THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

November 9, 2003

Charles Howell III

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Charles Howell, runner-up, thanks for joining us. Three rounds of 67, and a 70 today. You played some great golf, but it just seemed to be Chad Campbell's week. Start with some opening comments about your play and then some about Chad's play.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, I never really challenged him today. I didn't birdie the fifth hole. But then I birdied 6 and 7 which I thought was pretty big. I had a bit of momentum there. And then I bogeyed the 8th hole. He birdied it. And it flipped right back in his favor. Then I birdie the 9th and he eagles it. So basically the back nine was just go at everything and see what happens. He played a great golf round. If you think that he shot what, 10-under on Saturday, and then in the first nine today he was 5-under, so that's 15-under in 27 holes. That's great golf there. I thought today that another 67 would have gotten it done, and in hindsight who knows if it would have or not, but it would have been close. I just obviously didn't do that.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: 19 of the players in this field are going to be playing in the Presidents Cup. It's certainly nice to be going into that on a strong note.

CHARLES HOWELL III: I'm very much looking forward to the Presidents Cup, obviously. It will be my first of any professional type format there. That was my No. 1 goal for the season to make that. My second goal was to be in this tournament. So I got those two accomplished. I didn't win this year, which is a bit disappointing, but, hey, I'm still here.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Questions?

Q. Do you feel you played very nicely for four years as you did last year? Do you feel snake bit at this tournament?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I hope I'm too young for that. No, I don't. I would have liked to have had 8 straight rounds in the 60s. And I blew that today. In fact, Brendan and I were joking at the last hole, if I hole this shot I'll bust 70 again. But no, I don't feel snake bitten in the least bit. I just didn't play good enough today. It's just as simple as that. I hung in there, but I hung in there because that's the way I play. That's the way I am. But I didn't really ever play good enough, especially in the first five holes, to put some pressure on him as I needed to do.

Q. First four of your birdie putts on the first four holes were all enormous. Was it just anything not going right for you there early?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I played the first hole exactly how I wanted to. The second hole, I just hit a poor second shot into the green there. Like you said, on holes 2 and 4 I had extremely long birdie putts there. You just can't have that. And make them. The best you can do from that situation is 2-putt. And then a par at the fifth hole, that feels like a bogey, obviously. The two birdies at 6 and 7 were pretty big there. I felt that obviously the momentum had gone a little bit back in my favor. But then right there at the 8th hole it was gone again. After that I was just hanging in there after that.

Q. Chad Campbell, with that fairways and greens game that he has, are we likely to see him contend in U.S. Open and PGA type tournaments for awhile?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Oh, definitely. If you look how he did at the PGA this year, he darn near won that one. So, yeah, he is very accurate. In a good way, he's a very boring golfer, which is what you want to be. He's a good boring. He's fairway, green, hit his putt up there, it either goes in or it's right next to the hole, which is great. There's nothing wrong with his game at all. It's fairway, green, putt, fairway. And with a guy like that, and when he's on, when he's playing well like that, you got to make a bunch of birdies to beat him.

Q. Given the fact that he doesn't hit it in the trees and he is on the green, did you sense that that two-shot swing on 8 was probably going to be a tough one to overcome for you?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I definitely thought that. Yeah, I definitely was cussing myself walking off that green. Because you just can't do that. Especially after going birdie, birdie, getting a little bit of the momentum back in my favor, that 8th hole was a shot in the foot, so to speak. And then to birdie the 9th hole, but then he eagles it on top of me. So then he still has the momentum after that as well.

Q. Are you surprised you haven't won more?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yes, I am. Yeah. I am surprised I haven't won more. And I don't know why that is. I've had a bunch of good chances over the course of my career. I lost in two playoffs, obviously. I said it in L.A., i said it in Milwaukee and I say it here again, it just sucks finishing second, especially when you're wanting to win so bad. This week I loved the golf course when I came into it. I felt I had a great chance here. I like big golf courses with the big greens, with some length to them where you can hit driver out there. And I played really well for the week, but just didn't do it today like I needed to.

