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BAY HILL INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARD

March 18, 2005

Charles Howell III

ORLANDO, FLORIDA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Charles, for joining us for a few minutes. A long day out there, but a successful one. Why don't you just talk about the day a little bit and then we'll go into questions.

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, this morning I got up at 6:00 in the morning and now I finished playing now at 6:30. It's a long day at this golf course with a bit of wind like it was today. It's not easy. It's not easy at all. You know, 5-under par I finished at; it felt like about 9- or 10-under. And apparently I haven't found this golf course quite as easy as Tiger has, but, you know, I'm really happy with today's round.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions, please.

Q. How many holes did you play today?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I played all 36 today. I played all 36. I didn't do anything yesterday. I sat in the car for a long time. I watched some of the NCAA basketball and yeah, rooted against the Sooners. I just did it all.

Q. Productive day right there.

CHARLES HOWELL III: It was a productive day.

Q. You just came off playing 36 today, and now you've got to wait until sometime tomorrow afternoon to probably go back out again and come back maybe Sunday morning, depending, how do you get your biological clock to handle situations like this?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, you know, we're kind of used to it off the West Coast. Obviously, I played quite a bit on the West Coast. We had a lot of rain delays; you know, none more so than Nissan at Riviera. I think I got the better end of the draw because I played it all today. I can sleep in tomorrow and rest, and I don't have to get up early tomorrow and then go play again.

You know, I think our side got the better end of the draw, just because we do get to rest a little bit more, and that's fine. The fact that I won't have to do 36 in a day again the rest of the week, I think we got the better side of it.

Q. Ogilvie would argue they got the better side because they are basically playing all their golf in the morning.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yes, I could probably see that, you know, I could see it either way. Obviously if they come out tomorrow morning and the weather is good, then that could be it. But at the same time, I'm glad I'm done and I get to sleep in tomorrow before Saturday and Sunday.

Q. Last time you did 36 in a day?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, I'm sure I've done it sometime, college golf maybe. I felt like college golf today, we made the turn, they handed us a sandwich and said "keep going." The only difference was I didn't have Coach Holder there between rounds. (Laughter.)

Yeah, it was college golf. I got a boxed ham-and-cheese sandwich, a bag of potato chips and "Keep going, here's your new score card."

Q. Presidents Cup?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Presidents Cup, I did 36 in a day. Other than that, I really can't think of one, not all 36.

Q. You have a second and a third already this year and you've obviously been sniffing it; is there anything that you've been doing demonstratively better versus last year when the results were not quite so high?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, you know, this time last year, I had not had a Top 20 finish prior to this tournament. And then my best two finishes last year ended up being Bay Hill and the Masters. Obviously I had some better than that. Actually running up through the Masters last year, my best finish was a 13th at Augusta.

You know, this year my play from 100 yards and in is a lot better. Obviously I feel like I've made some improvements in my golf swing but the biggest change is coming from 100 yards and in. As far as what changes have been made there, nothing but a renewed focus on it for some excitement to work on it.

You know, I look at all of the players that win, and the players that do well week-in, week-out, they still hit bad shots but they score really well. You know, last year I played with Phil on Saturday at Augusta and I saw the things he did by scoring. I saw the fact that he still hit, you know, plenty of shots he didn't like, but he found a way to get it in the hole. Therefore, on his days that he didn't strike the ball great, he still found a way to get it in the house. That's the biggest change I've made.

I sat down at the end of last year and I looked at all of my stats and I wasn't ranked in the top 100 from 75 to 100 yards or from 100 to 125. I believe now I'm fifth from 75 to 100 yards so far this year, I think that's right.

Q. Was Johnny Miller right?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Absolutely not. You know, I have a -- no, he's not right, no.

Q. You know what I mean, though, what I'm alluding to?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Sure, I do. You know, no. It's hard, obviously, it's hard for him in the booth to understand what I'm doing out on the golf course and the shots that I'm trying to hit.

But, no, Johnny Miller is not accurate. I'm quite -- I find it really funny a lot of the things he does say, and it makes it entertaining. But no, I haven't hit a full nuke wedge, as he says, in two years.

Q. The implication is that you don't have any finesse.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, I hit it hard out of the rough, you can tell him. (Laughter.)

But, you know, I guess for someone, like he says, "with no finesse, no wedge game," I'm doing all right. (Laughter.)

