"Everywhere we go, we hear, 'Is Freddie coming? Is Freddie coming?'"

Bill Fields returns to his old beat on the Champions Tour to figure out why things are on an upswing while the other tours are scratching and clawing to remain relevant.

Attendance is up 15 percent so far over 2009, and ratings on Golf Channel are strikingly better, too -- up 20 percent over 2009 for Couples' last two wins and up 21 percent in the first quarter with men in the 25-54 age group, according to Nielsen Media Research. The Champions Tour can be an antidote for fans who have overdosed on Tiger Woods or see a sameness to his brethren on the PGA Tour. "I think there is a larger group of people who can relate to these guys better than they can the big tour," said 60-year-old former NFL quarterback Joe Theismann, one of the amateur participants at TPC Tampa Bay. "I can't bend my body like Camilo Villegas or Adam Scott, and neither can these guys. They all feel the same way we do. They wake up with the same aches and pains we have, and they get up and deal with it." Theismann was paired with Fred Funk and his new right knee, and in the same group for two days with Couples, who is forever stretching his problematic back.