Q. Going back a year ago when you won at Michelob, Chad was in here yesterday talking about the fact that he just wanted to win.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Right.

Q. What's it like after you finally get your first win and how do you think that's going to apply to someone like him who has had success prior to getting on the PGA TOUR?

CHARLES HOWELL III: It's the biggest relief you can ever imagine, once you finally have won, because it changes your whole mentality. You know that you're a champion out here. You know that you have won before. I remember the first few times obviously I lost in a playoff before I won, but to see your name on the top of the leaderboard on Sunday and to carry that on, it's a bit of a nerve wracking feeling there. And I know that people talk about, well, they don't pay attention to leaderboards -- they're lying. Because when these leaderboards turn over out here it sounds like machine gun fire. If you have a leaderboard right beside you, you're ducking your first year on TOUR because you have no idea what that noise is. So, yeah, they see leaderboards. Trust me. But to actually come out on top, after seeing your name on top, it's pretty rewarding.

Q. How did that propel you in -- because it was so late in the year, how does that propel you into next year?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well I felt like I belonged. I felt like I was really a part of this and I was one of the top players out here. Obviously another big thing is that it bumps you up in the world rankings. With so many tournaments now, the Majors and your World events going off world rankings, that's very important as well. Whether the system is good, bad or indifferent, it still is important because those tournaments go off of it. So it's always important for that, as well, more than anything though you feel like you belong.

Q. Before you go, Vijay finished fifth, top-5 again, Tiger was 26th. Does that change the way you're thinking or leaning or whatever on that ballot when it comes?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You mean the ballot I got in Tampa, the green one?

Q. I thought you tore that up.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah. You know, it's hard to say. Because Tiger, he didn't play that many events. You've got to remember too, he started the year off, he couldn't play Mercedes, which is guaranteed money there. You've got to figure that he's going to at least finish first, second or third at that event because the course is so great for him. Then he comes out and he wins his first event after having some time off and stuff. It's a tough call. I'll be very interested to see how it ends up.

Q. Who are you going to vote for?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I knew you were going to ask that.

Q. Chad?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I'm going to vote for me. I'm going to split the whole vote. I don't know. Honestly, I don't know yet. I would tell you. I honestly don't know. It will be either Tiger or Vijay first, obviously, but I don't know.

Q. Where do you feel like you made the biggest strides over the last year and where do you feel that you have to focus in the future in terms of the areas of your game that you want to improve?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I've got to improve on my mid-iron game. That's very important. The golf courses are going to continue to get a little bit longer. I don't think you're going to see courses in the future tolerate driver, sand wedge on every single hole. Whether that's grow the rough in really narrow around 300, whether it's put water bunkers or whatnot, so I think the clubs that are the 6, 7, the 5, 6, 7-iron are really important. I got to get better at those. Keep working on everything as a whole. Every time I've ever focused on just one aspect of my game, another part of it has suffered a little bit. I think I made the best strides in putting. And I think that a lot of people probably would say that I've put a lot of time into it. I'm not quite where I want to be with it yet, obviously, but I made my best strides on that and I plan to continue working on the iron game.

Q. Just looking at the season overall, what do you take away from the year as far as overall on the TOUR? What stands out in your mind, trends or anything?

CHARLES HOWELL III: It amazed me that more young guys didn't win. I would say that for sure. That's the first thing that's surprising. As far as for my year, I give myself a B-plus. I think I've done well. I think I've hung in there a lot. I think I've had some -- you know, it's funny, because this weekend was actually quite important for me, win or lose. But I have played poorly on some weekends in the past. And to play well this weekend was pretty important for me. That's one thing that I take away from this weekend here. And although I did finish second, I did play well on the weekend. And as far as for the whole year for everybody, like I said, I'm surprised more younger players didn't win but I think you'll see more young guys win next year.

Q. Tiger won five times.

PLAYER: Who is that? Yeah, but he's not young anymore.

