AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods loves a lot of things about the game of golf, but few things more than playing a practice round at the Masters with Fred Couples.

“I mean, it’s the best,” Woods said the other day. “We don’t get a chance to play very often. He was like my dad on tour when I first came out here, and to be able to see him at 63 years old pumping it out there, having a great time. It’s been the best.”

Couples probably gets more out of these pre-tournament pairings than Woods does, especially since Tiger won the green jacket five times, or four more times more than Freddie won it. But Thursday, while playing in separate groups, Couples, the pseudo-dad, schooled the 47-year-old Woods a bit by shooting a 1-under 71. While the 1992 Masters champ was accepting congratulations for his throwback round, Tiger stood at 1-over par with two holes to play.

“It was a good day, a fun day,” Couples said.

He’s had a lot of those at Augusta National.

In fact, though Couples has missed the cut in his past four Masters appearances, he shares the all-time tournament record of 23 consecutive cuts made with Gary Player. His dear friend Mr. Woods can tie that record with a good second round Friday.

Couples said the course “played pretty easy” Thursday for the long hitters. Reminded that Woods and Justin Thomas had said they were impressed with the power they’ve seen from the 63-year-old who has long battled back pain, the player once known as “Boom Boom” responded:

“When I get pumped up, I can drive it far enough where it gets them all excited, because last year I was really almost a cripple, and I was popcorn-ing it. This year I felt pretty good. So I got to within 20 yards of them a few times, which is good.”

Couples caught fire on the back nine, making birdies with his yellowish-green ball at the 12th, 13th, and 15th, before sinking an uphill birdie putt from off the green at the 17th to move to 2-under. His three-putt on the 18th didn’t reduce his round to a good walk spoiled.

At the start of the week, Couples was talking about his verbal assault on the LIV Golf circuit and his characterizations of PGA Tour defectors Phil Mickelson as “a nutbag” and Sergio Garcia as “a clown.” Thursday, Couples was talking about his improbable 71 and his longtime friendship with Woods, who exchanges text messages with Freddie nearly every day.

“It’s one of those neat things to build these memories in these practice rounds and at this tournament,” Woods said.

On practicing this week with Tiger, Couples said, “He was blasting it. I know he struggled today a little bit, but it makes my week starting playing with those [younger] guys on Monday and Tuesday. That is a lot of fun.”