Fred Couples in driving seat back for another Senior win

Long-hitting rookie senior Fred Couples is hot favourite to chalk up his second straight US Champions (Seniors) Tour victory after notching an impressive seven-under-par 64 in Saturday's second round to take a two-stroke lead in the Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach, California.
Couples, making his third start on the 50-and-over tour, has a 12-under 130 total.
Laid-back Fred won the ACE Group Classic on February 14 in Florida and finished second behind Tom Watson in the season-opening event in Hawaii. Last week, Couples tied for 14th in the US PGA Tour’s Phoenix Open.
Tom Lehman (65) and Taiwan’s Chien Soon Lu (67) are tied for second. Loren Roberts (67) and Ronnie Black (67) followed at 8 under, and defending champion Eduardo Romero (69), John Cook (66), Bob Gilder (66) and Mark Wiebe (71) were 6 under.
Couples and Lehman are first and second in driving distance for the event, though they are vastly different in driving accuracy. Lehman is tied for eighth, while Couples is 73rd out of the 78 players, which means he misses more than the odd fairway!
Apparently, Couples didn’t need to hit them to score in the Toshiba Classic to score. He hit five of 14 fairways, but only made birdies on two of those holes, Nos. 2 and 7.
“I drove it in the rough several times,” Couples said. “I wasn’t blasting them all over the golf course, but yes, I was three or four steps in the rough several times.”
Play started two hours early to try and avoid rain, but there was still a suspension of 71 minutes because of a downpour early in the day.
That actually helped the leaders because the delay was before they teed off and when they began play, the greens were noticeably softer and much more receptive.
The softer greens, though, were tempered by gusty wind.
“It was hard, it was cold,” Couples said. “You are trying to draw them into the wind, then I just started hitting them hard. I was driving it so good yesterday.”
Couples began the second round a stroke behind but was tied by the second hole after a 1-foot birdie putt. He took the lead with an eagle on the 549yd, par-5 second, reaching the green with a 2-iron for his second shot and making a 12ft putt.
His birdie on No. 9 was set up by probably his best shot. He found the rough on the right off the tee and had several trees between him and the green. Couples then hit an 8-iron through a small gap in the trees that came to rest 4 feet from the cup.
Couples’ driver cost him on 10, leading to his lone bogey of the day.
That allowed the field to creep closer and when Couples reached the 14th hole, there was a four-way tie with Lu, Lehman and Roberts. Couples broke the logjam with a 5-foot birdie putt on the par-5 15th and extended his lead to two when he made a 20-footer from above the hole on No. 16.
Couples kept the margin at two when he made a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole. It was one of only 12 birdies on the hole that yielded 41 birdies in the first round.
Couples is 50 under par on the Champions Tour and every one of his eight rounds has been 68 or lower.
Lehman’s first full year on the Champions Tour is going equally well. He has eight rounds in the 60s and is 40 under through eight rounds, but catching the tour’s hottest player will be difficult.
“I know he is going to be 20 or 30 yards past me on every tee shot,” Lehman said. “It’s good to see him playing well.”
SECOND-ROUND TOTALS
Par 142 (2x71) 6,591yd. First prize: $255,000
Players from US unless stated
130 Fred Couples 67 65, Chien Soon Lu 65 67.
134 Loren Roberts 67 67, Ronnie Black 67 67.
136 John Cook 70 66, Bob Gilder 70 66, Eduardo Romero (Argentina) 67 69, Mark Wiebe 65 71.
137 Corey Pavin 678 69, David Peoples 69 68, Gary Hallbergt 67 70, Bob Tway 65 72.
138 Hale Irwin 71 67, Nick Price (Zimbabwe) 68 70, Russ Cochran 79 68, Dan Forsman 70 68, Tom Pernice junior 69 69, Bobby Wadkins 67 71, Lonnie Nielsen 66 72, Mike Goodes 66 72.
Selected scores
139 Peter Senior (Australia) 71 68.
142 Bernhard Langer (Germany) 70 72 (jt 40th).