Q. Given the juggled schedule, how much of an advantage is it for you being local, or for any of the other guys that are local, in terms of your routine or just getting back and forth and getting prepared?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, this makes it really easy, actually. You know, my house is a mile and a half from here. So during the rain delays, I can go back and forth. It just makes it a whole lot easier than staying at a hotel obviously.

I love this swing of events here. I'm at home here this week and then the TPC next week is close. I stay at my parents' house for the Masters. Yeah, there's three nice weeks here, and then we play the Tavistock Cup which is between THE PLAYERS Championship and the Masters and I'm home again for that.

Yeah, I'll be at a home for the next three of the four tournament.

Q. Is there anything appreciably different from the way you played your first round and your second round?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Not really. I managed to get the ball a little bit closer. My iron game is better that the second than the first. These greens are not very easy to read at times. So you've got to be able to take advantage of the par 5s, and any time you do have a short club into the green you've got to take advantage of it.

The rough is up. Obviously depending on the lie you catch, but driving the ball in the rough is not a great way to play this course.

Q. Did you notice the pace on the greens change at all between rounds one and two? Some guys were saying it was a lot grainier and a lot slower.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, I think they definitely got slower as round two went on. I don't know if that's a function of just the overseed growing or what it is. And even in the practice rounds, greens were even a bit slower than they had been in past years. I don't know why that is; obviously now it is because of all the rain we've had. I'm sure by Sunday they will be awful fast again.

Q. For the first round you mean?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Even if Arnold has to mow them.

Q. Personally.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Absolutely. And he will.

Q. Would you get a kick out of screwing this up for Vijay and Tiger and Ernie and their quest to all three grab No. 1?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know what, I would get a kick out of winning another golf tournament, and I will take any one I can get. It's been a while.

Q. I'm wondering, you're fourth on the Tour in scoring average right now, do you have to fight the feeling of "what have I got to do; what has a guy got to do to break through again"?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Now I know, if anything, how difficult it is to win. I think when I won at Michelob, it was my 67th event and I won there, and a lot of people thought that was too long.

You know, I think I'm just finding it's really hard to win. I think I've found a way to be rather consistent and to have a lot of good finishes. I made a Presidents Cup team. I've made a couple TOUR Championships and been close on others. But, you know, that step to winning is what I'm trying to figure out. You know, the flip side, you see a guy like an Ernie Els who seems to know exactly what it takes to win. He seems to win a lot everywhere; obviously Vijay has. Some guy named Tiger seems to find that rather easy as well.

But that's what I'm working on, that's like the next step I'm trying to take here. And I certainly think the ability from 100 yards and in, if I look at those guys I just mentioned, they have all got fantastic short games. Arguably, we'll say the best three short games in the world. It's hard to find three better.

You know, that's an area I'm really focused on and I'm excited about it.

Q. Could we get your irons?

CHARLES HOWELL III: 10, a wedge into ten. 11, 8-iron. 12, wedge. 13, L-wedge.

Q. Are you doing all the holes?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yes. You just want the birdies? I know you don't write about pars, but you write about the Sooners. (Laughter.)

16, a 7-iron, second shot.

19, 5-iron, was a bogey. No. 1 was a 6-iron, birdie. 2, 6-iron, birdie. 3 was a 7-iron, bogey. 7, 5-iron birdie. 8 was a 9-iron, bogey. 9 was a 9-iron, birdie.

Q. Bunker on 8?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Right bunker on 8.

Q. And 9 was what again?

CHARLES HOWELL III: 9-iron, birdie.

Q. And how did you play 18? Were you protecting a little bit there?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I hit it in the right rough off the tee. The lie was actually petty good. I thought I would be chipping it out and I tried to play a 5-iron into the left green-side bunker. I knew I could at least get it to that. I was playing into that for a pitch or a chip or whatever was left off the green. I got lucky on the lie, though. I thought walking up there that I would have to chip the ball out straight left. I still made a 5, but it less dramatic than the morning round. I hit the rock on my second shot in the morning round and it kicked up and so I made par. It was a good shot, it wasn't necessarily a bad shot. It was on-line with the flag, but it still hit the rocks and kicked up right of the green and made par.

Q. So you were trying to do it on purpose?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Absolutely. I'll teach Johnny that one.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Charles.

End of FastScripts.

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