THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

November 7, 2003

Charles Howell III

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Charles, thanks for joining us in the media center. 36-hole leader. Two consecutive rounds of 67. That puts you in a great position for the weekend. A lot of golf to be played, but let's start with some opening comments and we'll go right into questions.

CHARLES HOWELL III: The day was exactly like yesterday. The exact same conditions. The wind, everything was the same. It's always fun teeing off in the last group. I think that's obviously what we play for, to win tournaments. But to be in that position, I just love doing that. I think that's kind of an added bonus a bit, so to speak. And I played with Kenny today. I enjoy playing with him. He's always seems to play well when I play with him. He was a good guy for me to play with today. He's low key. Good old country boy, so to speak, from Kentucky. And it was good to play with him. I think he helped me a little bit there in staying calm and whatnot. But, no, it was a good day.

Q. Your whole round seemed to turn on two holes there. Can you talk about those.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, it did. I hit a poor shot on the par-3. To the right on number 12. Made a bogey there. Which that green is enormous. It's not a good shot to miss that green.

Then the next hole I make a three, which that was huge. I hit a good drive, hit a really good second shot. A 4-iron into the green. I had 235 to the hole there. But to go ahead and knock the putt in and then follow it up with a birdie at the next, yeah, it's funny how you're right, the whole round was right in those three holes there. That bogey and then the two holes after that. So that was really, really, really important there. That little stretch right there. Because those closing holes are obviously always important but especially here. Because the par-5 there is reachable with the wind as it was today. And you've got to at least make a four on that hole. Then to make three, that was really important.

Q. A lot of players have talked about the difficulty of the greens. You have no three putts through 36 holes. How are you managing?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, you've got to make your five and six-footers. You're just going to have them. No matter who you are, when you go through a round on this golf course, you're going to have a couple putts between 50 and 70 feet. That's just the way it is. It's hard to always lag those up to a foot. So I've been fortunate enough to hole a lot of those putts that I've had coming back, the five and six-footers. But the greens are very tough on the long putts. You've got a lot of slope in them, the grain always seems to change with the slope. You'll have some putts that are uphill into the grain and then downhill and away from you at the end. I think it was an advantage for me to play Tampa and Disney, because the greens there are fairly similar to these. Especially in Tampa, where it was extremely fast. To avoid the three putts you've got to make the five and six-footers because you're just going to have them.

Q. Was there a tip that you got this week, changed putters or what? Because you seem lights out with the putter this week.

CHARLES HOWELL III: No, I actually got a putting tip from Kelly Leadbetter, David's wife, when I was at Disney, the Monday of Disney. She just noticed something, and David told me that, but it was Kelly that suggested it. And David made sure that Kelly wanted to make sure that I knew where it came from, from her. And yeah, it's helped quite a lot.

Q. What was it? What was the tip?

CHARLES HOWELL III: It was a tip.

Q. Do you pay her, too?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Is she on the payroll? She is indirectly on the payroll. Yes, she is. As in any marriage couple.

Q. Now that you've seen the course for two days, what would you say is the key to having a good weekend?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Driving the ball in the fairway. I only hit 8 fairways today, but I was fortunate enough to not be really bad off when I missed them. The rough is spotty. You can have some, a shot where you can easily get to the green, other times you're chipping out. So I had some good breaks today in the rough where I was able to knock the ball on the green. And in fact, I never had to chip out from the rough once today. I would say driving the ball in the fairway, with as many pins as there are on each green, you've got to be in the fairway to get at the corner pins.

Q. It's relatively early in your career to be developing trends, but you seem to be doing quite well at this tournament. Any thoughts on that?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I don't know. I think, well, I like Coca Cola, I'm from the south, near Atlanta. I think there's a little bit of good karma there, I guess. I don't know. Maybe it's because it's the end of the year and I know that we have a break coming up. So it's kind of a nothing-to-lose mentality for a little bit. I don't know what it is, apart from Coca-Cola.

Q. We spent all week frothing about Vijay, Tiger, Davis, Mike Weir and now you and Fred Funk, you know, Retief, do you feel like you're sneaking through the back door on us?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, it's kind of the way it works. I don't know. There was a lot of buildup this week to Tiger and Vijay and who would be Player of the Year and whatnot. It's just kind of the way that it works. It's funny how that is. I don't know. I can't explain it. There wasn't a lot of attention on myself coming into here. Just as there wasn't a lot on Fred Funk, I don't believe. Who knows. I guess you come in here with not much attention and not much expectations from the media and whatnot, then you play well. So who knows.

Q. You tore up the back nine yesterday and you pretty much tore it up today. Throw out the one bogey, you had another 31. Is it easier or is it -- are they more downwind or what's the deal? The front nine seems to be kind of a hard time and then step on the gas on the back?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, the back nine -- it's hard to say. I would say they're actually about the same. If anything, the front nine probably should be, in theory, a touch easier because both the par-5s on the front are reachable in two. There's only one there on the back. So I don't know why that is. Both sides have your tough par-4s. I think the first hole, 1 and 2, are two tough opening holes, and then 4 is a great par-3. But then you turn around, No. 5 and No. 9 are reachable par-5s. So in theory, the front nine should be easier.

Q. What did you do on 5?

CHARLES HOWELL III: 5, I hit a good drive down the middle, hit a 7-iron to the right of the green and did not get up-and-down for birdie.

