World Championship: When Fred Couples climbed out of bed yesterday and strolled to the window the scene that greeted him wouldn't have encouraged him towards the golf course. Mount Juliet was swathed by black, low-slung cloud; the mercury would barely have reached double digits.

The rain had begun to fall, exacerbated by high winds as the American made his way to the first tee a little before 9.30 yesterday morning. The prevailing conditions would have militated against most golfers shooting a low number, but few have to contend with the back problems that Couples has endured throughout his career.

Tiger Woods told one or two tales about his back strain this week: Couples could write a book. As he observed after shooting a five-under-par 67 during yesterday's second round of the American Express Championship: "You know it's (my back) tight. I need to go and relax because it's too tough to play when it's that cold and slap it all over the place."

Given his medical familiarity with backs, Couples was able to venture an informed opinion on Woods' predicament. "I'm used to it (back pain) so I know what the feeling is going to be when your back is going into spasm or getting stiff.

"To watch him; you don't want anybody to feel that, especially the best player in the world. On Thursday it was brutal for me to watch. I'm used to it. A lot of times I go and play when I shouldn't. For him he doesn't know whether he's going to hurt it or not hurt it. I'm sure it's just a striking pain and he's not going to hurt himself.

"He's a pretty bright guy. He's not going out there and make one swing and never play again. I can't imagine that it's going to get any worse because it's just muscle. For me it's all bone and a lot of garbage."

Despite the restrictions imposed by back problems, Couples possesses one of the sweetest swings in professional golf, laced with genuine power. A classic example of the latter can be gleaned from his Ryder Cup singles clash with Christy O'Connor Jnr at the Belfry in 1989 when the Irishman hit his famous two iron to the 18th green. Couples hit a nine iron.

Yesterday, though, few would have predicted that the American would produce arguably the round of the day, even allowing for Ernie Els' superb, eight-under-the-card 64. Couples suffered the more extreme conditions, strong gusting winds and torrential rain for most of his 18 holes. It was only down the closing stretch that he was able to discard the waterproofs.

"It was cold, windy and wet. No, I didn't really want to be out there, but those are the days that you're going to get here. I hit the ball really well. It was a lot of fun. I have not played any golf over the last three months really. I didn't expect to shoot that in the weather."

Despite his abbreviated schedule Couples has won a little over $1.3 million on the US Tour this season including finishing second at the Memorial tournament behind Els, tied fourth at the Buick and tied sixth at the Masters. Augusta holds a special resonance for the American, having won a Green Jacket in 1992 and also holding a record of making 20 consecutive cuts at the Masters.

Couples was in his pomp in the mid to late 1980s - he claimed his first US Tour tournament victory, the Kemper Open in 1983, one of 15 he would go on to win - and early '90s. The first time that he encountered lumbar injuries was in 1994 when he missed three months because of a tear in the outer layer of disc in his lower back. In 1996 he won the Players Championship, in 1998 the Bob Hope Classic but after the latter his game began to suffer. In 2001 he was ranked 131st in the US Tour standings.

The following year was only marginally better and it wasn't until last season when he won the Shell Houston Open that he finally rediscovered his game. He attributed his salvation to a decision taken to seek advice from Butch Harmon at the start of 2003.

The coaching guru got Couples to shorten his swing slightly to take some pressure off his back. It was a timely decision.

Couples enjoyed a fast start to his round, starting at the par three third when he hit a six iron to 26 feet and holed the putt. He was two under after the fifth, this time holing from 12 feet. The par fives were to prove particularly lucrative for the American as he birdied all four. At the eighth he holed from four feet, hitting the 10th in two and two-putting from 60 feet, while at the 17th he chipped to two feet. His other birdie came at the short 11th where he struck an eight iron to 11 feet.

Having got it to five under for the tournament and hit the difficult 18th in two, he admitted to "gassing" his first putt and missed the return. Couples will celebrate his 45th birthday tomorrow, hoping that he can sustain the momentum he established yesterday.