At 51, Fred Couples shoots a 66 for the lead at Riviera

Grandpa is leading the Northern Trust Open.

If you were an unfamiliar visitor to the game and came to Riviera Country Club on Friday, you would wonder why that painfully achy guy who was constantly stretching and twitching and twisting his back, wincing and grimacing and expelling his breath in painful puffs was out there swinging a golf club with all those bouncy-stepped young fellows.

And then Fred Couples would bend over a putt, maybe one of 94 feet, and just sink it. He really did that on the first hole for an eagle that kicked off a second round of five-under-par 66, good enough to give him a two-shot lead over everybody else at eight-under 134.

Couples is two shots ahead of 28-year-old J.B. Holmes, who shot a 69 and was also eight under before making a double bogey on the 18th hole. Holmes is the third-longest driver on the PGA Tour this year, averaging 310 yards off the tee. That’s about 30 or 40 yards further than achy-breaky Freddie can usually hit it at age 51.

Also two back is Spencer Levin, a 26-year-old from Sacramento, who was one of 26 golfers stranded on the course when play was stopped at 5:30 because of darkness. Australian John Senden, who was one of the nine first-round leaders at four under, shot a 69 Friday as well.

Among the six tied for fifth, three shots back, are 27-year-old Kevin Na, who matched Couples’ round of 66; South Africa’s Trevor Immelman, who won the Masters in 2008 and who shot a 67; Stewart Cink, who won the 2009 British Open and also shot 67; and Australian Robert Allenby, who won here in 2001 and who shot a 70 Friday.

But this day belonged to Couples and it wasn’t easy, even for the men who got off early and missed the rain that began about 3.

Two-time tournament winner Phil Mickelson — a favorite coming in — managed a 70 Friday, leaving him seven shots behind Couples and tied for 26th.

After assessing his own play as “absolutely terrible,” Mickelson said of Couples, “It’s great to see him playing well, it really is.

“It shows the kind of game he’s got,” Mickelson said. “If he can play a couple of tournaments like this heading into Augusta, a course he loves, he going to be a real threat” there too.

Were Couples to win here Sunday it would be 27 years, eight months and 15 days after his first PGA Tour win at the Kemper Open in 1983. That would be the third-longest span between first win and most recent. Only Ray Floyd (28 years, 11 months, 20 days) and Sam Snead (28 years, two months, 17 days) could boast bigger gaps.

And Couples could join Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer as a three-time winner of this event. Only Llloyd Mangrum and Macdonald Smith, with four titles apiece, won more.

But lasting two more rounds, Couples can’t predict how that will go.

“I can tell you what I’m going to do in the next couple of hours,” he said. “I’m going to kick my feet up … do something to relax, eat dinner, then go to bed. When I feel good, I can do a few more things.”

Paul Casey, who is tied for 11th, four shots behind Couples, isn’t counting Couples out.

“It shows this golf course is not about young, brute power. Freddie is struggling to hit the ball the way he wants and yet he knows every nook and cranny. Eight under is an absolutely phenomenal score because it hasn’t been easy the last couple of days.”

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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