Couples Becomes A Master

WHEN FRED COUPLES STROLLS DOWN THE FAIRWAY, he often twirls his golf club as if it were a walking stick. To all appearances, he's out for a languorous constitutional in the park. Last week he strolled the elegant greenness of Augusta National, the citadel of American golf, and won the Masters tournament, his first victory in a major tournament after 12 years as a professional. In so doing, Couples, 32, became the sport's most dominant player.

The very casualness of Couples' approach to a game that can turn a player's forearms to cement and his knees to jelly is both the reason for his success and the source of his huge popularity among golf devotees. He smiles as he wins, just as he smiled when he was losing. And lately he's been winning a lot, pocketing more than $1 million already this year, with three tournament titles in the bag, and playing 28 rounds out of 40 in the subpar 60s -- an unbelievable streak of excellence.

For years critics said he was too casual and lacked the competitive fire to go with a liquid swing that makes even other pros jealous. When he blew a 5- ft. putt to help the American team lose the Ryder Cup to Britain in 1989, he wept. His friend Raymond Floyd, 49, as intense on the course as Couples is relaxed, taught him some golf truths, prime among them that when a player has a lead, he needs to get a bigger lead. In winning the Masters, Couples beat -- who else? -- Raymond Floyd, by two strokes.