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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 3, 2006

Charles Howell III

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA

BILLY MORRIS: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We're delighted to have Charles Howell III with us at this time. He is an Augusta native, as you know, and he's playing in his fifth Masters. In the year 2005, he enjoyed six Top-10 finishes on the PGA TOUR. In 2001, he was the PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year. His best finish was in 2004 when he tied for 13.

Charles, we're delighted to have you here with us this year. Would you like to say a word or two or would you like to just go directly to questions?

CHARLES HOWELL III: It's always a highlight to be here. I think if you're playing this golf tournament, you're doing something right. I know it's always easy to find criticisms and ways to get better and things to do better, but if you're teeing it up on this golf tournament Thursday, something is going right.

Q. Is there still local knowledge here that you've got or has the course changed so much that there isn't anymore?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, in November I played four times over Thanksgiving. Over Christmas, I played seven or eight more. So first of all, I may be the reason they changed the rule that once you qualify for the tournament, you can play. (Laughter). I may be the reason that rule gets revoked for everybody. No, I definitely took advantage of that.

You know, there is local knowledge. I love taking the local caddies here when I play those rounds. They always seem to know something. They always show me a new putt or two; hey, hit this putt from here to this flag. You can't explain it with grain, you can't explain it with break, you can't explain it with slope. Balls out here just do things that they can't do. Even now with this 7th green the way they have re-done it and some of the new things there, it will blow your mind what a golf ball will do.

I was lucky enough yesterday with a local member here, Frank Dolan, and my caddie Jimmy Johnson and he played with us. Jimmy was worked for Nick Price for nine years, caddied tons and tons of Masters and he couldn't believe it. That's from watching it and standing on the greens and everything. Until you play it, you just can't appreciate the difficulty.

Q. The first hole, when you look out at the first hole, what's your first initial reaction at the length of that hole now?

CHARLES HOWELL III: "My God." It's the first hole of The Masters, which it would be a 100-yard par 3, and it would be a hard hole because of the nerves. There are more nerves in this golf tournament than any tournament in the world. And the nerves don't give up, because this golf course comes at you every hole and every shot. You can't really play this golf course and say, well, I'm just going to play to the middle of the greens, because that's always no good.

Sometimes the best shot may even be missing a green for an uphill chip. So, the golf course requires so much thinking that and even now, to answer your question, the first hole, I remember in 2004 hitting wedge and sand wedge into that green thinking it was a tough starting hole then. Now we've got 300 yards to reach the bunker. There is a new little tongue in the bunker, so if the ball just gets in it, it's not the easy shot it used to be out of there. So it comes right at you. That's got to be one of the toughest opening holes on Tour.

Q. Specifically that bunker, doesn't it look like almost two separate bunkers?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, it does. And for all intents and purposes, the second half of that bunker isn't even in play. It's just going to be where the ball just rolls into, which makes that added tongue in there all the more difficult.

So you look at a hole like No. 1, and now it's going to be a driver, we'll say a driver and a 6-iron, driver and a 5-iron possibly. Maybe downwind and warm it could be a driver and an 8-iron. That's a hard hole. There are not many areas on that green to stop a ball. You know, a shot in the middle that have green a lot of times can roll off down the front. Yeah, four 4s on that hole and you're ahead of the field, there's no question.

Q. What's the difference, or what are the specific challenges of this course dry versus this course wet since? You've played it in the fall, presumably must have been dry some of those times, and does it broaden the field or narrow the field if it's dry?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, we've never played this tournament dry since I've played it, even starting in 2002.

And even with the sub-air machines, etc., it still doesn't get probably quite as firm and fast as they want it. So if it does get that way this week, which it's looking like it probably will, I think it brings more players into the field. I've never thought -- since all of the changes to the golf course, I never thought this was just a bomber's paradise. The fairways are narrow. You've got to drive the ball in places out here.

You take a hole like No. 1, the ball has to be in the fairway. No. 5, good tee ball there, No. 7, No. 11 is narrow, No. 18. So I think firm and fast it brings a lot more players in the field. The ball is going to roll out, and then, also, the players that drive the ball straight, a la, your Jim Furyks and Mike Weirs and those type of players. And of course we all know the short game is important out here.

I would love to see it hard and firm and fast. We've all seen old highlight Masters videos where Nick Faldo, was never a long hitter, but he was long at Augusta, because he could shape the ball around the conners, he could get the ball going with the slopes everything and. You know, they used to mow half the way downgrain and half into. The downgrain bit was kind of the parts on the corners so Nick could work the ball down the edges. Now, all of it is mowed into.

