One of the United States’ most famous athletes – basketball superstar Kobe Bryant – has revealed that he’s been relying on German medical care to fix his ailing ankle and knee.

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times newspaper, Bryant visited Düsseldorf molecular orthopaedist Peter Wehling twice during the off season for innovative blood and platelet treatments meant to ease the star’s pain.

The 33-year-old shooting guard has suffered chronic pain in his right knee and left ankle over the past few seasons.

He told the Times that the positive results he’s noticed from Wehling’s treatment would be a “huge plus” for his National Basketball Association team, the Los Angeles Lakers.

“I feel a lot quicker and able to get to the basket and free throw line,” he told the Times.

Wehling is the founder of his Centre for Molecular Orthopaedics and has become well-known for cutting edge treatments targeted at elite athletes.

His “Regenokine” therapy that he used to treat Bryant involves removing blood from a patient’s affected body party, then removing interleukin proteins from the blood and re-injecting them into the body, according to the Times.

Bryant’s Lakers are scheduled to start their NBA season Sunday with a game against the Chicago Bulls, although it’s not clear if Bryant will play due to a torn arm ligament he suffered in an exhibition game on Monday.

The season is beginning later than its typical October or November start this year because of labour strife between players and owners.

1. Gary Woodland and Matt Kuchar didn’t even have time to let their win at the Omega Mission Hills World Cup sink in before folks started hinting that they might make a great pairing in the 2012 Ryder Cup. Ok. Becoming the first Americans to win the World Cup since 2000 is one thing. But … .a leap to a Ryder Cup pairing? They’re talented, but they’ve both got a lot of work to do if they hope to make it to Medinah next fall. Q-18 isn’t saying anything they don’t already know.

2. Has it really been 11 years since Tiger Woods and David Duval won the World Cup in Argentina? So much has happened since … Having said that, we did see Tiger’s self-deprecating sense of humor come out last week. When Darren Rovell asked Tiger what he’d look like in 2012, Tiger said, “Still balding. The skylight’s going to continue to grow.”

3. If you’re not paying attention to Woodland, you should be. The former basketball player-turned-golfer hits it a mile and has been working with Randy Smith to tweak his game. And, even though he’s not technically the longest player off the tee according to TOUR stats, Tiger said he beats Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson.”Gary Woodland hits it forever,” Woods said. “He’s got another gear that Dustin or Bubba just don’t have. The stats sheet is very misleading so, to us as players, that means nothing. When you see guys on the range, that’s when you know who’s longest.”

4. Forget that it’s only an 18-player field. If — yes if — Tiger would win his Chevron World Challenge this week … it would be more than interesting. It wouldn’t be like winning a full field event, but at this point in his comeback process it would be huge. Why talk about it now? That impressive singles win at the Presidents Cup and a third at the Emirates Australian Open have everyone wondering, not just Q-18.

5. Big stories — and perhaps some gutwrenchers — will come from PGA West where more than 100 players will tee it up for a chance at fully exempt status on the TOUR for 2012. Players to watch include former world No. 1 Duval, major champs Rich Beem, Lee Janzen and Shaun Micheel, Jason Gore, Tommy Armour III and Sam Saunders, Arnold Palmer‘s grandson. Another following-in-the-footsteps story? Travis Wadkins, Lanny’s son.

6. Donald Trump a poacher? Kinda. Sorta. According to Forbes, The Donald’s crew at Trump International got a confidential list of members at The Falls Golf and Country Club and sent invitations to Falls members offering to waive the $250,000 initiation fee if they joined Trump International. Trump told Forbes he wasn’t poaching, just adding members. “In some selective cases, we offer new members a good deal,” he told Forbes. “At least, we’re not asking people to quit their clubs; just to join Trump International.” Bottom line: if you can afford to join one, you can probably afford both.

7. Paddy Harrington is thinking. Maybe too much. We all know how he is when it comes to his game — inveterate tinkerer is the best description — but it’s the mind that’s getting in his way. Yes, he hired Bob Rotella earlier this year but the process is, well, a process. “I very much work on the mental side and if anything, I work on it too hard,” he told Irish Golf Desk. “I don’t think stale is quite the word to use but it hasn’t had the same effect over the last couple of years.”

8. Two down, one to go … for Australian triple crown? Just in case you missed it, Greg Chalmers beat Robert Allenby and Marcus Fraser in a playoff to win the Australian PGA. While we were paying attention to Aussies like Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy, Jason Day, Aaron Baddeley and Greg Norman, the lefty won the Australian Open two weeks ago for win No. 1. Chalmers will ponder teeing it up Dec. 15 for a chance to win the last leg of the crown — the JBWere Australian Masters. He had planned a break to see family in Perth, but now? Allenby is the only other player to win all three (2005) so Chalmers has a chance at history. And just so you know, Norman didn’t overlook him. Chalmers has never won on the PGA TOUR. His best TOUR finishes this year were a pair of T8s at the Shell Houston Open and Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

9. Can’t think of a nicer tribute to a member than the one Cape Arundel Golf Club gave President George H.W. Bush. The clubhouse is now called 41 House after the 87-year-old Bush, who won the club championship some six-plus decades ago and has hosted a who’s-who of politicians and golfers at the Kennebunkport course. Q-18′s favorite Kennebunkport story is about the day in 2004 Bush took Phil Mickelson for a little boat trip and 41 decided to crash a wedding along the coast. Fun story and great memories for the bride and groom.

