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HSBC WORLD MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

September 13, 2005

David Howell

SURREY, ENGLAND

Q. Are you feeling relaxed and happy with life?

DAVID HOWELL: Absolutely. Everything is going great. When I was injured I was trying to look on the bright side and say maybe it has happened for a reason and everything but I have come back much stronger and much fitter. That was tough while I was in the middle of the injury but things are a lot rosier now.

Q. Why did it make you stronger do you think?

DAVID HOWELL: I don't mean physically -- I have just played better. I had that great run with the two seconds and then fourth here and was maybe a bit tired in Wales and my form was starting to slip but even at Wentworth when I finished fourth, I was playing well but not hitting it well, if that makes any sense. I was making do with my short game but not swinging it great. And maybe the two months off gave me and my coach a bit of time to think about it and we came back almost with a blank sheet of paper maybe and worked on a couple of different things which have been the right things and it's been better since I have come back.

Q Can you just take us back to the injury -- it seemed very bizarre?

DAVID HOWELL: It was. My physios have looked on the internet and said that there is not one recorded case of what I did during the golf swing, so it is a very bizarre injury.

Why did it happen? I was in the rough all day on Thursday at round one of the U.S. Open and hit four or five really heavy shots out of the rough but felt fine. Then I went on the range and swung Vijay's heavy club a few times, which was very heavy but felt fine. I woke up the next morning and felt fine, hit 50 balls and then on the 51st I felt something. I was absolutely fine after swinging the heavy club. Went to be perfect as far as I was aware, warmed up as I normally would and it was fine. Then I got through to my 5-iron and hit one funny shot where I felt a little twinge in my side but felt nothing of it and three of four shots later with my three iron I just felt it ripping.

Q. Can you name the muscle?

DAVID HOWELL: Yes I can, it was the internal/abdominal muscle on the front left of your body.

Q. Any hint at all that it could have been Vijay's club?

DAVID HOWELL: I'm sure that it had something to do with it. I have never swung a club that heavy before and I have never had an in jury like this before so you put two and two together--

Q. How heavy was it?

DAVID HOWELL: It was 25 pounds and the length of a 3-wood. It took Vijay five years to work up to work up to it -- why I swung it I don't know. He was stood next to me talking to Stuart Appleby with it slung over his shoulder and I just took a break from practicing for a couple of minutes and took a couple of swings and that might have been the cause of it. Strangely enough, after I had a couple of swings with it he took it off me and said, --I'll show you how to swing that, you've got to be careful. If you keep swinging it you will have to see him-- and pointed to my physio. It was just one of those stupid things.

Q. Have you told him that his club may have caused the injury?

DAVID HOWELL: Vijay was not aware that I had done anything to my back until I saw him in the gym at the USPGA and I said that I had been out for eight weeks after I swung that club.

The annoying thing about the injury was that there were a number of different diagnoses about how badly I had done the injury. It felt like a six to eight week injury to me and my physio felt the same. A sports medical doctor was even more hopeful and he said about three or four weeks. The Open was in a months time so instead of my caddy and myself thinking that we had eight weeks off and should go abroad, almost straight away I was back into physio and trying to get back as quick as I could. I had originally felt that Loch Lomond could have been an option and served as a warm-up to The Open. I got to Loch Lomond and realised that was not going to happen and that I was a long way off being fit.

Q. It must have been frustrating for you?

DAVID HOWELL: It was very frustrating. My season was growing great and I thought that it was going to be another set back. Last time I had a real progression in my career was back in 2001/2002 and then I broke my arm and then the rest of the year I was out and the following year I had the worst one of my golfing life. I broke my arm after falling over my laces running, the one before that was when I sprained my ankle playing tennis and was out for a few months.

Q. How did you handle doing nothing?

DAVID HOWELL: Not very well. It took me an hour to get to my physio in Croydon and then spent time in the gym and then because of this theory that I was going to be al lright in a few weeks I worked harder. I was actually doing too much. It wasn't like I was sat on my sofa for a month. I was always trying to do my best, but I would probably have been better going off abroad for a few weeks and doing nothing.

Q. Are you 100 percent now?

DAVID HOWELL: I would say that I am now as fit as I can be. My focus has been on getting my body right and in as good a shape as possible. My golf game has always been good. My focus is on my health. I am now physically the fittest I have been in ten years in general. I have been working out hard for a few years now and I have a personal trainer on board. The entourage is growing. I used to laugh at Clarkie but the better you do, the more you can afford and the harder you try. I have a trainer called Paul Hoskins, who is based in Ascot and worked with Thomas Bjorn. I have a chiropractor and a personal trainer and Clive Tucker, my coach.

We have worked on my back swing and I am trying to really extend and get the down swing. I almost feel like I am casting my club, which is something you would never want to do. It is the opposite to what I do badly, so if I think of casting it, it helps my down swing.

Q. And you have the statisticians, as well.

DAVID HOWELL: Stats-wise the BMW, the NEC and the Linde have been the best of my career. I was first for greens in regulation at the BMW, which is unheard of for me. I am usually at about 100.

Q. Did the Masters help you a lot this year?

DAVID HOWELL: . Yes. I had a really tough early season. I wasn't playing great. Things were not going as I'd have liked. Then I finished 11th in the Masters and done better than I thought I would have done and a good bit of belief came out of that I can do well and left me feeling good about the experience. I am not a long driver and I am not straight, which is never really great, but I have just changed drivers and have a bit of length back and it has helped me with my swing and I now drive it better that I ever have done. I am confident with the driver now and taking a lot of shots on with it.

Q. Thoughts on this week?

DAVID HOWELL: I have only looked at the first round. I have not seen what happens if things go well. You never know what you are going to get with JosÃƒï¿½Ã‚Â©, I have played him in the Seve Trophy before and he always scores well during Match Play and you have to play well to beat him. He is obviously on good form with The Open and last week. It will be a tough match.

Q. Do you feel that you belong in the company you are in now?

DAVID HOWELL: My confidence is just catching up with my game. I have always been a realist. I have never been cocky. I am 21st in the World and I feel like I am at the moment. I don't feel out of place. The last couple of years where I have been around the better players is going to have helped me become more at ease and now I believe that I am going places. I am working as hard as I can do and it is starting to pay off. I am really pleased this year, even though I have won only once, I have always finished the tournaments well. Last week I finished strongly again. When I am in with a chance I am always playing well, which is good for the confidence.

Q. Do you have a mind coach?

DAVID HOWELL: I haven't adopted a mind coach yet. I have always believed that my mind is one of my strengths. It was my game that I needed to bring on. I never doubted myself and I certainly won't be employing one in the near future.

Q. Do you have an opinion on them?

DAVID HOWELL: I think they are great if they help people. They seem to have the best players, a psychologist is going to struggle with someone who is in the tress all the time. As soon as you believe it, then that's all you need.

End of FastScripts.

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