Q. It's well documented that you started playing here when you were ten. How did that come about? I guess you played with people who worked here, but how was that originally negotiated or how did it come about?
CHARLES HOWELL, III: The first time I played was with a member, Steve Brown. He's also a member at Augusta Country Club where I grew up playing. He was the first person to take me out here. Over the years from playing at Augusta Country Club and my few trips out here meeting other members and have got to play, I played quite a few times with Rob Chapman, he's a member from up in South Carolina.
I felt you, my caddy is Bobby Conlin, he used to caddy out at Cypress Point and he knows a lot of members there that are members here and all I've heard from him is these are the best members in the world, the members at Augusta National. I've been fortunate to meet a lot of them. In fact, a member was my partner at the AT&T, John Harris. You just form friendships and it's great that way. You know John and I we had a great time up in Pebble Beach, and I told him we'd have to come out here and play some more. But, no, I've just been fortunate to meet members that way and the few times I played on Employee Day, which is a day that I still believe that's going on in May where certain employees can come out or the volunteers can come out and play. There's a select few employees that can invite a guest to play and I was invited to come out as a guest and play. That day you get carts -- we try to play 54 holes. We got here as early as we could. I could not wake up at seven o'clock to go to school, but I can get up at 5:30 to come play here. We just played as many as we could.
Q. Could you have appreciated it enough when you were 10? You could not have had all of the history in your head, the first time. What was that like?
CHARLES HOWELL, III: I had a good appreciation for it then. I don't know why, but I did, yes. At that time I was still hitting a chip shot on No. 11 that Larry Mize did, and I was still hitting a putt up 16 that Jack Nicklaus, that I had seen him make and the putt on 17.
Yeah, I had an appreciation for him then. Why, I don't know. Obviously my appreciation now is greater than it's ever been but still, at age 10, I was nervous on the first tee, of course.
Q. Did you ever have a job selling lemonade or any of these things during the Masters?
CHARLES HOWELL, III: I was offered to but it would distract from my golf watching so I never took up on the offer. That would keep me from watching the tournament so I never could do that.
Q. What were you offered?
CHARLES HOWELL, III: Well, just -- they would actually go by and give slips out to the local schools in Augusta for like job applications, for, I guess, people to apply to come out here and work for the week, being spring break week in a lot of the high schools here. I had seen the work slips, so to speak, but I wasn't -- I wasn't going to do that. I was too busy watching golf.
Q. This is more about the history and all. Are you much into the history of game and having grown up in Augusta, are you familiar with Bobby Jones and all of his accomplishments and does that have special significance being from Augusta?
CHARLES HOWELL, III: Oh, sure it does. I enjoy the history of golf, but I enjoy the history of Augusta National and golf a lot more, I would say. Probably because Masters is the one tournament that I want to win more than any, but from watching all of the tournaments, I know a lot about it that way. From Jack Nicklaus winning back down, even to Bobby Jones, I remember as a kid growing up I would watch his instructional videos, and the ones that were kind of like a soap opera/instructional video, I'm sure everybody has seen them in black and white. From watching those. Bobby Jones also played golf at Forest Hills, and I believe he won the Southern Open, I think it was.
My appreciation for the history Augusta National and golf probably is definitely greater than just the history of golf itself. This place is pretty special to me.
Q. What enticed you to go to Oklahoma State rather than all of the golf schools we have around Georgia?
CHARLES HOWELL, III: Not the weather. It wasn't the weather, I promise you. (Laughter.)
Well, I probably say the No. 1 was the golf tradition at Oklahoma State. When I looked to go to school, I knew at that point in time I wanted to be a professional golfer and I wanted to play golf forever. Looking around at it, I felt the best school for me for golf was Oklahoma State. Coach Holder has been there for 26 years. I can say he's the best coach in college, of the ones I know. I think he is 100% the best golf coach. And the NCAA history there, obviously Houston won more NCAAs than Oklahoma State has, but winning eight NCAAs there. But it's a golf school, and Georgia Tech, and Coach Heppler I think the world of Coach Heppler and at the University of Georgia, Coach Hack, and he has a great program there now. But at the time I was being recruited I think the best school for me was Oklahoma State.