10. So much talk about Texas freshman Jordan Speith and UCLA’s Patrick Cantlay, but it was Alabama’s Cory Whitsett who won the who’s who of college golf last week in El Paso — the Western Refining All-America Classic. Whitsett jumped from 94th to 45th in the individual rankings while Dylan Fritelli and Speith — Nos. 1 and 2 in the rankings — kept Texas No. 1.

11. Ground zero for golfers and these Orthokine treatments? Golf World’s Tim Rosaforte points to Hank Kuehne, who hasn’t played a TOUR event since 2007, but is working hard on a comeback. Kuehne’s dad Ernie talked him into making the trip to Germany and Kuehne spread the word to Fred Couples and Vijay Singh. Without it, Kuehne would still be on the sidelines. With it? “I feel like a kid again,” he said. “I’ve got a new lease on life.” Will the former U.S. Amateur champ make it back? Back to back rounds of 65 and 66 at The Medalist isn’t a bad place to start.

12. It’s been a tough month emotionally for Luke Donald. He lost his father and welcomed his second daughter in the same week. And now, after spending time with family, he’s ready to tee it up in Sun City at the Nedbank Golf Challenge. His Thanksgiving tweet pretty much says it all: “The last few weeks have opened my eyes to how thankful I am for everything in my life.”

13. Tom Watson was in the hunt again last week. Just not on a golf course. Instead, he was hunting pheasants. An avid hunter, he joined former Kansas City Royals star George Brett and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback in Brownback’s Ringneck Classic. Watson started hunting when he was 10 and calls it his passion. So how did he get hooked? His dad let him tag along when he went duck hunting. “My feet froze, but I didn’t care,” he told the Kansas City Star. “I had a great time watching the ducks decoy in, seeing the dogs go out to retrieve, watching the guys call. I was too young to shoot, but I couldn’t wait to join in.” Not long afterward, he secretly bought his first BB gun, but his parents took it away. He just bought another and hid it better.

14. A different kind of request. Jason Day said he’ll ask Augusta National if he can fulfill his father’s request and spread some of his father’s ashes on the grounds. Day’s father Alvyn died when Day was 12, but Day didn’t make the Masters field until this year. “It’s a plan but obviously if I don’t get clearance from Augusta, I am not going to do it,” Day said. “That was one of my dad’s wishes and if I was allowed to do it, that would be great. Obviously I know how the rules are at Augusta, it would be probably very unlikely, but we will see how it goes.”

15. Where’s Andy Roddick today? Apparently living out the dream by playing Augusta National: @andyroddick “Getting the chance to play Augusta national today…. It doesn’t get better than this …”

16. They haven’t even been for dating six months, but “Wozzilroy” — Caroline Wozniacki and Rory McIlroy if you’ve forgotten — are already getting the question … about the question. Will they marry in 2012? Unbelievable perhaps, but DR news asked Wozniacki just that. Her answer? “I think one has to wait a couple of years yet … in any case.”

17. Ask Keegan Bradley to wrap up his season and it you’ll hear just two words – “Pretty unbelievable.” That’s the way the PGA champ summed it up for the Los Angeles Times.

18. And finally … leave it to Ian Poulter to find humor in shaving. Seems he took a divot, er, chunk, out of his face this morning. He tweeted the photo — http://twitpic.com/7kx6ff — and followed with an explanation — “Will my face stop bleeding No proper divot out of head that one, back blade on my Gillette got bent & took half my head off. Stinging…” Then the kicker: “The cleaners in the room are going to think I murdered someone this morning the towel is more red than white.”

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The End of Pain is the exciting story about the Regenokine Program; The Game – Changing New Treatment Against Osteoarthritis and Low Back Pain.

Download available at Amazon and iTunes

Read more about the book here.

Our brains are sophisticated machines that help us experience the world. What if this machine did not work well?

Imagine if you had an out-of –tune, clunky engine that was making all kinds of weird noises. Now imagine if this was your brain? Many of us who suffer from ADHD, depression, anxiety, poor memory, etc., have brains that are just as much a mess as that clunky, out-of-tune engine. These problems are not Adderall, Ritalin, or Xanax deficiencies. We suffer from these problems because our brains are irritated and do not have what they need to function well.

I want to share with you a patient’s story. Ever since this person was a child, he had poor memory. When he got older, he described his mind as being “foggy.” He felt anxious and even wondered if he was depressed. He discovered that he may have a gluten sensitivity, took himself off gluten and noticed that his memory and “foggy mind” started improving. We did some testing on him and found that he had an elevated homocysteine level. Homocysteine is a nasty chemical that can irritate our brain and can build up due to certain genetic weaknesses. We fine tuned his diet and started him on some supplements to get rid of the homocysteine. Within a few months his entire experience of the world changed. His memory improved. The foggy mind resolved. The anxiety and “depression” even starting melting away. Did he need Zoloft or Ritalin? No! He needed a diet and supplements tailored to the needs of his body. When he eats well and takes his supplements, the world looks fresh, clear, and in perfect focus. When he doesn’t, it is as if someone has taken a camera lens and put everything out of focus.

