Fred Couples withdraws from the AT&T Championship
Fred Couples has been removed from the published field of the AT&T Championship due to injury problems. The tournament will be played from October 26 to 28, 2012.
Last year, the American recorded a huge seven-stroke victory over Mark Calcavecchia to take the title home. This year, he was listed among the hot favourites to win the title again because of his recent form on the Champions Tour.
However, lingering back problems forced him to announce his withdrawal from the tournament, scheduled to be held at TPC San Antonio – ATT Canyons in San Antonio, Texas.
Talking to the Champions Tour’s official website, he was really unhappy about not being able to return to the site of his sixth victory on the tour.
"Obviously, given my success in San Antonio last year, I was really looking forward to defending my title at this year's AT&T Championship,” he said.
He also expressed his wish of recovering soon, in order to participate in next week’s Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
“My back has been an issue throughout my career and it's just not going to allow me to play next week,” he said. "I hope I feel better and will be able to play in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Scottsdale the following week”.
Couples’ exit from the tournament marked him as the third player to miss out on the chance of defending the title in 2012 Champions Tour season.
Earlier, Tom Watson and Russ Cochran had to announce their withdrawals from the Senior PGA Championship and Senior British Open, respectively, due to injury issues.
Colby Callaway, the AT&T Championship Tournament Director, still believes that the field of this year’s edition is still strong enough to attract the spectators to come and watch the tournament live.
"With or without Fred, it is still undoubtedly the strongest Champions Tour field of the year," the eight-time Champions Tour winner said.
In the meantime, he also wished Couples a quick recovery from the injury and a return to the field next year.
"We wish him a speedy recovery and hope to see him back at TPC San Antonio in 2013,” he added.
Tags: