Tiger Woods, looking inside Fred Couples’ golf bag, starts to count. One, two, three. But Couples finishes before he needs his second hand. 

Yes, he’s playing six ‘woods.’ 

“One, two, three, four, five, six,” Couples said. 

They’re catching up on the range at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Fla., a day before the PNC Championship, the (mostly) friendly pro-relative scramble event that wraps up the golf year. Woods, the 15-time major winner, and teenage son Charlie are playing for the fifth time,  Couples and teenage stepson Hunter Hanneman for the first, and it doesn’t take long for Woods’ eyes to drift toward Couples’ golf bag. 

It’s drawn some talk since August, when the PGA Champions tour social media content team member had a look himself. While the ‘standard’ set-up features a driver and maybe two or three fairway woods or hybrids, Couples had six headcovers — which led to this exchange, started by the social team. 

“You have an old man’s bag.”

“I have six woods,” Couples said. “Driver, 3-wood, 5-wood, 4-rescue, 5-rescue, 6-rescue. 

“And I’m loving life. It’s going to get me through these three days.”

Why’s that? For years, Couples has battled back ailments, and irons were problematic, especially so at this year’s Masters. “My back is shot,” he said at the time. “I have more stuff on just to play. The longer the club, I’m OK. I didn’t have any speed. I was driving it 260. But most of them were going straight. It was fun. It was really difficult. If I’d have had more woods, honestly, yesterday, I probably could have shot 75, but I didn’t know — I kind of downplayed how bad I felt. I should have had 11-wood to hit 140 yards. I couldn’t even hit an 8-iron. I couldn’t swing.”

So Couples made a move. Out came some irons. In came some hybrids. 

“Well, at Augusta, I hurt myself, or before that, and I played, and I really think that if I had all these woods at Augusta, I might have — the scores were a little higher, I might have been able to play better, but I wasn’t even really swinging,” Couples said Thursday at the PNC. “But I hit these clubs pretty well.

“And then when I got home, I had a couple companies make me up a 3-, 4-, 5- and 6-rescue. And honestly, they’ve become my favorite clubs. I’ve picked on it pretty quick — now, again, in the wind, things can get a little different. It’s hard to six a 6-wood or rescue or hybrid low, but I can hit it high, and I can flight it a little bit.

“But just from hitting the ground. You know, I’ve always hit driver, 3-wood, 5-wood, pretty well, but I seem to hurt myself on most 4-, 5-, and 6-irons because you’re still going at it really, really hard. I just tried these, and I absolutely love them.”

Have there been any comments from friends?

“I wish I owned some company,” Couples said. “They’ve sold a lot of them, or people are using them. They’re very easy to hit. And I say this loosely, but if I was 50, 55, I wish I would have had these. I’m a better 5- and 6-iron player with these than I ever was.”