If your life feels out of focus, you should consider learning how to adjust the focus so that you can experience the beauty and charm of this amazing life. You don’t need to suffer from ADHD, anxiety, or depression. Here are five steps to help you bring the world into perfect focus:

1) Diet: Imagine you had a million dollar car that was designed to run on special 100 octane fuel. What would happen if you put poor quality 87 octane gas with all kinds of impurities in it? It would probably start shaking and performing really poorly. Your brain is way more sophisticated and advanced than any million dollar machine, and yet many of us give it poor quality 87 octane gas. Our diet gives us calories for energy, but it also gives our body the nutrients it needs to work well. The foods you eat can also contain things that are irritating to your intestines, immune system, and brain. Imagine you have a skin rash that is constantly irritated by some chemicals. Obviously, you need to get rid of the chemicals that are irritating your skin before it can start healing. In ADHD and even depression, the brain can be irritated by certain proteins and chemicals in our diet. To help your brain work perfectly, you must start by taking away the things that are irritating it. Some things that can be irritating to the brain are: gluten (wheat), casein (dairy), artificial dyes and preservatives, and sugar. The “foggy mind” and poor memory I suffered from was nothing more than my poor brain being irritated by gluten. When we take away the things that irritate the brain, it can start working the way it was designed. The diet that I suggest to my patients is called the Paleolithic diet. Imagine you lived 200 years ago. Minus gluten and casein, you can eat any food that you can find in its natural form. Another great idea is to make your diet as colorful as possible (and yellow dyes found in Twinkies do not count!). The chemicals that give fruits and vegetables their colors have powerful healing effects on the body! Use them to heal your brain.

2) Probiotics: A happy gut = a happy brain. Some people with various psychological conditions may be suffering from increased intestinal permeability or a leaky gut. In a healthy gut, all foods are broken down to their smallest pieces (amino acids), which then travel through the body and are used to make useful proteins. A leaky gut allows parts of proteins that have not been fully broken down to pass through and cause irritation within the intestines and even in the brain, which can then show up as ADHD, a foggy mind, depression, etc. The good bacteria that are found in yogurts and probiotic pills can help heal a leaky gut and improve our intestinal function. What is even more amazing is that at least in animals, the bacteria in the intestines can actually influence mood. Yes! Little mice become depressed based on what type of bacteria they have in their intestines. What if the bacteria in your intestines were sending signals up to your brain causing you to feel blue? Taking a probiotic pill, yogurt, or fermented food like Kefir can make sure you have the right bacteria in your intestines for optimal function. Remember, a happy gut = a happy brain.

3) Stress: We live in a world filled with stress. Many of us are stressed out all the time. We don’t think that stress is that big a deal. This is as far from the truth as can be. I tell all my patients that stress is one of the biggest poisons you can put into the body. Stress damages the gut and leads to a leaky gut. Stress also damages and even shrinks our hippocampus (the part of the brain we need for learning and memory). Certain mindfulness practices have been shown to increase the size of parts of our brain. Stress turns down the immune system and keeps it from working well; that is why some of us get sick right after a really stressful time. You may say, “Well my life is stressful. What do you want me to do?” There was a time when I was a very stressed out person. The more I learned about stress, the more I realized how much damage I was doing to myself and then found ways to reduce my stress. I now tell my patients, “If you knew your stress would kill you, would you continue to allow yourself to be stressed out?” Obviously not! No one wants to die early. There are studies that show that people who are very negative actually develop more diseases and die earlier than people who are very positive. Get rid of this poison! A simple way to start is by learning some easy breathing exercises, such as those listed on the website of Dr. Andrew Weil (http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART00521/three-breathing-exercises.html). Yoga, Tai Chai, exercise, and various mindfulness programs like MBSR (mindfulness based stress reduction) are all very powerful ways to eliminate stress from one’s life.

4) Good fats, bad fats: Sixty percent of our brain is made from fat. Where does this fat come from? Our diet. Have you ever tried to run a car without oil? Probably not a very good idea. And yet many of us are walking around with the wrong kind of oil (fat) in our brain. Researchers decided to starve some poor rats of omega-3 fatty acids (fish oils) and found that the hippocampus and other parts of the brain of these rats actually decreased in size (remember the hippocampus is what we use to learn and remember). These researchers also found that these rats had lower amounts of dopamine in the frontal part of the brain. People with ADHD don’t have enough dopamine in the same part of their brain. So your child’s ADHD may not be a Ritalin deficiency, but rather a deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids. A great way to get these fats is from fatty fish like salmon. Many of us (and most children) do not like eating fish. A simple solution is for us to take fish oil supplements. One thing to realize is that not all fish oils are made the same. For example, most children’s omega gummies have any where between 50-100mg of DHA. From my experience, most children need at least 800-1000mg of DHA to get an effect. Some practitioners have suggested much much higher doses, such as 5,000-16,000mg of DHA (the equivalent of 16-32 gummies each day). When you are shopping for omega-3 supplements, make sure that the product is guaranteed against impurities (mercury, PCBs…) and that it is decently concentrated (200-500mg DHA per dose). Along with omega-3 fatty acids, it is a great idea to use olive oil and other monounsaturated oils for all their great health benefits.

5) Vitamins: Try baking bread without yeast and see what happens. Baker’s yeast is mandatory for bread to rise. Now what if your brain was lacking essential ingredients it needed to make the chemicals you need to feel good. Dopamine is one of the key chemicals in our brain that helps us feel good and stay focused. Did you know that the enzymes that make dopamine need iron, zinc, vitamin C, B6, Folate, and magnesium in order to work well? Did you know that up to 30% of people are low in magnesium? Some doctors are starting to check people with ADHD for zinc and iron deficiency. But how about all the other vitamins and minerals? Some of these nutrients are also needed to help us make Serotonin. Serotonin is the chemical that makes us feel pleasure and gives us an overall sense of happiness. Perhaps the reason why you are depressed is not because you have a Zoloft deficiency, but that you are lacking one of these very important ingredients needed for brain function. A good place to start is by taking a good multivitamin that has all of these vitamins and minerals in it.

We have been told that ADHD, anxiety, depression, insomnia are “normal” experiences in life. We have been told that the solution is Ritalin, Xanax, and Zoloft. Unfortunately, these medications never fix the real problem. They simply ease the symptoms (well sometimes). Other times, they create a whole new set of problems. There are other options. These few steps can help your brain function better which can help improve or even eliminate things like ADHD, anxiety, depression. What you may also find is that other problems, like abdominal pain, allergies, asthma, poor energy, difficulty weight loss, all start to improve as well.

You and your child deserve to feel great.  You deserve to have great focus, clarity, and energy without coffee or medications.

Observers would have thought that Seattle native Fred Couples was in his element during the opening round of the Charles Schwab Championship. The Champions Tour’s season-ending event started Thursday at TPC Harding in San Francisco on a chilly, windy and occasionally rainy day.

But Couples hasn’t lived in the Pacific Northwest for decades now. The 52-year-old now resides in sunny Palm Springs and days like Thursday are rare in that part of California’s desert.

“The course was long (and) wet,” Couples said yesterday after carding a 3-under 68 in tough scoring conditions to tie for the 18-hole lead with his friend, Jay Haas. “I haven’t played in rain gear in a long time.”

Couples and Haas will be paired in the second round, when once again, chilly high-50s temperatures and rain are predicted, a forecast that’s expected throughout the weekend in the Bay Area.

After signing his scorecard, which listed six birdies and three bogeys, Couples met with reporters and discussed his opening round. As noted below, the 2011 U.S. Presidents Cup captain is looking forward to the rest of the tournament, particularly the pairing today with Haas, his assistant captain on the U.S. squad. Here’s what Couples had to tell reporters after his first round.

MODERATOR: Fred, 68 today, 3-under, 31 on the front and two-over on the back. Maybe just a quick rundown of your day and get some questions.

FRED COUPLES: Well, really the day was — I had no problem with shooting a couple over on the back. I did birdie 18, but it was nice to get off to that kind of start. The course was long wet. I haven’t played in rain gear in a long time. Again, the back nine was difficult. I made it look difficult. But the most exciting thing, I believe, is I’ll be playing with Jay tomorrow. We haven’t played much this year. With what’s going on, we’ll have a good time out there.

MODERATOR: Birdies?

FRED COUPLES: The 1st hole I hit a drive and a wedge to about 12 feet. Par-5, hit it up almost green-high in two but like 30 yards right of the green and I hit a great sand wedge to about two feet. Next hole I hit a good 9-iron to about two feet. No. 8, or excuse me No. 7, hit a sand wedge probably 12 feet. No. 9, went for the green in two. Hit it way to the right and hit a great pitch down there to a couple feet. So I was cruising at that time. Then I got it right in the front of the green on No. 10. Not an easy chip shot and I didn’t get is it up and down. Then I started struggling. 13th hole, sliced a drive into the trees. Actually had an opening with a wood. Hit a tree and ricocheted across the fairway and ended up hitting an iron on the green and two-putting. Next hole hit a good drive but had 4-iron and hit a terrible shot up in the bunker and blasted out 20 feet and two-putted. And then actually thought I hit a pretty good shot on 17 with a 7-iron. It didn’t carry the bunker and plugged in the bunker and had no shot. Then hit a good drive and an 8-iron on 18 and birdied 18.

MODERATOR: How far was your putt?

FRED COUPLES: On 18? Probably 10 feet.

Q. Fred, yesterday was an hour and a half it seemed like about your selection on the team and not the golf. After that, can you just go out there and play golf and say to hell with all this stuff?

FRED COUPLES: Well, yeah, I mean, to be quite honest, I’m not downplaying anything that happened. In my mind, some it’s very serious; in my mind some of it is comical because it just keeps going. You know, when I picked Bill Haas, I made a comment, you know, one of the things I said is he knew what he had to do. And someone, a pretty good writer said, Well, how would he know? His father is the assistant captain. I mean, so I just look at this stuff and I think people are trying to ridicule comments that I make — not in a bad way. None of it’s bad. But what I’m saying is his dad and I talk almost every other day about the Presidents Cup, so it was up to his father to tell his son whatever he wanted to tell him. I wasn’t gonna call Bill and tell him he had to win to be on the team. So just little things like that.

But as far as yesterday, it’s very entertaining. I could sit and talk about Tiger Woods all day. We have 11 other guys on the team. We have Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Matt Kuchar and Hunter Mahan. These guys are all top players. Bubba Watson. But it seems like it’s all about Tiger. I’ve picked he him. We’ll wait until we get to Australia and we’ll see how he plays. He’s a great part of the team, and certainly isn’t going to win the Presidents Cup or lose it for us.

