BELL CANADIAN OPEN

September 5, 2003

Charles Howell III

LAURY LIVSEY: Charles Howell, followed up a 67 yesterday with a 68. How do you feel?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I feel like I was just in here, actually. It goes awful quick, I guess.

It was a good day today. The golf course did not play as tough as it did yesterday, at least this morning. Yesterday afternoon the wind was really up and really blowing. But still even today, this golf course is not easy. It still rewards par and there is a few holes out there where I left birdie chances out there, but still, making a par is still just fine.

This golf course, it reminds me a bit of a major-type feel. If you look at the scoreboard, I think you see that. Par still is the good score. The two par 5s are reachable with the way the wind is blowing right now. Other than that, there are a lot of holes where par is rewarded.

LAURY LIVSEY: Let's go over your card. You had three birdies and a bogey.

CHARLES HOWELL III: I teed off on the 10th hole. At No. 17, I made birdie, a driver and 6-iron just to the right of the green, up-and-down birdie. Birdie putt was about ten feet there.

The third hole, I made a bogey, 5-iron off the tee into the right rough. 9-iron to the right bunker then hit and missed the par putt from about four feet.

The fourth hole I made birdie, driver, 6-iron, par 5, and two putts from about 20 feet.

The seventh hole, a driver and a 9-iron to about 20 feet and holed that for birdie.

Q. You seemed to be aggressive with the driver, is that different from how you played yesterday?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, my thought has always been, when the wind is blowing a bit, it's better off to get the ball further up there. The rough this week is long, but it's not so long where you can't get the ball on the green from, say, 150 yards. There is a few holes where I did hit driver, I wanted to be a little more aggressive. That way if the ball were to pitch in the fairway from the rough, you could still get to the green with a wedge or a 9-iron versus laying the ball back.

Q. Even though you are one stroke higher today could you make an argument that this is a better round because your scores per hole were not as all over the map as yesterday?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I would say so. I played better today. You know, I putted better yesterday but I played better overall today.

Yesterday I holed a couple really good putts there. Yesterday felt like more of a grind, more of a battle with the wind and the course conditions. Today, at least for the first nine holes, the wind was down and there were some birdies out there, much more so than yesterday.

We played our back nine, which was the front nine, in a little bit more wind than the front. But it was still more -- a little more calm than yesterday.

Q. The driver on 18 today is it still bugging you?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I still don't know what to do there. The wind today was actually blowing a little bit harder, straight into our face where today was more off to the side. I was able to hit 3-wood today and still be okay.

Still, you've got to get the ball to the bottom of the hill somehow because the shot is still long enough into there. You know, you saw Adam Scott yesterday, it went up to the top of the hill and still had a 3-iron into the green. You don't want to be going into that green with a 3-iron. I think you've just got to find a way whether it's a 2-iron or 3-wood, just run the ball over the hill and get the ball down to the bottom and then you're fine.

Q. What did you hit?

CHARLES HOWELL III: An easy 3-wood. Yesterday it was off to the side but today was more straight in. It was not a hard 3-wood, no. I hit 3-wood, 8-iron into the green.

Q. Inaudible?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I spent a fair amount of time in the rough. No, that ball, it was actually sitting down a little bit, too. I had a much better lie yesterday than today. That shows you how golf is.

Q. We've known for last couple of years, in a lot of tournaments, mostly in majors that I've seen, par 70 golf courses with two par 5s, 66 seems to be as low as anybody ever gets. Yet a par 72 with four par 5s is where the 63s, 64s, 65s are; why is that? Why does the psychology change with the extra par 5s?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, I think a lot of times what you find is the golf courses are actually designed to be par 72s and the golf course has then gone and made a relatively short par 5 into a really long par 4.

