Fred Couples called the LIV-PGA Showdown ‘weird.’ Here’s why

Fred Couples needed a nudge to tune into The Showdown earlier this week.

Not because he had anything against the exhibition — which pitted PGA Tour stars Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler against LIV standouts Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka — but because he forgot it was on.  

“Somehow Brooks let me down,” Couples said Thursday from the PNC Championship. “I text Brooks quite a bit.”

Instead, the reminder came by way of Couples’ wife, Suzanne, who spotted a photo of Scheffler’s wife, Meredith, on social media.  

“Why is she in Vegas?” Suzanne asked Fred.

“I said, ‘Well, they’re playing the match.’”

Then came another reminder, by way of a text from Couples’ former caddie, Joe LaCava, who now loops for Patrick Cantlay. LaCava was curious if Couples was watching the Shadow Creek-based event.  

When Couples did finally flip on the action, the players were on the 5th hole. “It was pitch dark and freezing,” Couples said. “Now, I don’t know why they would do that, to play a match that big [in such challenging conditions].”

Indeed, by the contest’s conclusion, temperatures would drop into the low 50s. The air was so cool that DeChambeau wore a puffy knee-length parka between shots, the kind you might see NFL quarterbacks don on the sidelines. The players lost some pop off their drives and, in moments anyway, looked less than thrilled to be battling the chill as they motored around in carts.

“It was just weird,” Couples said of the vibe, echoing the sentiment of no shortage of golf fans who shared their own reactions on social media.

Couples, it should be noted, has been no great fan of LIV, an opinion he has not been shy about broadcasting. His primary beef has been with those LIV signees who have taken digs at the PGA Tour, but he also has aired grievances about LIV’s funding and format.

“I don’t think I’ll ever understand it,” Couples said of LIV at the Masters in April. “Maybe I’ll go to one [LIV event] and see what it’s really, really like. I know how great they are as players. I get it all, and I get the 54 holes and you drive a cart to your tee and shotgun. That’s easy to pick on. Sometimes I’ve picked on comments that people have made, and I’ve picked on comments that they talk about the Tour, which I’ve said I have now 44 years invested in, and I don’t want anyone picking on a tour that I think is very good.

“Now, everything can get better, but let me tell you, if the LIV tour is better for golf, I’m missing something there. But again, I’m not here to bash them anymore.”

Couples has said he has taken no issue with those LIV players — in particular, Koepka and Dustin Johnson, he has said — who have quietly gone about their business.

Given all of this context, Couples likely was watching The Showdown through a different lens than fans who have embraced LIV. Despite the tough playing conditions, though, Couples said he still enjoyed watching the players compete.

“I thought it was fun,” he said of the LIV-vs.-PGA Tour concept. “It didn’t matter to me who won. I bash LIV, I bash the Tour once in a while. Those are four great, great guys. I have a lot of heart for Brooks and Bryson. But I love Scheffler and Rory. I think they put on a show.”

Couples knows a thing or two about putting on a show in exhibition golf. In 11 appearances in the Skins Game, he earned the moniker “Mr. Skins” for winning a combined 77 skins and more than $4.4 million in pocket change.  

The last Skins Game was played in 2008, but the event is being rebooted next year via a partnership between the PGA Tour and new golf-media company Pro Shop. Couples won’t be playing but he said he is likely to have another role: honorary starter.

“I’m just curious what they’re going to play for,” Couples said of the players he’ll be announcing. “This is going to have to be a ton of money.”