Q. As a guy who won a Masters and has been around sports, you were mentioning the NBA lockout yesterday. You were very aware of attention, of star system. You know that a guy like Tiger or Tony La Russa just leaving, or A-Rod or something gets the attention.

FRED COUPLES: Right.

Q. So that doesn’t surprise you, does it?

FRED COUPLES: No.

Q. You say it’s comical, and of course we jump all over it.

FRED COUPLES: No, yeah, I mean, no one jumps all over it in a bad way. No. None of that. Tiger Woods, I mean, you know – at CordeValle, you know, every shot is — you know, now I see where Luke Donald is the No. 1 player — you know, they don’t go every little inch at Disney, although he did some phenomenal stuff and ended up winning. To me, I think it’s fun to see. It’s fun to see that everyone is interested in Tiger Woods. Now I’m interested. A year ago in picking him, I didn’t think I’d have to. But none of that is a problem for anyone. I mean, Tiger lives it his whole life. It’s never going to go away. He’s going to go to Australia. He and Joe are there, right.

Q. (No microphone.)

FRED COUPLES: Right. Right. No. And the reason being is he’s a bigger deal than picking Bill Haas. And to be honest with you, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that he would have to play really well to make a run in these playoffs. So I wasn’t going to pick a guy who was going to go play one time in four months. Now, did I play CordeValle? Yes, but he worked very hard to get to that spot. So there are timeframes in this. He’s not going to go to CordeValle and embarrass himself.

I felt like he played some pretty good golf. Is pretty good 25th place? No. Is it pretty good to watch him hit the ball? Yeah. So to pick him at that time was to let him know that he was going to have to play a little bit of golf. And then he committed for the Australian Open, and that was one thing I said. Whoever I’m picking, him included, that they have to be there. Because as you know, last time we went down there we got smoked. If we get smoked this year, it’s not because no one’s playing. Guys are playing everywhere. David Toms, they’re all over the world. The only guy that’s not is the guy that I talked to this morning, Steve Stricker. He’s hitting balls. He’s going to Phoenix in a couple days to work on his game there to get out of the bad weather, and then he’s going to fly to Australia.

Q. How much further are you hitting the ball today than when you won the Masters?

FRED COUPLES: You know, that’s a great question. I think I’m hitting it 10 to 12 yards further. Yeah, I think back then, you know, I could get it out there, you know, with most — now I’m very long out here, but on the regular — I’m not on the regular tour — but I can still play with the Davis Loves or guys in this little area. I’m not going to go hit with it Bubba Watson or J.B. Holmes.

Q. (No microphone.)

FRED COUPLES: Right. Well, you know, there could be a handful of players. I don’t know. I’m going to say 10 or 12 and he’s going to say 30. I would say 30 is a little bit . . . But I haven’t seen him all year. Maybe he’s hitting it 290, 295. I don’t know. But three are a lot of guys that have picked up length, yeah.

Q. (No microphone.)

FRED COUPLES: If I can tell you the drivers are easier to hit, anyone should tell you.

Q. (No microphone.)

FRED COUPLES: Both. But the drivers, you know, they’re getting to a point where you’ve really got to make a bad swing to hit a bad shot. I mean, you can still carve ‘em and hook up, but I’m talking about the old days where you’re a fairway over.

Q. How tough were the conditions today, and how much of an advantage is this weather for someone like you that hits the ball farther than most?

FRED COUPLES: Even on the back nine, I did hit a bad drive on the 13th hole. The advantage was that I hit some of those shots very, very close. You know, if I had gone 8-, 10-, 12-footers and not made any, I could have easily shot even par or 1-over today. I didn’t dominate the golf course. But I drove it well and I made some of the holes seem easier, for instance 18. But I thought it was pretty hard. I mean, I think 1-over par is in about 12th, 10th place, somewhere around there. As the day went on, more people went from 1-over to 3-over and from 1-under to 1-, or 2-over. I was heading that direction, too. It just got to be cold. I knew we were supposed to get wind. It wouldn’t it was really windy, but it blew a couple times. It just was just damp and long.

Q. We asked Jay this, and he’s never seen you wear a golf glove. Have you ever worn a golf glove?

FRED COUPLES: I have two gloves. Casey, who caddied for me yesterday, went to Olympic Club and I have two rain gloves. Midge was phenomenal today. The umbrella hit us in the head a couple times. I’m trying to get the towels dry. But I do you have two all-weather gloves. I’ve done it one time, played with two black gloves. But I’ve never worn a glove.

Q. Why?

FRED COUPLES: I don’t have any feel with ‘em at all.

Q. (No microphone.)

FRED COUPLES: No, when I first started, yeah, when I was nine, ten, 11 up in Seattle on days like this. But then you would try and dry your gloves out, but my mom would not give me — I think it was like seven bucks for glove every other week in the wintertime. So finally I just stopped wearing them. That’s when I stopped, up in Seattle.

Q. Jay said you have something with your thumbs.

FRED COUPLES: My thumb, yeah, it has superglue all over it. I do get cuts on my thumb. And then now for a long time now I just put superglue on it and I don’t get too many cuts. It’s right here. How does that look?

Q. You have it in your bag?

FRED COUPLES: Yeah. I have it in my bag.

