Charles Howell on Riviera

Charles Howell, III

Conference Call

February 5, 2008

Zwikel: Thank you everyone for taking time out of your schedules on this Super Tuesday to join us. We’re fortunate enough to have Charles Howell, III, our defending champion for the Northern Trust Open, with us. And, of course, the tournament is coming up next week February 11-17 at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California. As usual, I’d like to open things up with a couple of questions for Charles, and then we’ll give all the media folks on the call an opportunity to ask their questions.

Charles, first of all, just kind of looking back at last year, if you’d be kind enough just to talk a bit about winning the Northern Trust Open and then going on and how the rest of your 2007 season played out.

Howell: Well, obviously, you know, winning at Riviera last year was a huge confidence boost. You know, between the wins, I had had nine runner-up finishes and I think every time I finished second, the gap between first and second got bigger. And when I did win last year, it certainly didn’t feel like I had won or done this before. You know, five years is a bit removed from winning. So yeah, so the confidence gain from that, not just necessarily winning in a playoff, but the field that was there – I think it was eight of the top ten players in the world – was a big boost for me.

Zwikel: Absolutely. And as of now, I think we have ten of the top twelve in the world going into next week, depending on what happens between now and Friday. So it should be another very strong field as you attempt to defend your title. Talk a little bit if you would about your off season heading into 2008, you know, anything that you might have done in preparing for the new year.

Howell: Well, yeah. I tried to duplicate what I did last year, truthfully. Spent a lot of time on the short game, 100 yards and in. You know, I still feel like that’s the area where it separates Tiger Woods from most guys and the area that I have the most work to do. I think you see it every week with whoever wins the golf tournament. You see, you know, their scoring ability. And it’s one area of my game that has been improving, but still needs more improvement.

Zwikel: And again, as far as 2008, you’re off to a good start. Three top 25s, one top 10 in your first four outings this year. I believe you’re taking the week off this week before heading out to L.A. So again maybe just talk a bit about any expectations you may have for 2008?

Howell: Well, my number one goal is to make the Ryder Cup team. I’ve played two Presidents Cups, no Ryder Cups, and that’s a big deal. I think Paul Azinger being captain for us is going to add some nice spice and fire to it. You know, he’s an ultra competitive guy as everyone knows, and I think the Ryder Cup is going to be even a bigger deal this year with him being captain. And, you know, being in America, it would be really special to play that event. That’s the number one goal. And as far as coming back to Riviera, I’ve always enjoyed Riviera. You know, I liked that place before I won there. I lost in the playoff to Mike Weir in ’03. You know, I’ve had some other nice finishes there. And, I mean, Riviera is the highlight of the West Coast for my schedule and you can look at a lot of the foreign players even start their year in America at Riviera. So I think it’s a credit to the event and to the golf course as well.

Zwikel: Thanks, Charles. Melissa, at this time, can we open it up to media questions, please.

Begin Press Questions.

Question: How does it feel to do something Tiger hasn’t done, win at Riviera, and how disappointed would you be if he doesn’t show up next week considering he’s 100 under par in his last five tournaments.

Howell: Well, to the first part, I think it’s the only thing I have on Tiger, and I do remind him of it quite often. There isn’t much anybody has on Tiger, and by virtue of the fact that I see him all the time, I do remind him of that quite often. And, you know, to the second part of it, I think everyone wants Tiger to show up. I think tournaments become a little bigger and have a little more excitement and energy to them when Tiger plays. You know, he’s almost becoming – you know, there’s tournaments that Tiger enters and there’s tournaments that Tiger doesn’t enter. And I certainly hope that he does play next week and would be disappointed if he didn’t.

Question: Charles, can you talk about the tournament with it now being Northern Trust. I wonder if you’ve stumbled over that name before with the new sponsorship? And what changes have you noticed, if any, or have you heard about and what is your reaction to those changes?