(Turning to Mr. Morris). Thank you. It was just too easy. (Laughter).

BILLY MORRIS: You understand I'm not in charge of the mowing. (Laughter).

CHARLES HOWELL III: But, you know, so yeah, I think firm and fast, it brings a lot more guys in the field.

Q. I don't know if you're old enough to have many recollections of '86 with Jack, if you do, what are they and what kind of impact does that leave on a 6- or 7-year-old kid?

CHARLES HOWELL III: A couple. I think one of them shows the beauty of this golf tournament, and that I believe this is true, I don't think Jack was even shown on TV until the 15th tee, playing that hole four back with four to go and wins the tournament without a playoff. That's awesome. I think that's what these finishing holes are all about is that a guy can come-from-behind and make a move. I think that's one of the great things that the tournament committee here has always done is set Sunday up to make runs and charges.

You know, they could set this golf course up so hard that it could make you just cry. But on Sundays they allow for birdies and eagles and the occasional double-bogey in there trying to make Todd that to make those runs. We saw that in '86. I know that he was four back with four to go and doesn't have to go into a playoff to win the golf tournament.

Of course, we all remember the putt on 17. But better than that, I think the shot on 16 has got to be one of the greatest shots ever. The coolest part of that shot being that he didn't even watch the ball fly. He just bent down and picked his tee up. That's when you know you're good. (Laughter). That's a little different level right there.

Q. Overall the changes to the golf course, it seems like older players don't like it as well as younger players. What's your thought as a guy of your generation, pretty much attuned to longer, tighter courses?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I think the changes are fantastic. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if in the years to come there were some more changes to it. And that's simply because, you know, my home golf course in Orlando, Isleworth, is 7,600 yards. On paper, that's still a little bit longer than this one.

As much as people talk about how long this golf course is now, there are still longer ones out there. I totally understand what they are trying to do. You never want to see the 7th hole out here become a 3-wood and an L-wedge. You don't ever want to see No. 11 become a driver and a 9-iron. That's not what that hole was intended to be.

You know, if you would have read the Ben Hogan quote back around 2000, 2001 when he said, "If I ever hit the 11th green, you knew that I pulled it." In 2001, we were hitting wedges in there. That quote had no meaning at all; now it does. Now that means something, going in there now with a 3- 4- 5-iron.

So, yeah, they have put the teeth back into it. But, they have still left some of the birdie holes the same. No. 3 is a great little hole. 13, the change to 15, that hole is still reachable.

I think the golf course is phenomenal as it is right now.

Q. Do you look back at 2002 Masters and look at pictures or any times you were on television and see the clothes you were wearing then and wonder, "What was I thinking"?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, then, there was only two of us wearing those clothes. It was myself and Jesper. (Laughter) I was in good company.

I actually wore them just to kind of be a little bit different and set a little bit apart from the normal khaki pants, white shirt, white hat, that sort of theme. And I probably would still wear the clothes today if weren't for so many other guys wearing them and I think they have gotten a little bit outlandish and overdone. You would never have caught me in a fluorescent orange belt with purple pants. It's probably banned from this golf tournament to wear something like that around here. (Laughter).

Q. Where are those pants from 2002, the white with the green stripes?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I've given every bit of the J. Lindeberg clothes away apart from the pans. I still have those. They are in my closet. You want them? (Laughter). We can make you a pair.

Q. You've been at Augusta for so long, living here and growing up here and everything, and you've seen the gradual evolution of this golf course. When you hear players or media talk about dramatic or harsh, drastic changes to the course, does that strike you as a little bit the sky is falling type thing, because you've seen the evolution or do you think it has been?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, I think if the golf ball and technology, if none of that had ever changed, it all would have stayed the same, I don't think really any of the golf course changes would have been necessary. And simply, in my opinion, all they are doing is just keeping up with the times and trying to restore the golf course to how it should be.

Had there been no changes made to date now, I don't think there would have been a hole, apart from a par 3, that we would have hit more than a sand wedge to a green. And that's no knock on how the golf course was, and, you know, when in the late 80s, early 90s, etc. That's just how technology was moving along.

An example of that would have been No. 1. It would have been an easy driver over the bunker and a sand wedge on to the green. If you're going to win The Masters, which is in my opinion the greatest golf tournament in the world, it's a hard task. This is a hard golf course, it's a hard tournament to win. And they want to see the best. If you're going to see that, then it doesn't need to be a driver and a sand wedge, a driver and a sand wedge. There's going to be some holes out there where you're choking your guts off on.