Q. Jay mentioned on 14 he had a 17-degree hybrid or something in there, really long par-4. What do know what you hit?

FRED COUPLES: I hit a 4-iron. I hit a good drive and I had 200. As it turned out, I probably needed a 3-iron. Yeah, that hole and — when it first started raining pretty hard, Mark and I were on the 6th hole. I hit a driver 3-wood short of the green. But that was — I probably maybe could have hit — that’s when the wind really picked up. That’s the hole we played into the hardest wind. But 14 was very hard. If you made a (indiscernible) there, you hit two quality shots.

Q. (No microphone.)

FRED COUPLES: I actually turned a driver around the corner. I hit a 3-wood up — yeah, I didn’t think — you know, I just figured I would hit it as hard as I could. There is grass to the right now. They kind of give you some area. So I just hit it out there and clipped it across the bunker.

Q. You talked about the treatment in Germany yesterday. Did you ever imagine with how bad your back was at that time that you would feel this good and play this well this year?

FRED COUPLES: No, because I tried — haven’t tried everything, but, you know, I can tell you that until he tells me not to come, I will go to Germany every six weeks if I have to. And so if you do that, all the stuff’s there. Your blood can stay for six months. So when I go back in, I’m right on the cusp of going back in December, and I go there and it’s all ready. They take vials and you go get a CAT scan of where to put it in. It might change a little bit, but it’s a no-brainer decision.

Q. (No microphone.)

FRED COUPLES: Well, it’s all that. But it’s just different than you can get here. You know, I don’t know him, but I was at a function with Terrell Owens, and he had just come back from Korea and did the same thing that I did in Germany. But he then went to Korea for something even different. Then there is a doctor in L.A. that can do knees with this procedure, but not backs. So the medicine is coming to the States, but only — this guy has only been doing backs for like a year, year and a half.

Q. (No microphone.)

FRED COUPLES: Yeah. Yeah. In L.A. Dr. Renner (ph) does it.

Q. (No microphone.)

FRED COUPLES: Yeah. I mean, I wish I could explain. It went in one ear and out the other. It’s called Orthokine (ph). It’s just his system, and there is something in there that you can’t get here. He’s world famous over there. He does a lot people.

Q. (No microphone.)

FRED COUPLES: Well, I mean, I have to tell you, before I started playing, I never really felt that good. That sounds bizarre. And then as I started playing golf the inflammation would come a little bit, but it’s just — I was really bad. I mean, I was bad enough where it just was no fun, miserable. When I did this, I thought, yeah, yeah. Then I flew home, and two or three days I started to feel a little better. A week later, I didn’t have any back pain at all. I almost didn’t even want to go hit golf balls it felt so good. I’m serious. I was not sleeping. Like I said, a bad back, I’ve always said, is not a big deal. But because of that and not sleeping, wow, I would not wish that on anybody.

Q. (No microphone.)

FRED COUPLES: You know, people tell to you take some pills or drugs. I don’t do that. But I guess I could. I don’t even know what it is to take on the planes and all that. I haven’t even tried that. But I am sleeping now.

Q. Describe your conversation with Steve and how that went.

FRED COUPLES: Yeah, well, it went just like this: Steve, I’m calling you one more time just in case somebody checks up on us. I’m calling you for the last time. That’s great, that’s great. I said there was an article, and he said, I don’t know how that got written like that, but, yeah, I saw it and I feel fine. I’ve been hitting balls. Does my arm feel 100%? No. But I’m going to play unless it falls off. I said, That’s all I need to know. Will you do me a favor? If you go to Arizona, give me a few days. If it’s not right, you can still go over. I said to him, I don’t know what you’re going to hear about Keegan Bradley — and, again, Keegan Bradley’s thing is he’s a great kid. I played with him in Houston and he likes me and Bill and the other guys. I said, It’s just not fair to you to say I got Keegan waiting to go play if you can’t play. He’s not going to go over there if he can’t hit the ball. There’s no reason for it. So that was our three-minute conversation.

Q. (No microphone.)

FRED COUPLES: No, no. Just like the other day. I was playing and someone called me and said, Did you see where Robert Allenby shot 8-under? I mean, I wish it was Hunter Mahan or someone else that’s on the team, but it is what it is. Keegan Bradley just won the little thing down in Bermuda. I mean, the guy can play golf. I felt bad. It was a horrific phone call. Two years ago it was a no-brainer. I called these guys up and I said, Sorry, you didn’t make the team. I hung on with Keegan. But as I keep reading things, I feel like people are taking a little bit of a shot. Just come out and say, you know, He didn’t pick him. I picked Tiger and Bill Haas. But I have no problem with Keegan Bradley. I looked at the track record, what they did. Bill Haas was never outside of the top 12 in two years of this Presidents Cup thing.

It’s unfortunate for Keegan Bradley. At the same time, I don’t think Jim Furyk would be on the team unless he did what he did last year. Jim Furyk is a solid, great match play player. I’m not going to sit there and say, Wow, if Jim Furyk would’ve slipped out of there and Keegan in there we’d better off. That’s not my gig. We’re going to go over with 12 guys, and I hope Keegan wins in Shanghai. (Laughter.)

Q. I know what a big sports fan you are. Does this give you a new perspective for the Major League managers and football coaches who have to make these decisions all the time? Do you look at it differently now in the last few months after what’s happened?