Howell: Well, my first reaction, I was a bit surprised. I thought it was a great fit for Nissan with a Japanese based company, a tournament in L.A., etc. As far as Northern Trust goes, I do know that they are a great company and they’ve had some interest in golf for some time. As far as what they’ve done to the tournament, I understand that they’ve bumped the purse up. I understand there’s going to be some concerts, etc. So it seems like they’re doing all they can do to put together the best event they can. You know, I think they already have a head start with Riviera as the golf course truthfully. But, you know, like I said, I still thought that Nissan was a great fit. But having Northern Trust come in, from what I understand, it’s only going to be better.

Question: Your Riviera win you say was a confidence builder, but your results after like March, I don’t think you had any top 10s after that. What was wrong with your game at that point?

Howell: No, you’re right. I think it was a couple of things. I think, well first off, if you look purely at the statistics wise, I didn’t drive the ball straight enough. You know, starting in May – you know, we started playing some golf courses where the fairways were a little tighter, the rough is a little deeper. You started seeing the majors come into play and I didn’t drive the ball good enough as far as that’s concerned. As far as coming from that, you know, the win at Riviera was a huge confidence builder, but I didn’t build on it. I didn’t really do anything with it like I wanted to or could have. You know, that being said, a lot of the work I did in the latter part of last year, along with short game, was on the driver. You know, I’m much happier right now with the way I’m driving the ball than I was really for any part of the second half of last year. You know, you can get away with it for a little bit, driving the ball in the rough, and then after awhile it’s awfully tough to make birdies from the rough out there.

Question: And then one other thing. I know this not associated with that, but I remember when you turned pro, you said your desire was to be number one. How close are you getting to that and are you moving in the right direction?

Howell: Well, is Ian Poulter on the line (laughter)? No, you know, first of all, as the world ranking is concerned, I mean, I don’t think … obviously, no one is anywhere close. As far as I’m particularly concerned, I need to start winning golf tournaments consistently and start getting in the mix of golf tournaments consistently. The only way that you’re ever going to be ranked high in the world is to perform consistently well. You know, you don’t have the ability to have one or two good weeks and have two or three off weeks and what-not. So the main thing for me to improve, you know, if by the end of the year I’m ranked in the top ten in the world, then that’s a great goal for me. And to do that, I need to put myself in contention much more consistently, much like the way I started off last year as opposed to the way I finished the year obviously. You know, as far as wanting to go after a Tiger or what-not, I’m much more worried about my own game as it is.

Question: I got a two-parter also. The first part is obviously Riviera fits your eye. I’m looking at the record here – sixth in ’02, second as you mentioned in ’03, and then the win last year. The first part of the question is why do you think that golf course fits your eye? And then the inevitable second part of that, especially since you play so many practice rounds with Tiger, do you have any sense for why that golf course does not seem to fit his eye?

Howell: Well, the first part, you know, it’s funny how golf is. You can tell when a golf course fits your eye the first time you play it. And from the first time I went around Riviera, I just loved the shape of it. I loved how every hole was defined by trees. But yet, you never feel really claustrophobic on it. It’s not overly tight, but the trees do shape the golf course. I’ve always liked that about it. As for the second part with Tiger, truthfully, I have no idea because every time there’s ever been a golf course or a style of golf that someone thought Tiger couldn’t do, he ended up proving everyone wrong. It’s quite funny actually, which is kind of the one thing that kind makes everyone think that Tiger will show up in L.A. again just to prove everyone wrong and win there.

Question: You said you needled him occasionally about that. Has he ever responded in any way or said anything one way or another about Riviera in your practice rounds that you can remember?

Howell: No, but he mentions all of his green jackets quite quickly (laughing) and that has a very quieting effect on me.

Question: You decided at the end of last year to make an equipment change for the first time since you turned pro. Can you just talk about what prompted you to do that and has that helped you address some of the issues you were talking about with your driver?