Q. You take a player like -- just to throw out a name, but a Justin Leonard, who never had to go to Q-School, and yourself, did you finish like 35th or something like that without a card to start the year?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Right.

Q. And then there's someone like Chad Campbell, who has obviously got plenty of talent, who spends years on the Hooter's Tour and Nationwide Tour and 28 before he gets here. Any thoughts on why that is? Why, if you get people of comparable talent, why some can get there and succeed immediately and others take longer?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, it's amazing because I think you see that -- a great example of that right now is a player like a Bryce Molder, who in all honesty, Bryce and I had pretty identical college careers. He was first-time All-American his freshman year. But then I won a NCAA, so overall we had pretty comparable college careers, I would say. And the fact that he isn't out here is pretty mind-boggling. And I don't know why that is, because Bryce should be out here. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that he is extremely talented to do that. And if you look at the guys on whole, such as myself, David Gossett, I first met David Gossett on the putting green at the Future Masters, we were nine years old. And we're still playing golf against each other now. And you see him come right out and win a golf tournament like that. It's amazing. We have all kind of come up together, but right when you turn pro it seems to be that people kind of go their own different ways. They will all get out here one day. Obviously. They're too good not to, but why that is, I don't know. You take a guy like a David Toms, who was a bit of a, from what I understand, a journeyman. He played a lot everywhere. Now he's come out here and he's done awesome. Maybe some guys draw a little bit from that. They have paid their dues, so to speak, whatnot. Oddly enough, it was actually here in Houston where I missed second stage of TOUR school in November before I gained my card on sponsor exemptions. And that was about the sickest feeling in my life, was when I missed that. Had I been a drinker, I would have drunk myself to death, I think, after that experience. Fortunately, I'm not. But that's just how gut wrenching this game is. And now here we are in Houston a few years later and I had a good chance to win the TOUR Championship. So why people take different paths like that, I don't know. But they all end up out here eventually is the way that I look at it.

Q. Do you have a sense in the locker room among the players who is going to win this Player of the Year vote?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, I would say that the sense is it's split a lot. I think that a lot of people are still wondering how many votes Vijay will get, and that relates to what people think of him. Which I hope they vote strictly off what he did on the golf course. After all this is a Player of the Year award. This isn't a popularity contest. This isn't the Payne Stewart Award, this isn't another award, Mr. Congeniality or so to speak has to play into it. This is just Player of the Year. So it will be interesting. I would say that the guys are pretty split.

Q. Between Tiger and Vijay?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Between Tiger and Vijay, yes.

Q. Mike Weir not getting the kind of maybe consideration for winning the Masters?

CHARLES HOWELL III: It's unbelievable that a guy like that isn't even mentioned, isn't it. You know, whose won three times including the Masters. Heck, I don't know. Geez, I don't know. It's scary. I don't know. I would say it's split between Tiger and Vijay. Then again, a guy like Davis, too, he wins a PLAYERS Championship and I don't know. Any other year those guys would be hands down.

Q. Whose year would you rather have, Tiger's, Vijay's or Mike's?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I would like to have Tiger's year. I think it's pretty cool that you don't play that much and win that many events.

Q. Including a Masters?

CHARLES HOWELL III: For an overall year, yes, but I would still cut my arm off for a Master's, yeah.

Q. You wouldn't be able to play in any future Masters?

CHARLES HOWELL III: That's all right, I would be happy. Give me a green jacket, I'll ride with you guys.

Q. A one-armed green jacket?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I'll give you some good gossip.

Q. You said that you would focus on trying to play better this weekend because you really haven't had good weekends. Why didn't you have good weekends this year to some extent and why did you have a good weekend this weekend?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I put too much pressure on myself before. I put too much pressure on myself to win. And to come out on top. To feel like I had to go do something special, do something extra. This weekend I just tried to relax and play really like it was Thursday. Play everyday like the same mentality that I have on Thursdays and Fridays and just to keep going. But then again, put a halt when it comes to putting the pressure on yourself. Clearly that right there. Trying too hard.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Charles Howell. Thank you very much.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Thank you.

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