FRED COUPLES: In our game, I’ve been on 10 teams. Nicklaus picked me once. I think in a Ryder Cup I was picked. I should know all this stuff. Maybe I was picked twice for the Presidents Cup. Not really sure. The easiest answer for me is, in other sports we find ourself saying, why did La Russa bring in this guy? He claims he called down there and didn’t have Mott ready and he had someone else ready and he did all that. I don’t sit there and go, Oh, my God. This pitcher is this and that. Of course in golf, you know, Jack Nicklaus, the greatest player in the world I think used just to pick the 11th and 12th guys. But he told everyone that’s what he was going to do. Don’t finish 13th or 20th. I might be wrong because he picked me one year and I may have been 13th.

But now it’s done where you get time and you get to see people play and the playoffs are big deal. There is a little bit more going on. So in golf, it’s looked at a little more, which I think is great. I mean, the Presidents Cup is becoming a bigger and better thing. You know, I’m not sitting here defending it. There is nothing to defend because it’s still two weeks away. If I make some bad judgments in pairings — but I just don’t see how anyone can have a problem with leaving Tiger Woods on the team, picking him.

Q. (No microphone.)

FRED COUPLES: Oh, yeah, no, no. Some of this has a little bit of intensity. I get a little bit on the edge of why it keeps coming up, you know, because it’s — it just happened. Like I said yesterday, he comes CordeValle. When I say he. The other guys are playing all over. They’re on the team. Why is he at CordeValle? He’s doing this and hooked one in the hazard and missed a three-foot putt. I mean, wow. What an ordeal this all is. Let’s get him to Melbourne and let him play and have a good time. That’s the bottom line. You’ve got to have fun. He’s a great team player. Like I said, he’s going to go and play as hard as he possibly can. If he wins matches, it’s going to help our team; if he loses a match for some reason and he doesn’t play well, he’s going to get beat up. He wants to be on the team.

Q. (No microphone.)

FRED COUPLES: It was at home in Santa Barbara and it was pouring. It was actually a wedding. I’m going to tell you the story. I’m telling you it rained 18 holes, and I said screw it. I’m not going to use an umbrella. I just put these gloves on it and it was phenomenal.

Q. (No microphone.)

FRED COUPLES: Yeah. Well, it’s got to be really — these are the gloves you dunk in buckets of water. The wetter they are the better they are. Today the weather was not bad. It was just nuisance. No, but I have them in the bag.

Q. (No microphone.)

FRED COUPLES: Well, Midge has been caddying. Casey came. He likes to help out. He was here selling his wine. So he said, I’ll caddie Wednesday with the idea of — he told me 10 times, Is the weather is going to be nasty tomorrow, raining and windy. I said, Okay, you and Midge go over all this. Midge said, I’m caddying. So she’s done a great job. She does not club me, she doesn’t read putts, but every time I turn around she’s right there. She doesn’t argue. Casey can argue with you a little bit, let me tell you.

Q. What’s her last name?

FRED COUPLES: Trammell.

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If the U.S. Presidents Cup team plays the way its mentors did Thursday in the opening round of the Charles Schwab Cup, it should be a jolly time for the Americans in Australia in two weeks.

Cup captain Fred Couples and his chief assistant, Jay Haas, ground out 3-under par 68s to share the first-round Schwab lead on a very tough day at TPC Harding Park, where wind, cold and intermittent rain rendered the course treacherous and made it play long.

Only seven of the 30 top senior players entered in the event managed to break par, and none of them by much. It was quite a change from Wednesday’s pro-am, when the course was dry and conditions near perfect.

“It was about 30 degrees colder and 30 yards shorter,” said Michael Allen, the longtime San Mateo resident, in the best assessment of what the field faced from Wednesday to Thursday. Allen shot a 2-under 69 and was tied for third with David Frost, one shot back of the leaders.

Early, Couples looked as if he might run away and hide when he shot a 5-under 31 on the front nine, but he faded to 2-over on the back and needed a 10-foot birdie on the 18th to get into a tie for the lead.

Despite his lapse, he wasn’t disappointed.

“The most exciting thing is I’ll be playing with Jay (Friday),” Couples said. “We haven’t played much this year, and with what’s going on, we’ll have a good time out there.”

“What’s going on” is considerable ongoing dialogue about Couples’ Presidents Cup

captain’s picks. The former Masters champ spent more than a half-hour Wednesday answering questions and defending his choices of Bill Haas — son of Jay — and this other guy by the name of Tiger Woods. Most of the discussion, of course, was about Woods.

After briefly talking about his round Thursday, it was a lot more of the same. Clearly, Couples is getting a bit exasperated by it all, particularly all the intense preoccupation with Tiger.

“I can sit and talk about Tiger Woods all day, but we have 11 other guys on the team,” Couples said. “We have Phil Mickelson, we have Steve Stricker, we have Matt Kuchar and Hunter Mahan and Bubba Watson. These are all top players, but it seems like it’s all about Tiger. I’ve picked him, so we’ll just wait until we get to Australia and see how he plays.”

At this point, Couples is past that phase of it and is already contemplating player pairings for the Presidents Cup. He acknowledged that he and Haas might be mulling options while playing side-by-side in the second round.