Howell: Well, you know, what prompted it, truthfully, it was time for a change. You know, there wasn’t really one big deciding factor in what it was. Through testing equipment, the big sell with Bridgestone for me was the golf ball without a doubt. In working really hard on my short game, the golf ball that I’m playing now is a little bit softer and, you know, quite frankly it’s a lot more versatile around the green. From playing with and around Tiger, from playing with him at the Presidents Cup, using a much softer golf ball, it was apparent for the variety of shots around the green that that enables you to have and gives you some options with. So yeah, it’s kind of the … as far as why I left Callaway, there really wasn’t one outstanding reason. But I do feel that the equipment is helping me as far as the work around the green I’m doing.

Question: Now, you also talked last year about making some maybe other changes scheduling wise. You’ve played the West Coast well I think every year except for when you got sick. And this comes after you’ve had all off season to sort of prepare for that. And then you generally play around 30 tournaments a year. Are you trying to maybe pace yourself a little differently now so that over the rest of the year you will have the same results that you can have out in the west?

Howell: Well, for sure, yeah. I mean, if you look at my record, I’ve played really well on the West Coast. I’ve played average in the middle. And I’ve played a little bit better at the end. And I will definitely take more time off in the middle of the year this year to try to, you know, with the energy levels, but also the excitement to play, spending enough time working on my game away from tournaments. I think that’s one big thing with me is that if I get on the road for four weeks in a row, it’s hard to spend enough time on the practice tee sort of monitoring things, keeping things in check. So I will for sure change my schedule as the year goes on and play less tournaments and attempt to be more ready for them because, as it’s proven, 30 tournaments doesn’t seem to do me much good towards the middle of the year.

Question: And the last thing, because I know you guys like answering Tiger questions so much, but you do play a lot with him and you’ve played with him for a number of years. And he’s starting to talk about his game in the same way he talked about it in 2000 when he was as hot as he’s ever been. Have you seen anything now that sort of blows your mind as to how well he’s playing and is it that much better than he was maybe the last two or three years prior to this stretch?

Howell: You know, I think two things. I think number one is he’s so confident in what he’s doing, he’s not spending as much time practicing. And that may, in a backwards way, that shows how confident and comfortable he is because he’s spending less time at the golf course, less time practicing. I can’t think of the last time that he hit range balls after a competitive round. Stevie and I were talking about that at the Presidents Cup how Tiger very rarely now hits balls after a round. You know, he’s got that calmness about him. It’s off season and seeing him practice at home, you just could tell because every single day he was out working. He was having real short sessions, very focused, but short sessions. And you could tell he wasn’t working for it, he was much more refining it. And then the start he’s had this year kind of proves that was true.

Question: How will next week be different as the defending champion as opposed to a week when you’re not defending champion?

Howell: Well, it really won’t be any different as apart from a little more attention going into the week. You know, and then secondly to that, I think knowing that I have won on the golf course before, knowing that I have had success there is always a help going into a week as opposed to going into the week where, nah, never really played great around here, it doesn’t fit me as well. So probably going into it a little more comfortable than otherwise.

Question: And could you tell me what is your mindset approach to the tenth hole? I’m doing a story on drivable par fours. Can you talk a little bit about that great tenth hole?

Howell: Good story. You know, it’s one of the few holes at Riviera, if not the only hole, where when you tee off on the first tee, you have no idea how you’re going to play the hole. You can’t go into that hole saying, “I’m going to lay it there everyday or I’m going to hit driver everyday,” because it depends on the hole location, it depends on the wind, it depends on the firmness of the ground. It depends on so many factors in there. You know, because it is the tenth hole, your round has some type of rhythm going. You may be playing great, you may be playing average. You know, it’s a hole you really can’t decide 100 percent on until you get there. And I guess that’s what makes it one of the best holes in all of golf. You know, I’ve played the hole every direction, and I’ve hit it in about every place you can hit it on that hole and, me personally, I go into it knowing that par is not a bad score. I think when you go into the hole and you think that par is not acceptable and you have to make a three, then that makes the hole a lot more difficult. You go into the hole knowing that four is an okay score and it does make it seemingly a bit easier to make a three.

Question: As a frequent practice partner of Tiger’s, and I know you’ve been friends for a long time, if you could have any part of his game incorporate with your game, have you ever thought about what you would take from Tiger to put into your game?