A hole like No. 11, yeah, that's a hard hole, but it should be a hard hole. How the hole was becoming was a driver as far right and as high as you want to hit it with a nice angle with a sand wedge down the green and the water wasn't even in play.

Now that golf hole is hard for everybody, and like I said, if you're going to win The Masters, it's going to be hard. Of course, it's going to be hard for four days.

Q. Carrying on from that, Charles, is there any truth, given the wet weather and so on that it's become, as you say, a bit of a grind, this tournament, rather than fun, people making eagles and birdies?

CHARLES HOWELL III: This golf tournament is a grind. It's a grind from day one straight through. You know, one of the neat things I said earlier is that they set the golf course up a little more accessible on Saturday and especially Sunday come the back nine to make those birdies and eagles. But at the same time, that also invites the bogeys and doubles of how aggressive do you choose to play. But yeah, the golf tournament is a grind and it's hard.

Even like a PGA Championship, which is set up difficult, it doesn't have the sheer intimidation factor around the greens with hole locations, where to place your iron shot to. This golf course is intimidating everywhere. I think the old adage of people saying it was a bomber's course or Augusta had wide fairways, that is not the case.

Q. I guess what I'm getting at is, has some of the fun been taken out of it?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, I don't necessarily think so that there's fun taken out of it because -- well, actually I've never played a round of golf that was fun. It's just flat hard, (laughter) and that's just not here, that's everywhere.

I always love it when going to the first tee somebody says, "Hey, go have fun today." Well that's like saying, "Go shoot 62." Well, that's what I'm trying to do.

Yeah, the golf course is a grind and that's what it should be. It's a major, it's the Masters. I think that's the way Bobby Jones would have wanted it. I don't think he would have wanted to see guys strolling around out here laughing and smiling having a big time. I think he wanted to see them grinding on it. Because it tests you, because Sunday if you win, you beat the best on one of the hardest golf courses in the world.

Q. On No. 4, what were you hitting into that and how do you assess the difficulty of that hole now and especially if it gets a little windy?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I think of all the changes, I think 4 and 11 are going to play the biggest two roles in that. 4, I've hit 5-wood and 3-iron to. Into the wind, it can become a 3-wood. And I think that hole there, I feel pretty confident saying the scoring average is going to play over par. I guess it would probably play 3 1/2 for the week. It's a hole where it rewards a par. Especially to the top right flag that they will use and a flag just over the bunker; those are two hole locations there where a par is going to feel like a birdie.

You know, the wind always swirls in that little area there and that golf hole is hard no matter what. You know, once again, it rewards a par. There's no need to get on that tee and even think about making a 2 unless it just happens. But a 3 on that hole goes a long way.

Q. You said earlier about the nerves of get hitting on 1. Is that your strategy, new battle plan to keep it simple and not overthink?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Sure.

Q. I guess this is the ultimate lab experience or trial. What kind of test is that going to be for you considering what this golf course has always meant to your game in terms of overthinking and keeping it simple?

CHARLES HOWELL III: This golf course will bull you into overthinking, for sure. And it will do that because there's so much that's required; a ball to be placed below the hole, you have to know where it miss it.

And so it's my challenge to and in the things I'm working on in my game to put more feel back into my game to become more of a golfer versus maybe a technician, if you will. I'm learning and playing different shots, not everything is a full 7-iron. It may be a three-quarter 6; it may be whatever. So that's a challenge for me, and as you say, this is a great place to implement that.

This golf course here requires a lot of thought. But it also requires to be a golfer, to be a player, to hit different shots in there. You see the players that have won here like your Olazabals, great iron players. Then also, too, there's an element of ball control with the wind. Great example being No. 4 as you mentioned earlier or No. 12, No. 11. Any ball that gets above the trees it could do funny things. Yeah, those are all going to be big tests for me this week in learning. My instructor Brian Mogg, we've been working hard on that and he's coming up today so we'll spend a couple of days together here on Tuesday and Wednesday. The guys that win around here, it's not an accident.

Q. You kind of just answered my question there about you've been talking about changes here, and you've obviously made some, what maybe precipitated that, and what in particular have you been working with him on?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I think what led to it was that I kind of looked at my game after the West Coast. And I've played eight or nine tournaments this year, I've made every cut, but I haven't done much more apart from that. I finished between 35th and whatever every week.

So I looked at my game overall, not just this year, but over the last few years. I finished second six or seven times, and frankly I just need to get better. I'm not playing to the level that I want to be playing to. And if I look at my game overall, if I want to win the golf tournaments I want to win, this being No. 1 on the list and hopefully a few others, then I've got to get better. I felt that it was time for a change. I know that I can't work any harder. I know that I can't want it anymore and I know that I can't do anything else apart from what I am doing, so I just need to do a different path.

