AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Every few years, a professional golfer in his 50s will climb into contention at a major championship, and it will inspire a string of predictable quips from the nongolfers among us: Seriously, how can you consider this a sport when guys with gray hair and grandkids are able to compete with guys in their prime?
Let me -- and Fred Couples -- make the counterargument: That's not a knock on golf.
In fact, that's exactly why golf is the best sport.
Think about it. Wouldn't you love to see Michael Jordan, once every few years, show up at Madison Square Garden and drop 20 in a quarter on the Knicks at age 54? How great would it be if Barry Sanders could catch a swing pass, once a season, and make linebackers half his age look foolish? Sure, their bodies couldn't hold up for a season, or even a full game, but that doesn't mean they couldn't conjure up a few flashes of brilliance, a reminder of their youthful glories. Sure, sports will always primarily exist as a competitive stage for the strongest and fastest athletes on the planet. But when someone like Couples can, at age 57, rely on his brain and his buttery tempo to shoot a second-round 70 at the Masters and be three shots off the lead going into the weekend, that's what makes golf ridiculously fun. It's about more than bludgeoning the ball as far as you can. It's about understanding the angles, the elements and what your limitations are on a course like Augusta National.
It was 25 years ago when Couples won this tournament in 1992. Jordan Spieth wasn't even born until the summer of 1993. They both have a chance to win a second green jacket this weekend. That's proof your sport is doing something right. It isn't like Couples is an anomaly, either. Larry Mize made the cut this year at age 58. A year ago, Bernhard Langer played in the second-to-last group on Sunday and finished 24th at age 58. Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els are both in contention this year at 46 and 47, respectively.
"We were laughing, because I don't even know a lot of the shots I made here in 1992," Couples said. "I just don't remember them. I know there were some good ones."
Couples knows he is still a long shot to win, even on a course where he has eleven top-10 finishes in his career. In 2012, he was tied with Jason Dufner for the lead after two rounds but faded over the weekend and finish 12th. The grind of walking Augusta's hilly terrain over four days is always going to be a concern for someone with a history of back problems. But watching Couples over the next two days has the potential to be spellbinding, regardless of where he finishes.
He doesn't bomb it off the tee anymore, and he's now a middling putter, even on his best days. He is, however, still an artist with his mid-irons. He takes the club back with the tempo of a classical pianist. He has the swagger of a man unconcerned about the future. He knows where to miss and what shots he should and shouldn't take on, and he has almost the entire Masters gallery pulling for him. After he stuck a wedge close and birdied the par-5 13th hole to get to 2-under par, fans in the stands next to the 14th tee gave him a standing ovation.
"I'm a competitor, so I like to believe in myself," Couples said. "Someone is going to win Sunday. And if I play well enough, maybe I'll have a shot at it."
In recent years, a small army of Couples friends has traveled with him to the Masters. They eat, drink and celebrate with him, tell stories and treat it like a buddies trip. In the gallery, his friends were joking that, when Couples plays well, it's important to have the same thing for dinner each night, just to continue riding that momentum. After his round, Couples conceded that was true.
"We do a lot of things the same if I happen to play well," Couples said. "What did we eat last night, rigatoni? I could go for that again. They're sickos, those guys."
Couples' round nearly slipped away from him on the back nine, as he bogeyed 16 and 17 after mediocre iron shots. But from the middle of the fairway on 18, he hit one of the best shots anyone will hit all tournament, flying it just over the pin from 171 yards -- the ball dancing on the crest of the mound that runs through the middle of the green, then rolling back toward the cup, nearly holing out for an eagle. Couples tapped in for birdie.
"I needed that. I needed a really good shot," said Couples, who will be in the fourth-to-last pairing with Jon Rahm on Saturday. "I wasn't really thinking about birdie. But where the pin was, if you hit a good one, you're going to have a shot at it."
To watch Couples strategize his way around Augusta at this age, it's hard not to think about 59-year-old Tom Watson being one putt away from winning The Open Championship in 2009, a feat that likely would have gone down as one of the greatest in the history of sports. A win by Couples here might actually be more impressive, considering the names on leaderboard that he's chasing. Couples still credits Watson with helping him understand how to play strategic golf here and resist the temptation to try to overpower the course.
"I do remember the first time I made the cut, I was playing with Tom Watson, and I think I shot 80 or 81," Couples said. "He shot 68. I learned a lot about the course that day."
You also can't resist looking at Couples and imagining a future in which Tiger Woods contends here again, his hair gray like Couples' or gone entirely. Freddy's swing always has been the polar opposite of Tiger's: Couples' smooth and repeatable; Woods' brilliant but violent. To emulate Couples would require one more reboot from Woods: the willingness to tear it all down and begin again, rebuild with a swing that wouldn't put such terrible strain on his back.
It's hard to imagine, but 16 years -- the age difference between Couples and Woods -- is a long time to contemplate reinvention. The beauty of golf is, even though time is working against you, it seems to move slower than it does in other sports. It's a young man's game at the top, week in and week out. But there are also rare afternoons, even weekends, when the number on his card can make a man's age disappear.