I'm not sure -- I would venture to say, let's take, for instance, the 11th hole out here which is a 480-yard par 4. That's a really long par 4. And you know on that tee you have to drive the ball on the fairway, where a lot of other golf courses we play with four par 5s, you are able to reach all of them in two and there's no long par 4s left. The longest par 4 you may find is a driver and a pitching wedge, a driver and 9-iron. Maybe where on golf courses you are converting into par 70s, you have two long par 4s and two par 5s that may not even be reachable.

Now with the wind the way it is blowing, the par 5s here have been reachable, but if it were to turn around, it would be tough to hit to these, as well.

Q. You are too young maybe to answer this, I don't know, but if you were to design a golf course to test you guys to the maximum, creativity, whatever is involved what kind of golf course would you design?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I would go for a par 70 that has a reachable par 5 and one that is not reachable, and then I would have a driveable par 4 with a bit of risk/reward. And it would be probably around 7,200 yards. I love golf courses that have a drivable par 4, with risk/reward, such as many the 5th hole out here, the 10th hole at Riviera. You know, holes like that even though that hole -- it wasn't the greatest to me -- "go Canada." (Laughter.)

No, I think those holes are great. I guess those holes sucker people like me into hitting driver.

Q. (Inaudible.)

CHARLES HOWELL III: I hit driver today. I hit 3-wood yesterday, driver today.

Q. Why driver today?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, the pin was in the back. I thought you get driver far enough up, you can actually chip up on the green. Adam and Jeff hit two really good drives there. That's such a tough green there, that's a heck of a hole.

Q. Just to follow up to that, on bunker design, what sort of bunkers would you have, penalizing bunkers, would you have British Open type bunkers, would you have bunkers that really do cost you guys a shot where you cannot just pull out a 3-iron and get on the green?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I would have bunkers where you could actually get the ball out of them.

What they did to the golf course at Firestone where they have taken the bunkers put these huge lips on them, I still don't think that's right. It's kind of like having rough that's really deep.

The rough this week, the length this week is absolutely perfect because you can get a bad lie in it, it may come out hot, it may come out soft; it may come out just perfect. It makes you take a chance to get the ball up there around the green.

Same thing, if you have these bunkers that are really deep like we had at Firestone, like you have at the British Open, you know that you're just going to chip out with a sand wedge, that's very difficult. But at the same time -- you may -- with the really deep-faced lip, you can't hit that shot but it leaves it in tight enough to hit that one where you could pull it . It's still a really hard as it is.

Q. This may change after today, of course, but in the Top-10 yesterday, the stats were that there where are 7 guys over 40 years of age and you were the only one in your 20s. Do you have any comment on that, any observation?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I think it shows you that experience does have a big role to play.

For instance, when I played -- this is my fourth year on Tour. Even from my first year, I've changed a lot in the four years on the golf course. I think that even though there's a lot of great young players and a lot of great talent and potential there's still something to be said for experience for being there, for kind of going through it. It's hard to say how much that does help you, but I think it does show that.

Same thing last year. You had 18 first-time winners and everybody was saying only the young guys are going to win, the older players are done and this. And now look at what's happened this year. There is still something to be said for experience and driving the ball in the fairway.

Q. Do older guys play older golf courses better?

CHARLES HOWELL III: With the way the newer golf courses are designed you could almost say that, yes. You know, for instance, if you want to take a newer golf course, a more wide open, TPC-style course -- I wasn't there last week but I watched a bit of Boston on TV where it seemed like a bomber's golf course, I think the younger players may play better there.

I know that Riviera is an old golf course and I've played well there the last couple of years. I think that, yeah, it is possible to make an argument that the older players will play a tighter, more of a shot-maker's golf course type better where the younger guys may play more of a wide open, bomber's course, yes. A guy like Nick Price is going to play a Colonial or Harbour Town. If he was here, he would play great on this type of golf course. Whether you take a guy like a -- I don't know, like a Hank Kuehne type, he's going to play great on these bomber golf courses. So, yeah, you could make that argument.

LAURY LIVSEY: Good playing. Thank you.

End of FastScripts.