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams, and that Scottie Scheffler has become a superstar and still is just 27 years old. Couples see the Tour getting increasingly younger and producing new names. 'It's succeeding,' he said. 'The Tour's age is going rapidly lower and lower and lower, so for us to throw them a bone to come back on the Tour…' Couples's voice trailed off but his point was made: how many of the LIV golfers does the Tour really need? Couples was in Seattle, the city where he spent his formative years, to accept a lifetime achievement award and was joined by his University of Houston roommate and dear friend Jim Nantz. They shared a three-hour lunch. Said Nantz, 'I'm so proud of Fred's voice being heard during all of this turmoil. He's been exceptional standing up for the game, and I believe standing up for what's just, and I'm really proud of him that he found his voice through all this.'
USA Today
02-03-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Fred Couples earned lifetime achievement award, Jim Nantz came to the rescue with speech
Fred Couples earned lifetime achievement award, Jim Nantz came to the rescue with speech Fred Couples still possesses one of the silkiest swings and can make a golf ball yo-yo next to the flag practically on command. But making speeches in front of a roomful of people? Not his thing. 'I'm very shy,' Couples told the Seattle Times ahead of receiving a lifetime achievement award on Thursday from the Seattle Sports Commission at the Seattle Convention Center Summit building. 'There's going to be 1,200 people here, and that's a lot to try and impress.' The 65-year-old Couples, winner of 15 PGA Tour titles, including the 1992 Masters, and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, got off the hook as organizers invited CBS's Jim Nantz to turn Couples's acceptance into a fireside chat of sorts between two old friends. 'There's no speech, this is chit chatting," Couples said before receiving the Royal Brougham Sports Legend Award. "All I gotta do is listen to him and say, yeah, you're correct.' Nantz flew into the Emerald City to be by his former college roommate's side for his latest award (as did another teammate, longtime swing instructor Paul Marchand). Nantz and Couples famously met at the University of Houston in 1977. It was 'never going to be anything other than I will be there,' Nantz told the Seattle Times. 'This means a lot to him,' said Nantz, who also introduced Couples when he entered the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2013. 'He was so proud to be a Beacon Hill kid raised right in the shadows of downtown.' Couples is this year's recipient of the Royal Brougham Sports Legend Award, which is given to an individual for a lifetime of achievement in sports and who exemplifies the spirit of sports in Washington state. Previous winners of this award include Ken Griffey Jr., Sue Bird, Gary Payton, Warren Moon and Elgin Baylor. 'Seattle is always on my mind,' said Couples. 'I'm a Seattle kid at heart. I think every one of my friends on the PGA Tour know that.' Couples honed his game as a Seattle teenager at O'Dea High School and Jefferson Park Municipal. He won numerous local titles while still an amateur, including both the Washington Men's Amateur and Washington Open in 1978. He was a two-time college All-American before turning pro in 1980. He was named the PGA Tour's Player of the Year in 1984 and 1996. He's still active on PGA Tour Champions. 'I think he is without question one of the most beloved figures in the history of the game,' Nantz said of Couples. 'And I think you could build a case tonight where he is the most famous athlete ever to come out of Seattle."