Brian Mogg is local. He's in Orlando. He taught with and for David Leadbetter for 14 years. So it's very similar information, but it's delivered in a different way, with a big thing being that Brian is a good player. He played on Tour in the late 80s and he still competes today in some events, not on the PGA TOUR but other smaller events.

So Brian has a good playing aspect to him. I can get mechanical with the best of them. I'm sure there are times I could make Nick Faldo look like a feel player. (Laughter). So I'm working on getting away from that and we're getting better. I've got a bit of work to do, as I've said in the past, I threw out everything in including the kitchen sink, but it's going the right direction.

Q. I guess you kind of answered the question, how would you categorize or assess or analyze your last five or six years? It sounds like you're not as satisfied as you would have like, but I don't want to put words in your mouth.

CHARLES HOWELL III: I give myself a B. I seem to -- I finish in the Top-30 on the Money List every year but one, which is always a goal, to make THE TOUR Championship. But at the same time, I've only won once. So at the end of the day, it's about winning and it's about winning tournaments, and then even a step further than that, it's about winning majors, winning these ones.

People just talk about how many majors did Jack win, and they don't talk about how many regular Tour events he won, and that's even with a it's going to be like eventually with Tiger and Phil, etc., etc.

Yeah, I give myself a B. I've done okay. I've had a lot of good, solid finishes and a lot of good, solid years but I haven't won the golf tournaments that I would have expected to win or wanted to win.

Q. When your you have got an active mind and one of the things you're trying to do is not think as much, could you just kind of talk about the challenge of not overengaging your brain, not thinking too much?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Oh, it's harder than you can imagine, oh, yeah, definitely. Definitely I'm left-brained, Type A personality. I love the mechanics of the golf swing, I love the positions, I love knowing why if I hit a bad shot, I want to know. Why I don't want to know, well, you got a little in front of it; I want to know why. I'm very much A + B = C.

I've probably been a little too scientific mind in reasoning for golf. I don't know if you're familiar with the book "The Golfing Machine," but that's right up my alley. I just love that stuff.

So I'm just slowly getting away from that. I think I read a quote by Bubba Watson that he says on the tee, he just tries to "keep it between the trees." I think he was asked about a golf lesson, he said he's never had one, and that to me is just unfathomable. (Laughter).

It's a hard challenge, but I'm getting there.

Q. So maybe he'd be your spiritual advisor?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, if I can follow in the ways of Bubba with a little hint of Brian, I think I'll be okay.

Q. Missing cuts is part of Tour life, and you make more than most, but last year the first time not being here on the weekend, what was the experience for you and how hard was that for you to take?

CHARLES HOWELL III: That was probably the worst day of my golfing career was last year when I missed the cut here. Yeah, that was awful. I never want to do that again. But inevitably, the game of golf, we can't predict it and unfortunately can't control it. But that was awful. I hated that. So miss the weekend of this golf tournament with, what this tournament means to me, it was no fun at all.

Q. Did it take some time to get past it? You had a good run at the end of the year.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Sure.

Q. But the middle of the summer was not something that you would like to look back at; was that partly because maybe this time of year?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, it was odd last year, I got off to a great start to the year last year and leading up to this tournament. But once again, I never felt I was playing that great. I knew I was having good finishes and I knew I was finishing well up there. My short game was very good at the beginning of last year which kind of helped save me and kind of keep me along and I think it showed up here through about the U.S. Open, largely through the British Open to be honest and then I played well at the PGA and had a good finish to the year.

I hate to use the word "faking it," but it was almost, the game is funny if that there are so many components to it. I think my short game was really saving me a lot, but not just last year and over the last couple of years. That's one area that Brian and I have been working on. For some reason I've been tabbed as a guy who hits the ball great ask needs to work on his short game. I can show you some stat, because I'm a stat guy, that will disprove that. It's all of my game has got to get better.

I think if you were to look at my driving accuracy last year, my greens in regulation stat, I would bet that those were in the bottom five of the guys that made THE TOUR Championship, I would argue that.

So, you know, we're working on the whole picture. We are working on the short game as well, but in '02, I was first in total driving and second in greens in regulation. Then I haven't sniffed those stats since then, so we are slowly getting back to there.

Q. You mentioned, we were talking about the course changes and such, if the course is longer, tighter, a little bit more rough, does that mean guys miss more greens and in theory, short game becomes a little more important this week? Some guys have postulated that.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Absolutely. You take No. 7, for example. That's a hole where historically, guys thought of that hole as a great birdie chance to get one back, that little run of holes 7 and 8. Now, 7 is a great hole to make a 4 on. The fairway is very narrow in the neck that we're hitting it into. They have added some trees in there. So if you miss that fairway at all, it's going to be hard to even run the ball up in the front bunker, with some added trees in there. Great example, now short game is in the picture.