For his part, Haas said he’ll simply be trying to keep up with Couples, who two weeks ago won the AT&T Championship senior event by seven strokes and shot 23-under in just three rounds. With bigger and better drivers, Couples even admitted he’s hitting the ball farther now than he did when he won the Masters in 1992.

“As long as his back holds up, it’s a huge difference,” Haas said. “I think he’s easily 30 (yards) by me, so that makes a huge difference coming into these greens.”

Couples’ chronic bad back is holding up, too. Earlier this year, his back issues became so severe that he went several days without sleep and contemplated giving up golf for good. But he underwent an experimental treatment called Orthokine-Therapy, which involves injections of proteins into the troubled area, from a doctor in Germany who pioneered the procedure.

Within a week, Couples’ back pain went away completely.

“I almost didn’t even want to go hit golf balls it felt so good,” he said.

This is just Couples’ 11th senior event, and he still could finish second in the Champions Tour points race with a victory at Harding. If Couples wins, that favors Tom Lehman, because it would close out three of the four players who need a victory to catch Lehman in the points race.

Lehman’s doing fine on his own. He’s tied for fifth after shooting a 1-under 70, better than any of the four players who have a chance to beat him. Mark Calcavecchia, who needs to finish first or second to beat out Lehman, shot even-par 71, as did Peter Senior. John Cook rallied to a 2-over 73, and Russ Cochran shot 74. Senior, Cook and Cochran all need to win to have a chance at denying Lehman the points title.

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Fred Couples animatedly talked on a cell phone as he stood on the No. 15 tee Wednesday at sun-splashed Harding Park. Couples and his fellow pro-am players were waiting for the group ahead to clear the fairway, so he filled the time chatting with a Golf Channel analyst, trying to douse another brushfire.

Finally, after the conversation ended, Couples turned to the handful of spectators behind the tee. He looked exasperated, almost bemused, as he declared, “Make sure you watch this Presidents Cup – it’s going to be interesting!”

There was a time, not long ago, when Couples worried only about keeping his back loose enough to launch golf balls into distant frontiers. Then he tapped Tiger Woods as one of his captain’s picks for the upcoming Presidents Cup in Australia – unapologetically and early – and suddenly Couples’ decisions became a lightning rod for barroom debate, as if he were an NFL head coach.

Hey, at least people are talking about golf in November.

Couples came to San Francisco as the hottest player on the Champions Tour. He won one tournament in August, then another three weeks ago in San Antonio (by seven shots). Couples rediscovered his touch in time to easily qualify for this week’s Schwab Cup Championship, reserved for the top 30 money winners on the 50-and-older circuit.

But as he prepared for today’s opening round, Couples fielded more questions about the Presidents Cup than he did about tackling Harding. Did he pick Woods solely to boost television ratings? What about snubbed PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley? How exactly is the herniated disk in Steve Stricker’s neck?

It all started because of Woods, naturally, and Couples couldn’t win on that one. Choose him and the anti-Tiger camp rails about his two-year drought. Ignore him and travel to Australia without one of the top two players in golf history.

The view here, as we’ve stated previously: It made perfect sense to pick Woods, even given his struggles this year. He’ll play well again, and nothing is more likely to reignite him than match play, long his forte. (Remember, Woods went 5-0 in the U.S. victory at Harding Park in October 2009).

“Tiger has been the best player in the world for 10 straight years,” Couples said Wednesday. “I ain’t leaving him off the team.”

That’s the most cogent point Couples can make. He’s not the most persuasive public speaker, mostly because he talks in circles – good-naturedly meandering around without really making his case. But Woods was the world’s No. 1 player, by a wide margin, for a preposterously long time. That counts for something, absolutely.

Among the more prevalent theories is that Couples, at the PGA Tour’s urging, selected Woods to increase the visibility of an event lost in the shadow of the NFL season (especially when it’s played on the other side of the world). It’s a logical thought, akin to baseball fans turning All-Star voting into a popularity contest.

Well, so what?

“I’m not smart enough to figure that out,” Couples said of the television angle. “I picked Tiger because I like him. I picked him because he’s won 14 majors and 71 tournaments.”

Tom Lehman watches all this with some amusement. Lehman, as the U.S. captain for the 2006 Ryder Cup, learned the fruitlessness of trying to please everyone – and his biggest decision was choosing Scott Verplank over Stricker, which didn’t exactly draw Tiger-like scrutiny.

“If Freddie asked me, I’d tell him not to give it a second thought,” Lehman said. “You mull the information and make the decision. There are arguments both ways … but how do you leave the most talented golfer in the world off the team?”

As all this lingers in the background, Couples will try to conquer the elements alongside Lake Merced. His lingering back pain became so severe earlier this year, he struggled to sleep at night. Couples finally visited a doctor in Germany, who performed an experimental procedure known as Orthokine therapy – injections of proteins taken from a patient’s blood – to alleviate the constant pain.

Not long thereafter, Couples started winning again.

This week’s forecast – cool temperatures and intermittent rain – would seem to present a formidable obstacle to his chances of hoisting the trophy at Harding. Or maybe not.

“I’m stiff all the time,” Couples said. “Why not let the other guys be stiff, too, if it’s 45 or 50 degrees?”

If he plays well the next four days, it will offer a brief respite before he heads to Australia – for a Presidents Cup bursting with intrigue.