Fred Couples has been friends with Tiger Woods throughout his career, a situation that affords him the rare opportunity of playing casual rounds with the 14-time major champion. On one such occasion last fall, Couples witnessed something truly rare: Tiger Woods making a hole-in-one in front of his son Charlie Woods.
Couples related the story on Tuesday during a press conference for the 2019 Presidents Cup. Last Thanksgiving week, Tiger and his son Charlie joined Couples and a friend for a round at the Madison Club at La Quinta. That’s when Tiger hit the ace.
“It was a pretty cool shot because it was up over the corner of a bunker, so from the tee we had no idea,” Couples said on Tuesday. “I was riding with [Tiger’s caddie] Joe LaCava and we went around the back of the hole. I said, Joe, that ball’s in the hole. He said, It can’t be. I said, There’s nowhere else for it to be. We sat in the cart and waited for Tiger to get out of the cart and get down there and pick it out of the hole, but it was fun.”
But the extra special aspect of this particular hole-in-one, the 20th of Tiger’s lifetime by some estimates, is that his son Charlie was there to witness and celebrate the moment.
“I never have seen Tiger so excited and Charlie was screaming and yelling,” Couples added.
Ironically, Couples had made a hole-in-one on the second hole at the Madison Club just two days before. But as he notes, Tiger’s ace got a lot more attention.
“He made a hole-in-one and the whole club knew. I made a hole-in-one two days before that and no one knew. My feelings were really crushed.”
On Tuesday Woods tapped Couples to be one of his three assistant captains at this year’s 2019 Presidents Cup. It will be the first time Tiger leads a U.S. team, and Couples’s experience as a three-time captain, as well as his close friendship to Tiger, will be invaluable.