And 11 is the same way. You could get a day where the wind is coming into you down 10 and 11, that 11th hole into the wind, that's a driver and a 3-iron, driver and a 5-wood possibly, and so you're not going to be playing that hole too aggressive with a 3- or 4-iron in your hand. That right side of that green is looking really good, so then you get on the right side of the green and you've got a 40-foot 2-putt across that green. I can promise you that that's not easy. These greens are not designed to be easy and they are not designed to have easy 2-putts. I think short game is a big deal.

Q. When Greg Norman was in his prime, people wrote here and they also said that he wanted to win this tournament so badly, and he had come close; that sometimes Greg had a hard time getting out of his own way. Have you had to work on that with you, because obviously this win would mean more to you than anything; that you don't have that same possibility, that you want it so badly?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, I probably want to win it more than Greg did, actually. Yeah, it's hard to do that, absolutely. This golf tournament doesn't feel like any other tournament. This golf course doesn't have the same feel to me as a U.S. Open or a British Open or a PGA. It just doesn't. You know, those are major championships. They are very important. They are played on great golf courses. But it's not The Masters.

You know, this golf course played here, yeah, absolutely. I want to win this thing more than anybody. And that's part of the challenge. Because I think everybody would say that. I think everybody wants to win this golf tournament. That's part of the battle of actually win it, to get out of the players way to let yourself actually play to do it.

Q. Continuing on that theme, Vaughn Taylor is playing for the first time, I know that you and he must be friends.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yes.

Q. Is it different, can you describe, is it different for natives, and what will be like for him based on your experience?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, I can promise you this: He's going to be more nervous on that first tee on Thursday than he's ever been before. Parts of my body shook that I didn't know could shake. That's just the way it's going to be. (Laughter).

That first tee shot is definitely going to get his attention. But at the end of the week, I think he's going to, you know, if he does not win the golf tournament this week, by the end of the week, he's going to want to win it even more than he does at the start of the week.

Once you have competed in the event, played four days around here, you know, the gallery, the spectators here appreciate good golf. You can't just get a ball airborne and fake it up there and they will clap for you. You've got to hit a good shot. They know what it's about.

Just the whole atmosphere, I think he's going to probably say this is the best week of his career regardless of what happens.

Q. Your Callaway stablemate Phil Mickelson won by 13 shots yesterday and he used two drivers in his bag all week. Just curious if you've considered doing that, any other players that you know, and would you? Is there going to be a trend, and how much buzz is there about the strategy that he took last week and he's going to take this week as well?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Is he using two this week?

Q. Yes.

CHARLES HOWELL III: I think what probably led to that was with the Ft-3 Fusion driver that we use, the internal weighting system can move enough weight around to make a big difference. You can prove it on robots and machines that by moving the weight around, the ball will curve one way or the other. I know that he had different center of gravity driver there. You know, he can in theory make the same swing, and one is going to draw and one is going to fade.

Now, I think in modern day golf, I think the modern day golfer should carry about 19 clubs in their bag per event and then take them out to see what fits the golf course. For instance, this week, I have three different lofts on a hybrid club that I'm going to put in my bag depending on how the wind is blowing on the 4th hole. The 4th hole, it's going to require I would think, based on where I think the tee is going to be, about a 245-yard shot. Well, you know, so I've got a few different clubs, whether it's into the wind or downwind where I can hit that to get it up in the air and stop it on the green.

The same thing would be true on different bounces for the soles on the sand wedges depending how the sand is going to be. I think the modern day trend of golf is to carry a lot of clubs and then find what works for best in this week. I can see a left-handed player who has to, for Phil, hit a lot of fades around here, definitely do that to have a driver to help him do that.

I've always thought it was more difficult for a left-hander to win at Augusta because a right-hander can play so many draws out here. Mike Weir and Phil have won here, two lefties, which is a credit to the two of them. I can see a left-handed player doing it more so than I could a right-handed player.

Q. Specifically, what lofts? You said three.

CHARLES HOWELL III: I've got 17, 19 and 21. They are all in my bag and it's going to depend on how the wind is that day relative to where the hole location is.

Q. Don't forget to take them out now.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Absolutely. (Laughter).

BILLY MORRIS: Charles, thank you very much. You're nice to come talk with us and good luck this week.

End of FastScripts.

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