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84 LUMBER CLASSIC

September 16, 2006

Charles Howell III

FARMINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA

LAURY LIVSEY: We'd like to welcome Charles Howell III into the interview room. Before we get started with the interview we'd like to make note that Charles, you are one of the two winners of this week's AstraZeneca Charity Challenge as being the 54 hole leader along with Ben Curtis, and for your efforts $50,000 each will be donated on behalf of AstraZeneca and the 84 Lumber Classic to the American Heart Association of Pennsylvania and Delaware in your name as well as Ben Curtis' name, so congratulations.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, thank you.

LAURY LIVSEY: You want to talk about your round today?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, it was a bit up and down. I got off to a very good start, birdied two of the first four holes, and then had two rather poor bogeys on 11 and 12. It was basically unforced bogeys, if you will. Any time it's a shootout type golf tournament, which this has become with the soft greens, bogeys really hurt. You know, after that I was down to 8 under, wanted just to do my best, to get back to 10 to have a shot for tomorrow, and then obviously the eagle on 16 was a nice bonus on that.

You know, once again, there will be a lot of birdies made tomorrow. There's a lot of good players up at the top, there's a lot of guys who haven't won that are hungry to win, so it should be an exciting day.

Q. Your last win was 2002, and despite some near successes, do you have to remember how to win? Is that all part of the mental process? Do you fight through that or do you fight with that?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Oh, yeah. I mean, at the moment right now, I really only had a chance to win one other golf tournament this year, that was the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, and it's not like I've been in this position a bunch this year. At the same time a little bit on top of that, I have gone through quite a bit of swing changes, and the week of the PGA I got back with my long time instructor David Leadbetter and basically our goal from then until right now has been one or two things and keep it extremely simple. I'm extremely mechanical. I love the way the golf swing works, I love the physics of it and all that, and I went too far down that road a bit.

The stuff I'm working on, I've worked really hard to put a three quarter type shot in my golf game. It's something that I haven't had and it's something I've obviously been criticized for, but rightfully so; I didn't have it. So we've worked really hard on getting that.

I've hit a whole bunch of those this week. Even to the point where if I'm uncomfortable to do it I still force myself to do it because I know it's the right shot to hit.

On top of that, practicing at home with Tiger, he's been on me for a long time to learn that shot, so he's helped me quite a bit with it, as well. If I can do it about as fifth as good as he can, I'll be all right.

Q. Why did you decide to go back to David?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, I was really glad that I went out and worked with other people. I wanted to see what else was out there. At the end of the day I was just spinning my wheels.

Golfers have a hard time realizing that the grass isn't always greener on the other side, and I fell victim to that. So partially it was a little bit of impatience with my results and with myself, why I went somewhere else to begin with.

But it was great, though, because I'm now learning my little formula, what works well for me. I think that's one thing that a lot of the younger players out here that are extremely talented, they just haven't found out what works for us yet. You see a guy like Vijay Singh has figured his out, beating a lot of balls, working really hard; you have a guy like Phil Mickelson, play early practice rounds in majors; Tiger has his deal. All the great players have figured out their little mixture that works, and my thing I'm getting there on, and David has been a good influence on that for me. Then on top of that, having worked with each other since I was ten, that's 17 years, so he knows me about as good as anybody.

Q. How long were you separated for, so to speak?

CHARLES HOWELL III: From March, so the Honda Classic until the PGA. It's like breaking up with a girlfriend and getting back together (laughter). You see what else is out there and you go back.

Q. The three quarter shots, you said you used them a lot this week. Is that because of how wet the greens are and trying to control spin?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Absolutely. The last couple years I've been here I've fallen in love with the place and it's been known that the greens were hard as rocks. Even on Tuesday, the greens were so firm, to a point where I'm out here thinking, man, 8 to 10 under par is going to win this golf tournament easily if they stay like this. Of course, it rains.

But yeah, the golf course completely flip flopped from how it was on Tuesday to how it has been these last few days. So it's come from a point where you want to hit it high and hard to actually this week I had to kick it a little bit lower to take the spin off of it. Yeah, fortunately I spent some time working a bit with that shot, and yeah, I'm still working on it, still got a ways to go with it, but it's getting there.

LAURY LIVSEY: Let's talk about your card real quick.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Sure. Birdie at 1, sand wedge from 110 to about two inches probably.

No. 4, a sand wedge to ten feet, birdie there.

Bogey on 11 was a three putt bogey from off the green.

Bogey at 12 was the same thing, missed the green but three putted it from off the green, as well.

No. 14 was a 9 iron to probably 15 feet, holed that one.

Then 15, 8 iron to 30 feet, holed that one.

16, hit a 6 iron about 20 feet and holed that for eagle.

Q. From how far?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I had 190 to the front. I think I had 215 total, yeah, 190 and 25.

Q. Was that wind helping across?

CHARLES HOWELL III: It was right to left with a touch of help. Ironically enough it was the exact same front yardage I had yesterday and I hit a 6 iron, as well, so it was an easy club selection on that one.

Q. What did you have left did you say?

CHARLES HOWELL III: 190 to the front and 215 to the hole.

Q. Then for the putt?

CHARLES HOWELL III: 20 feet.

Q. Is it going to hurt next week to have to watch the Ryder Cup on television rather than being there?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, the way I've played (laughing), you know, it's funny because I never really had a great shot at making the team and I haven't given it that much thought. I know I'd absolutely love to play it. I had such a great time at the Presidents Cup when I played all the matches with Tiger.

It's a completely different experience from a golf tournament like this. I mean, you've got a team, you actually have team meetings and you're rooting for other guys and they're rooting for you. It was just an incredible experience, and unfortunately I haven't made another team like that since '03.

Yeah, it'll definitely hurt a bit, although I haven't played well enough to deserve to be there. But it'll I think they've got a good chance. I'll definitely be an interested spectator.

LAURY LIVSEY: Charles, thanks for coming in.

End of FastScripts.

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