Couples back in the winning groove

On a visit to Mount Juliet last July for the Shell Wonderful World of Golf series, Fred Couples understatedly described his season as "rough". This was mainly because of an arthritic back which had limited his competitive outings and made any trip on to a golf course a test of endurance.

It was to get even rougher, however, with the death in November of his father after a long fight with luekaemia. Couples also had the added stress of watching his girlfriend battle (successfully, as it turned out) with cancer. Was it any wonder he was glad to see the back of 1997?

"Last year, a lot of times I played and I wished I wasn't out on the course," recalled Couples after beating Bruce Lietzke at the first hole of a sudden death playoff to win the Bob Hope Classic at Bermuda Dunes in the Californian desert on Sunday. Indeed, the vanquished Lietzke was prompted to remark: "Freddie says he is struggling, but that swing is as sweet as ever."

Like Phil Mickelson, who won the season-opening Mercedes Championship the previous week, Couples hopes the win augurs well for the season ahead, revealing a tough inner desire to move back among the world's elite. While his win in the Bob Hope Classic moved him from 21st to 16th in the latest world rankings, the winner's cheque for $414,000 was the second largest of his career and put his earnings on the US Tour at over $9 million.

"I love to play golf and I love to compete," said Couples. "I know I don't always show it, but winning again is important because I know I have what it takes. This year, if I'm not playing well, I hope to be more of a battler," he added. "Golf wise, it wasn't a big deal to me how I played last year, this year it is a big deal."

Couples, the US Masters champion in 1992 and a 13-times winner on the US Tour, claimed a lot of the credit for his latest win rested with a new Lynx driver which "sounds like wood, and looks like one of my old wooden drivers". The American's next test arrives this week in the Johnnie Walker Classic in Thailand, an event he won two years ago.

The "human interest" stories abounded in American golf on Sunday last. Quite apart from Couples's return to form, the Nike Tour - for the second successive week - had a heart-warming victor.

Although rookie Casey Martin, the player who is bringing a court action next month against the US Tour in an attempt to allow him use an electric cart, didn't win again (he didn't even survive the cut), Eric Johnson's success was a triumph over adversity.

Johnson shot a final round 67 for a 13 under par total of 267, but did so in trying circumstances. The night before his final round, Johnson received a phone call from his family to inform him that his father had inoperable cancer in the tissue surrounding his lungs.

"I thought a lot about Ben Crenshaw winning the Masters after Harvey Penick's death," admitted Johnson. "You never expect the cinderella story to happen to you." The win was Johnson's second win on the Nike Tour and gave him a cheque for $40,500.

Bray's Keith Nolan, meanwhile, finished well down the field in 55th place after rounds of 69, 71, 73, 69 for a two over par total of 282. The Nike Tour takes a six-week break until the Greater Austin Open in March, and neither Nolan nor Richard Coughlan - the two Irish players who have won their US Tour cards for this season - are entered in this week's Phoenix Open on the US Tour. However, the Irish duo will make their debut appearances on the US Tour in next week's AT&T at Pebble Beach.