LIV GOLF SOUTH AFRICA

March 19, 2026

Charles Howell

The Club at Steyn City

Crushers GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome to the media center Charles Howell III, Crushers GC. Charles, 8-under 63, tied for the lead. Solid round today, clean scorecard. What in particular worked so well for you out there?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Driving to the tee, Caleb Surratt asked me had I been to South Africa. I said yes, in the 2003 Presidents Cup, to which he reminded me he wasn't born then. So it was a humbling start to the day, a reminder of my age, and hopefully they say experience, but yeah, it was a good day.

The golf course, it's there if you hit the good shots, and if you don't, it can start to get a little bit dodgy with the rough and whatnot. Fortunately we drove the ball well today and had plenty of chances.

Q. Obviously it was a special day for the South African players, but just as a player out there, could you appreciate what was kind of happening today with our first sound here in South Africa?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, yeah, I've fortunately been friends with South African guys for a long time. I know this was an event that we had talked about for quite a while, actually asking the guys were we going to go to South Africa.

The work they've put into it clearly shows, and we get the fans to come out even on a Thursday. I know it's a big week for them, a special week for them, but it's also a big week for LIV and LIV Golf on a global scale and what this can look like and what this can be. I'm quite sure the next three days will be pretty crazy and chaotic out there.

Having played a Presidents Cup in front of South African fans, they're vocal and they love their sport.

Q. Obviously a massive performance from your side. What was clicking today, and what was the difference from previous events?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, I knew with soft greens you had to shoot low. Obviously never having played a tournament here before, no one really had too good of an idea, but with soft greens, we knew the scores would be quite low.

Obviously with Bryson as our captain, the week he had last week, we obviously want to keep that up and try to follow that up and try to catch him. He's a tough guy to catch. But he's great motivation.

Q. What is your experience with kikuyu rough? How difficult is it when you miss the fairway from the kikuyu?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I haven't had a ton of experience with it. Riviera and LA comes to mind. But it's quite thick. It's always thicker than you think. A lot of the lies will tease you and think, oh, this isn't too bad, I can get this, and it comes out deader than you think. Yeah, you do not want to miss the fairway around here. Obviously the rough isn't completely uniform, which is quite hard to do. But you can get some good lies, but most of them are quite bad.

Q. I may be slightly indulgent as a South African; day one Adelaide, day one JoBurg, pick one?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Oh, this was more for sure, no question. To all my Australian fans out there, thank you. But no, today was more.

It's difficult to tell because this golf course is brutal to walk, so obviously the fans are in different locations and zones and whatnot, but yeah, this was more than Adelaide.

Q. In terms of the welcome, was it warmer? When we think about places like Bethpage and how that welcomes Europeans, how did South Africa welcome an American today?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, I mean, speaking on behalf of me, the welcome was fantastic. Possibly may change my name to Louis or Oosthuizen by tomorrow; my welcome may be warmer.

But no, it's been great. South African fans are awesome. They should root for Louis and Charl and those guys. But yeah, my welcome has just been fantastic.