Q. (Inaudible.)
CHARLES HOWELL, III: He taught me a lot. If it were not for him, I would not be sitting here today. You know, I learned a lot about golf, I learned a lot about the mental aspect from Coach Holder. He was definitely a diehard coach. He was very strict. He was very stern. I got my shirt grabbed plenty of times. I was yelled at plenty of times I promise you. And it was always to do things to help me get here today. Not one thing coach did was to hurt me, I promise you that.
The 16th hole at the National Championship, yeah, that was a drivable par 4 and it was the final round. We were one shot back as a team and I had like an eight-shot lead as an individual, so the individual was more or less over with, and I said to the coach I want to hit a driver on that green and he looked at me and said, "You're going to lay up." I said, "No I want to hit that driver on the green", I had driven the green the last three days. He said, "Son, you pull the 5-iron out and lay up". I said, "Okay, I'll lay up." I wouldn't argue with him. I made par.
I have the utmost respect for him, probably more respect for him than any other coach at the time, I think, and I just felt it was best for my golf.
Q. I saw in the Chronicle story you mentioned in high school you called yourself a geek?
CHARLES HOWELL, III: Yes.
Q. I was wondering how tough was it to be devoted to one thing like this, and do you think now you can serve as inspiration to millions of high school geeks?
CHARLES HOWELL, III: Yeah, I can be the poster boy for the high school geek.
For me, it wasn't that hard. I don't know why, I guess that's part of being a geek, you just don't know why you are one. (Laughter.)
I just loved golf. It was golf. That's all the I cared about. It wasn't -- which, you know I think to be a professional golfer, I think everybody in this field has something a little bit strange with them, and maybe that was the strange thing about me. I know that every player in this field, if they were to open up and tell you everything, you would probably say, man, that's weird, that's not normal. Because doing what we do, I can tell you, it wasn't normal. I mean, at school at Oklahoma State, I hit balls many days when it was 30 degrees and the wind was blowing 30 miles an hour, and, you know, and loved every minute of it.
To be the best at anything, the average person is going to say that you're not normal, because you can't be normal. Because I don't want to be normal at golf; I want to be above normal. So if my way of doing that is practicing a lot and practicing hard, that's my way about it. You know, I can tell you, at the end of my golfing career, if I can look and say I practiced as hard as I could work and I didn't accomplish everything I wanted to, I'll still be okay; that's one thing I've always felt is that if I know I gave it 100% and didn't do it, well, that's okay. There's nothing more I could have done. I don't want to be one of the people that said: Oh, I could have done it if, I wish I would have done this, I wish I would have done that. I just choose to eliminate that aspect of it, and in everything. In my time spent working out in, my time spent practicing, in my time spent playing, you know, I give it all I can. I promise you that the efforts I give will be the best that I can give.
Q. Your pursuit of No. 1, that would mean taking on and beating Tiger Woods.
CHARLES HOWELL, III: Right.
Q. Can you just talk about that development process and also what your coach had told you about what he has that you're trying to find?
CHARLES HOWELL, III: Well, I tell you, Tiger is unbelievable, the things that he has done, you can't say how great they are. You know, we played a practice round, or a few holes of a practice round at the match-play in San Diego at La Costa earlier this year and I was giving him a hard time out there, just to say, hey, listen any questions you have about the tour, let me know, I'll help you out. If you hang in there things are going to turn around for you; you're going to get better. (Laughter.)
Obviously, to be the best, you have to beat the best, and he's the best. You know, there's so many great players out there. I mean, how can you say, what, Phil Mickelson, with all that he's won and David Duval. I turn on Masters highlight videos and I think David Duval has finished second to fourth every year I've watched. There's a lot of great players there. I just think it's going to take a lot of hard work. I feel that I have a God-given ability and talent that hopefully I can get to that.
To answer your other question about what Tiger has that no one else has, I don't know. Obviously, the mental part of it, because I can show you a million guys that can hit the ball good and I can show you a million guys that putt good and chip good or whatever. It's golf, that little bit extra. And why does
Phil Mickelson win and not so and so, or why does Retief win Atlanta and not somebody else? Who knows why. It's that little bit. And you say, why does Tiger win four majors in a row? Granted he hits it a long way and he putts good and chips good, but I think there's something else in his head that is just a little bit extra. Anybody can tell you golf is a mental game but I promise you it is. How else are you -- if you were to put David Duval, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods on the driving range, they are all impressive. Everybody in this field hits it impressive. So how do you end up determining a winner is between your ears.