Q. How hard is that? There was like eight guys all right there at four for the longest time. You failed to birdie that hole. Nothing but pars on through. What's the problem there? Just trying to keep going?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, I just tried to hang in there. Because I knew that this golf course wasn't going to give up a lot of birdies at the end. I felt at the turn when I went into the back nine I was 5-under at the turn and I thought that 7-under would be leading the tournament at the end of the day. There's too many good players up there not to. I believe Retief got 7 at one point. He might have made a bogey or so. But you figure you could have had Retief at 7 and then Fred Funk at 7 and then at the turn I was at 5. I shot even par on the back nine and I'm two shots back. It's so jammed up there. Kind of like what I said yesterday, when I tee off tomorrow, there very well may be one or two players at 8-under. So you've still got to keep making birdies and you've still got to keep going forward.

Q. You're playing with another 40-something tomorrow, Fred, today with Kenny, making you feel pretty young? These guys are like father figures to you?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I've been playing long enough though that I feel old. Ty Tryon's on TOUR so I feel old. No, you know, I feel comfortable playing with the older players like that. I don't know what it is, but I feel comfortable playing with them. I still go back to my -- I played the practice round with Tiger on Wednesday and I think that helped me quite a lot as well. Just to play with a great player like that in a practice round, it just kind of helps.

Q. You guys have been playing a lot since probably what, The Open?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yes.

Q. How did that come about and what have you learned from him?

CHARLES HOWELL III: It just came about that we've just become friends over the time here. We have become better and better friends. Then what have I learned? I've learned that he's damn good.

Q. Really?

CHARLES HOWELL III: There's a reason he's where he is on the world ranking. It's just great to play with somebody like that. It pushes me.

Q. Have you asked him anything?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I've asked him a bunch of stuff.

Q. Has he offered without solicitation or --

CHARLES HOWELL III: No, he definitely, oh, he offers, yeah, we got a great relationship. We talk a lot about golf, a lot about different shots, different ways he hits shots and things. It was great playing a practice round with him at the British, to see his imagination. That was the main thing that struck me there. And then I've had people ask, someone ask me today, what was his weakness. And he doesn't have a strong point because he doesn't have a weakness. It's all right there. You can't criticize anything of it. He said he didn't like Doug Ferguson. That was about it.

Q. Does he try to pick your brain about anything?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Clothing. Definitely clothing. He gives me a hard time for that.

Q. Cars, all that stuff?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, we talk about cars. We talk about clothes, talk about scuba diving. No, not really. We kind of just bounce ideas off of each other. I would definitely say that I probably pick his brain more than him mine. We talk about mechanics of the golf swing because we both have different views on that. But, yeah.

Q. I don't want to sound like one of these guys that think that golf is lost, but you hit driver, 7-iron to a par-5?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yes.

Q. You just say that casually. Does it not reach the point of ridiculousness where a par-5 is a driver, 7-iron these days?

CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, I would say not, because it's the same for every one. The hard thing to imagine is that I've hit longer clubs into some par-4s here than I have par-5s. And then the great thing with this golf course is the par-3s are long. I hit 2, 3-irons on par-3s today, which does not happen very often. And then there's some par-4s out here, a few of them, right around 460. So a par-5 is a driver, 7-iron, you know. It almost plays mindgames with you because you know you have an opportunity to hit a short club into it. So you're really wanting to put the ball in the fairway and get it in position and whatnot, but I think it's good. I think it makes it exciting. Just like it would be a short par-4, like the 109 hole at Riviera. We all know that guys out here can play a 600-yard par-5 as driver, 5-iron, pitching wedge. Why not add a little bit of excitement to it. I don't think there's any problem with that at all. The golf course is still 7,300 yards, par 71.

Q. Speaking of Riviera, were any of your close calls this year, will that have any bearing on your mindset for this weekend now that you're in the lead position?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, looking back on the year I've had a lot of good chances that I've let get away. The one that's remained constant is my effort level. I've given every single round and every shot a hundred percent. And then whatever happens is going to happen. I know that I'm as prepared as I can possibly be. That I'm going to give it my best on every single shot. And that's all can I do. Sure I would love to go back in the past and change things. I'm sure everybody would. But then at the end of the day you still learn from it and go on.

Q. But will you change anything for this weekend based on what's happened to you this year?

CHARLES HOWELL III: No, not a thing. No. I'll hopefully change the result. But as far as what I'm doing, no, not a thing.

Q. What color does Johan Lindeberg say that turtleneck is?

CHARLES HOWELL III: He doesn't. I don't know. This is a mystery.

Q. He didn't give it to you?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Oh, no, he gave it to me. Oh, yeah, this is Lindeberg, but it's a mystery color. Yeah, a blue-green.

Q. It's every bit of that.

CHARLES HOWELL III: What color is it, Doug? It's not 6 sooner red.

Q. It's turquoise. You can call it turquoise, but I'm sure Joe had a different name for it. You know what I mean?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Not that I've heard.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Go through the rest of your card. And we'll take one more question. Birdied No. 9. Par-5.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, No. 9, I hit a driver just through the fairway, got a great break with a good lie in the rough. Hit 7-iron into the middle of the green. 2-putt. A birdie there. It was a good lie in the rough. Caught a flier.

12, I hit a terrible 3-iron to the right of the green. Another, a bad chip as well, a 2-putt bogey.

13, par-5, I hit driver, 4-iron to about 12 feet. Shot Link can tell you more exactly.

Q. 10 feet, six inches.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Six inches. And made eagle there.

14, I hit 3-iron off the tee, 8-iron on my second shot to about 10 feet.

16, 8-iron to roughly 12 feet there. And then I holed that for birdie and then two pars on the last two.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Just one bogey. Any great par saves?

CHARLES HOWELL III: One bogey and then, no, I just made a lot of good putts for par there. Some of the lag putts there are tough. Obviously. But, no. The big key there was the eagle on the par-5, obviously.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Charles Howell, thank you very much.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.