Breaking News: Couch Returns to Tour After 5 1/2 Years
Saturday, March 3, 2018

    There are five players listed in the "Major Medical Extension" category heading for Palm Harbor for the upcoming Valspar Championship beginning Thursday, and four come as no surprise. The fifth is a mind-blower, however - ex-Gator Chris Couch - who hasn't been seen on a PGA Tour fairway since he withdrew after posting a 70 in the first round of the Wyndham Championship in August of 2012.

    In fact, Chris, suffering from chronic back problems, withdrew from 14 events during a career spanning 186 events, and peaking in 2006 when he won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with a dramatic chip-in birdie on the 72nd hole. Before his unforced retirement, he earned $4,233,973, with the lone victory and eight top 10s on his ledger.   

    In his final season of 2012, Chris, who turns 45 on May 1, earned $335,848 with three top 25s, including a 23rd in the Players Championship. 

    After his graduation from UF in 1995, Chris remained in Gainesville for many years, but has moved south and now resides in Winter Garden. The story of his almost-retirement from the PGA Tour because he was broke has been repeated often. How his friend, ex-PGA Tour player Brenden Pappas of Ocala, lent him $3,000 to take one final shot and Chris responded with a second-place finish in a Web.com Tour event; he went onward and upward from there. 

   There will be a stellar field facing Chris at Innisbrook, including Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth, Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose, to name a few. And, of course, Ted Potter. In fact, nine of the last 10 Valspar champions are on board: Adam Hadwin, Charl Schartzel, Spieth, Kevin Streelman, Luke Donald, Gary Woodland, Jim Furyk, Retief Goosen and Sean O'Hair. Only 2014 winner John Senden is missing. The field also includes seniors Davis Love III, Ernie Els and Steve Stricker.

    Goosen, the 2009 winner, also won in 2003, the third year of the event. He's one of two players to win it twice, the other is K. J. Choi (2006, 2002), who won't be there this time. 

    Couch will join a bevy of ex-Gators in the field: Matt Every, Brian Gay, Billy Horschel and Camilo Villegas. It should make for interesting conversation around the lunch table. 

     

     

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