Howell: Let’s see here. Well, physically, I would take his putting. If he’s not already, he will go down as the greatest putter of all time. It’s completely the most unheralded part of his golf game is his putter. I don’t know that anyone has made as many clutch putts as Tiger Woods has. For the stuff that you can’t see, his mind. I still think his mind is heads and shoulders above everyone else’s. But from what you can see, I would take his putting.

Question: Earlier this year, out at Sony in Hawaii, you kind of became a victim of the new rule where you made the cut and then weren’t around to actually play the weekend. I was just wondering how frustrating was that to have happen to you at the beginning or early part of your year and what you thought of that new rule in general?

Howell: Well, I totally disagree with the rule, and not because players say, “Oh we didn’t hear about it” or anything like that. You know, I was just against the rule because I’ve had a lot of success and I’ve seen a lot of players have a lot of success in tournaments from the cut line. And yeah, I’ve never won a tournament off of the cut line, but I have had some top five finishes, some top ten finishes. So I just – you know, in the spirit of golf, when we say that every shot counts, it didn’t make much sense to me that you only played two days, yet you still get paid and get FedEx points. It just didn’t make much sense. And from what I understand, they’re going to relook at it the week of L.A. and possibly make some changes to it and that was the kind of thing. I mean, I just thought it wasn’t very well thought out. You know, golf has always been a game where every shot we hit counts and now you’re telling me that I can play two days and get paid or I can play four days and get paid and with no chance to move up.

Question: You made multiple references to working with your short game the last couple of off seasons and I was thinking about the younger guys, the guys in their 20s – yourself, Sergio, Immelman, maybe even John Holmes. All of you guys have had your occasional battles with putters. Can you think of a reason why? Is it maybe the younger group is more focused on the golf swing or more technical with all the teaching aides and things? Or is putting just an inherent thing that maybe you just do or don’t have and it’s only going to get as good as it’s ever going to be?

Howell: Well, for me personally, it’s because I grew up in the generation of video cameras and I grew up in the generation of swing thoughts and swing positions and mechanics. And quite frankly, when you’re chasing perfection in a golf swing, you know, that’s a lifetime of work. It doesn’t leave much time for something else. So in my case, it was just simply I didn’t spend enough time on it. And it had nothing to do with the fact that I wasn’t at the golf course for eight hours a day. It’s just the fact that I wasn’t spending as much time on it as I should have been. So over the past few years, I’ve taken a real hard look at how much time I allocate to each part of my game and to keep it balanced.

Question: I remember, this is going back a ways, but at one point at Bay Hill I remember you were using a putter that Sergio had loaned you and had his name stamped on the bottom if you remember.

Howell: Yes, I do.

Question: And that was kind of back when he was reputed to be a good putter. I’m wondering, it’s odd how fast you can kind of leave you and now he’s got a reputation as a guy who’s really fighting it between the ears.

Howell: You know, for whatever reason, it seems guys with ball striking always find a way to get it done. You know, everybody on this tour has a different looking golf swing, from Jim Furyk to Steve Elkington to whoever you want to name. They all find a way to get it done. Putting on the other hand, seems to me that you don’t see many guys putt at a high level consistently. And the one guy that in my opinion putts at a high level real consistently is Tiger. And the days he comes off the 18th green moaning and groaning about bad putting, he probably had 26 putts that day. So I think it’s all relative. But yeah, it is funny how the ball striking doesn’t seem to leave guys, but the putting does.

Question: I’ve got a rules question for you. I was wondering what the most interesting or complicated rules incident is that you’ve been a part of or something that maybe you’ve seen in your pairing or your group?

Howell: Let me see here. Well, in recent memory that I can remember, and it actually has to do with a rules change. On the very first hole of the year at the Mercedes Championship, I buried a ball in the front bunker and called the rules official over to make sure I could remove enough sand to look and find the ball, number one. Once I identified that that was a golf ball there, the new rules change being that you can’t hit the wrong ball out of the hazard, I actually had to dig out the golf ball, completely take it out of the bunker, identify that it was mine and then rebury it and recreate the same awful lie that I had to begin with. So I’ve actually never had to pull the ball out of a plugged lie and then actually replug it with my own hands. You know, inside you’re just crying having to do this. But yes, now with the rules change of you can’t hit the wrong ball out of the hazard, that should make for some interesting scenarios going forward.