Q. Masters rookies had the first round overnight lead three years in a row. I wonder if you have a theory how that could happen and do you think you are putting it and hitting good enough to have a chance at extending that streak?
CHARLES HOWELL, III: I didn't know that. That's pretty interesting.
I tell you, I felt like I'm putting and hitting it as good as I have all year right now. I've gotten three really good practice rounds in. Dave and I spent a lot of time on my putting and short game. I felt like I've hit the ball well all year, just that little scoring bit I've missed here lately and sometimes that just takes one good shot or one good putt to get over.
As far as continuing that streak, I'd love to do that. I've love to be the fourth in a row. You know, why that is, who knows. It may be -- my best guess would probably be having no expectations, just going out and playing golf. When Tiger tees it up on Thursday, the whole world expects him to win. When I tee it up on Thursday the whole world won't expect me to win.
And there is some comfort in that, if you want to look at it from a no expectations standpoint. But I think a little bit, I kind of go out there with some expectations. I mean, I want to contend. I want to come down on Sunday on the back nine like I've watched for a million years where everybody says the tournament starts Sunday afternoon, and it starts Thursday morning, I promise you. They just don't let you get on that tee, that 10th tee on Sunday with a one-shot lead I can tell you that.
As far as why that happens I don't know, but I'd like to be a fourth.
Q. Usually this is a question for Mickelson and Norman and those guys, not fair for a 22-year-old in your first Masters, but at the end of your year if you won majors and events but not this tournament, would you feel there was a void?
CHARLES HOWELL, III: Oh, yeah I would feel like it would be a huge void. You know, I would trade a U.S. Open, a British Open and a PGA for this one, in a heartbeat. I mean, I would trade those three majors in a heartbeat, there's no question.
To wear one of these right here, I would give anything, I promise you.
And I think that comes from growing up in Augusta, I really do. I don't know how many other players in the field would make that statement but I promise you that's the way I feel. If you could ask me three -- you want three majors this year or one Masters, I would say one Masters.
Q. Following up on the geek scenario from high school, have you enjoyed a celebrity status coming back here, friends you never knew you had before, friends calling trying to get tickets?
CHARLES HOWELL, III: I had 14 good friends in high school and they all fit in my golf bag. (Laughter.) For a while I had a girlfriend and her name was Big Bertha. You know, I had the other girlfriend that came and went and that was my putter.
You know, tell you, I don't feel like there's been any kind of new celebrity or hero. I guess maybe I don't get into all that. At the end of the day, if I play good, I'll get a lot of attention from that, and that's just fine with me. I want attention for the right reason. Obviously, I wear different clothing because I just like them. I think the people that really knew me know I always want to have something a little bit different, you know, be it a set of irons with a little bit different grind or whatever, something a little different, I liked that, I always have for some reason. So the clothes do fit me well in that respect.
But, yeah, we've had a few extra people call for tickets. You know, you get 8, that's what you get.
Q. Can you specifically address the putter? You've gone through a lot with the putting this year and I know you talked earlier in the West Coast Swing about having worked on it before the season, so what didn't get done coming into the season or as this has progressed that you are trying to get done now?
CHARLES HOWELL, III: I spent a lot of time in the off-season working on putts six feet and in. That's probably the best way to put it, and not enough attention on putts in the range of 12, 15, to 18 feet. The one thing I have learned out here is you pick up a pin placement sheet and there's not many pin placements more than four paces from an edge. You can't hit it four feet every day on every single hole, I promise you, and what better example than Augusta National right here. You just can't do it. The pins aren't put there to be easy.
So, to putt well out here, you have to make a lot of putts from the 15-foot range and I always spent time working on that range right there. In college golf, amateur golf where the pins are, greens are softer, pins are easier you can go at them. You might have five or six putts for birdie inside six feet a round which is great. Here at Augusta National, or this course is the best example, you're just not going to have it. A front right pin on 16, for example, or whatever it might be. You're not going to see a whole lot of putts from that range, so I spent a lot of time working on those.
BILL MORRIS: Charles Howell, thank you very much and good luck to you this week.
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