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QUICKEN LOANS NATIONALAugust 1, 2015Charles Howell IIIGAINESVILLE, VIRGINIA CHARLES HOWELL, III: It was really good and in spurts I hit a couple loose shots as well. Yeah, I was satisfied with it. The wind laid down the last 7, 8 holes and it was getable. You could get some birdies out there and -- but, yeah, I was very happy with it today. Q. Have you and Tiger played a round at Isleworth? CHARLES HOWELL, III: I played a lot of golf with him at home. We haven't played so much together in tournaments. We've played a lot at home. Yeah, I've been on the receiving end of a lot of lost bets I should say. Q. Put yourself in position. What do you think you need to do tomorrow, the biggest mental aspect to handle? CHARLES HOWELL, III: Well, to keep going, keep making birdies. You see Troy Merritt shot 61 I think this morning and so people are going to do that tomorrow and there's still some birdie holes coming in on the stretch. You've got to stay aggressive and keep at it. Q. I'm here with Charles Howell. Wonderful round of golf today, couple hiccups coming in. All in all, struck the ball beautifully. Would you agree? CHARLES HOWELL, III: Thank you. I had a couple hiccups at the end. Hit a terrible shot on 17. Yeah, you know, I made some birdies and they're out there, as you could see, and got to keep the pedal down tomorrow. Q. What happens when you see somebody like Troy Merritt shoot 61? How does that affect your approach to the round of golf today and, mostly importantly, how will it affect your approach to shooting low tomorrow to catch from behind? CHARLES HOWELL, III: In a weird way it calms you down because you can see it can be done and there's birdies out there for tomorrow. Somebody will do it early and post a number. You got to stay at it on this golf course and especially if it's fairly calm tomorrow like it was today. You got to birdies. Q. Well played today, good luck tomorrow. CHARLES HOWELL, III: Thank you. Q. Get out there and played well got in contention. CHARLES HOWELL, III: Well, it was actually nice seeing Troy Merritt shoot 61 this morning because you could tell it was out there. Yeah, I'm not going to lie. Playing with Tiger it's a circus early on. It has a way of sort of calming but they're not out there to see me and that's just fine. So -- but, that takes a little to get settled into the round a bit. Yeah, I made a couple bad mistakes on the backside. Made a few birdies as well. It will be a shoot-out tomorrow, no question. Q. Do you play well when you've been paired with Tiger? CHARLES HOWELL, III: Haven't played that much as a pro because of my poor golf, not his. At home together we played together a lot at Isleworth. I haven't beat him this a lot. Days like today are rare. Q. Is it difficult -- I'm asking this as an idiot here -- is it difficult to prep yourself knowing that there will be people cheering for him, not you? Do you have to prepare differently? CHARLES HOWELL, III: No. That part is fine. It's all the extraneous, like the moving and the yelling. There's actually so many of them it makes it okay that, you know, actually you know he just plays -- the tournament that Tiger plays is different than anybody else out here, what he plays in front of with all the noise and the movement, et cetera. So today I happened to be the tag-along for that but you know it going in. It is a different animal. Q. Was there a moment today when you felt okay this thing is clicking, I feel good about this thing? CHARLES HOWELL, III: I made a nice eagle at No. 5. Hit a nice drive there to take advantage of that par 5 being downwind. But, then again, you see the low scores early. You got to keep the pedal down. Didn't quite do that. Q. (Inaudible) CHARLES HOWELL, III: I'm driving the ball a lot better. That's one thing I've spent a lot of time working on. You got to drive the ball well to play nowadays with these new kids out here that hit it miles and hit driver everywhere and kind of the Rory McIlroy approach to it. You have to do that, and that part of my game has gotten a lot better. Try to do that today. Q. Tiger said he was really impressed with your putting stroke today as well. CHARLES HOWELL, III: Well, I've -- it's a work in progress. I'm no Brad Faxon at the moment (laughter). It's a work in progress. It's an area in my game I got to get better at and working on it. The driver and putter I think are the two most important clubs out here. I spend most time working on those. It's a work in progress. Q. You used to be one of those kids. CHARLES HOWELL, III: Used to be. You see some gray hairs and 36, yeah. Q. This is a Charles Howell question. Has anybody fielded more questions over the past 15 years about Tiger than you, do you think? CHARLES HOWELL, III: I'm sure Phil has had his fair share of them. Probably not. That's fine. I mean -- you know, one of the reasons I moved to Orlando was to be around Tiger and to be around the best player in my generation and learn from him and he helped me tremendously. I still remember we went to the Presidents Cup in '03. Yeah, I was a basket case of nerves there. He really helped me there to calm down and play and it's just the time we spent around each other. I owe him tremendously. I want to see him back playing good golf again. He's fit again and he's still young, 39, and lot of great players that won Majors into their 40s. Man, love to see him do that as well. Q. Were there any conversations out there on the course about the good old days? CHARLES HOWELL, III: There were some conversations that this was his 20th year out here and my 15th, yeah. But it flies by. Once kids come, it goes. Q. Do you care more about being in contention, obviously, but is there any sense of actually playing better -- (inaudible) CHARLES HOWELL, III: I'm more satisfied that I played okay today, yes. I haven't had my best year this yearly, obviously. Statistics show that. But my game is getting better but I still haven't been scoring well enough. I was happy with how I was able to actually make a score today and play good in front of all that. Yeah, I was probably most happy with that FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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