Question: Okay. So it was your ball there and you just …

Howell: It was my ball, yeah. And we didn’t know for sure that it was. I mean, the thing was completely gone. But I was still under the impression of the old rule that you could take a hack at it and if it wasn’t your ball, no big deal. Now with the new rule, you have to identify it.

Question: And there was an official there to guide you?

Howell: Yes.

Question: You had mentioned that you would be disappointed if Tiger didn’t play at Riviera. Can you kind of expand on that and why that would be?

Howell: Well, I think number one, I mean, everybody wants to play and compete with and against Tiger. If it does so happen that you win that tournament or whatever, you want to beat Tiger. There’s always something special, if you will, about playing well and winning if you do a tournament that Tiger is in. And secondly, the fact that Tiger is golf’s number one needle mover, if you will. So it adds an excitement to the tournament. There’s more fan interest. There’s more fans. There’s more media. There’s more everything when Tiger is there. Frankly for me, I always want to play and compete against that guy.

Question: Can you talk about if he were to not play this year, do you think the tournament would lose a little bit of luster? Do you sort of think if he doesn’t play this year, that would be two in a row and that he might never come back? And also, do you have any sort of sense from Tiger? Is he belaboring over this decision? Do you feel like he’s made one? Do you feel like it’s a tough one for him?

Howell: Well, as far as what he’s said, I haven’t talked with him since San Diego. And then I don’t think … it’s a tough call. Whether the tournament would lose anything or not, I mean, sure there is something there to lose because Tiger Woods isn’t in the field. And he’s such a special golfer that he adds something everywhere he goes. But with ten of the top twelve in the world there, you still have an unbelievable field, a better field than I think we’ve seen all this year so far and probably won’t see again until … well, obviously the Match Play, but maybe not again until Doral. So you’re still going to have a heck of a field. As far as if he would come back, sure I think he would because I think Tiger is competitive enough and he knows he’s never won there, and before his day is over, I think he wants to have won everywhere. So yeah, I would feel pretty confident in saying that he would return if for no other reason than just to add that one to his resume.

Question: You answered a question earlier about the new cut rule thinking that they might change it. Two aspects of that that I want you to try to talk about. One, in the new way that they’re doing this, obviously every penny that you earn this year is going to matter because it doesn’t matter being the top ten, as to what you make, and do you feel like it messes up the Ryder Cup process with this rule? And secondly, if they are going to change it, what kind of ideas do you like? Do you want to just scrap it and go back the other way or do something different?

Howell: Well, I totally agree with you about it. It’s messing up stuff like the Ryder Cup, etc. I mean, nothing good can come from the rule the way that it is now. It isn’t right to pay somebody money that hasn’t competed four rounds of golf. So in its current standing, nothing is good about it whatsoever. It doesn’t allow you to move up; it doesn’t allow you to do anything towards the Ryder Cup because this is a Ryder Cup year. It doesn’t allow you to go have a heck of a weekend and really do something special. As far as what I would be in favor of, I think from what I understand from the tour, they had 11 tournaments last year that were not able to be finished on Sunday afternoon in the TV window. So if it is really important that they cut some guys out, then I wouldn’t have a problem if they were to make a cut after Saturday’s round to this new system or if it was near its number to 60 or whatever, and that would allow them to finish that golf tournament on Sunday. Now, I know that was one of the driving factors in trying to make this cut rule. So if you want to cut it after Saturday, so be it. I still would be in favor of giving a guy a chance to go shoot a low round Saturday morning.

Zwikel: Charles, thank you very much for being with us today, taking the time. Enjoy the week at home this week and we’ll look forward to seeing you at Riviera next week.

Howell: Absolutely, thank you very much.