THE INTERNATIONAL

August 7, 2003

Charles Howell III

JOAN vON THRON: Talk about your round today and the conditions.

CHARLES HOWELL III: I teed off early today which was important. Any time you can go off early here you need to make a bunch of birdies. We had very little wind this morning. Didn't really start blowing until maybe the last four, five holes. The greens were a bit softer this year than in years past. This is my fourth year here and it's the softest I have ever seen them. They are going to get chewed up a little bit more. This morning they were smooth. Yeah, it's pretty good scoring conditions early.

JOAN vON THRON: Questions.

Q. Been a lot of very experienced players winning on Tour this year. We were ready to give the Tour over to the young guys a couple of years ago. Is it fun seeing the old guys have success? This week do you want to claim one back?

CHARLES HOWELL III: It's quite interesting, last year everybody said it's the young guns and the young Tour and whatnot from that, I think you had the 18 first-time winners, and now this year you see the total opposite of that. I think it's good for the game. I think it shows you how far a lot of people are working and they are not ready to kind of give up, so to speak. That is probably not a great word to use. You see Jay Haas, you see Vijay, Davis Love, you see all these guys playing well, Craig Stadler winning at the B.C. Open, but then you see Curtis win the British Open. So it has been -- I think it's been a rather interesting year.

As far as for me I'd love to win any golf tournament. They all feel like majors to me. I try my best at every one of them. Yes, any tournament win is good.

Q. You have struggled a little bit lately. What has been a problem, if there has been, and how do you feel about coming out here and playing here?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, first off, I love it here. I always come back here. This is a great golf course. I have always enjoyed Jack Nicklaus's golf courses. I like the altitude. I think it favors a longer hitter. Out here, I think, as far as me struggling, I haven't played as well as I would have liked to, no. But that's this game. I wish I could bottle up exactly what you have going on when you played great and then just save that all the time because I work just as hard every single day. Everything else for me remains the same. It's just a crazy game that we play. I think you can ask anybody that over a period of time, you are going to have your little bits of ups and downs. Obviously you don't want those to be very drastic. Plus, too, I am still learning, I am only 24. I have played a lot of tournaments since I have turned pro. This is my fourth year here at this one, but there's still a lot to learn. Take a guy at the age -- like a Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Justin Leonard, Davis Love, those guys have been out here all the time they kind of have a little bit of a better understanding of what is going on.

Q. Charles, your fourth time here at The International. Do you feel like the players need to come and play this course a few times to solve the mystery of the course and also that of the Stableford scoring system, or is it is something you can adapt to readily?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I think it's something you can -- with a couple of practice rounds you can adapt to right away with it. The weird thing seems to be like hitting your chip shots and wedges and pitches, those tend to run out a little bit differently, but other than that, we also play an event in Reno which has some altitude, and players are so good today that one or two practice rounds and they are fine.

As far as the Stableford system, I think it fits this golf course great. There's a lot of birdie opportunities, but there's also some holes where you still just need to make par on. Yeah, I think this course with this system I think is just great.

Q. Seems like a lot of expectations were put on you early when you first came out. Has that been a hinderance or motivation as you get acclimated to the Tour?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, I guess if people aren't talking about you, they don't think you are very good. So I guess it's a positive in that light. Other than that, I don't pay much attention to it. At the end of the day it only matters what you shoot, and at the end of the year it matters how many tournaments did you win and what you'd finish on the money list and yaddy-yaddy-yada so at the end of the day people can talk about all they want to about whatever, but it comes down to what you shoot, what you finished in the tournament, how was your year, and things like that, and for that sake it doesn't matter how old or young you are.

Q. Back to the Stableford system, years ago Bruce Lietzke used to come here and he played the golf course. He says when I am done playing the course you tell me how many points I got. Never played the system. How do you feel about that?

CHARLES HOWELL III: I think you have to have it a little bit both ways. I think for instance, granted, everybody who goes out here is trying to shot as low as they can, but if you have a ball in trouble and it is a risky shot, one way or the other, you may tend to just play it safe to make a bogey versus making a double. I think that would be probably the only situation where you would. I don't think you get out there and play more aggressively at a flag versus not because the bogey still does hurt you here this week. But I think definitely in a situation where an iffy shot maybe to save a par or whatnot you may lean towards making sure that bogey is comfortable and not make a double .

Q. You don't want the double?

CHARLES HOWELL III: No.

Q. Practice round with Sergio and Matt Kuchar are Aaron Baddely, Matt was the oldest guy at 25 --

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, Matt is old. (Laughs). I enjoy playing with the other younger players. Aaron and I have been friends for a long time, going back to probably when were --I think 15 or 16 years old we started playing against each other. Sergio, I have known him since we were, I think, 12 and Matt Kuchar I have known him just as long. We have played golf with each other through the junior golf ranks, through amateur golf, college it's just nice to keep playing with those guys. I think a little bit of motivation too, as it is. It's not a young guy versus an old guy thing. But it's more or less if you play with players your own age that are playing well, keep the motivation going.

JOAN vON THRON: Thank you, Charles for joining us.

End of FastScripts....