THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDE

July 16, 2020

Charles Howell III

Muirfield Village

Quick Quotes

Q. Can you talk about the conditions from last Thursday to today?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, you know, I'm in my -- I feel like I'm a non-resident junior member here at Muirfield. Yeah, from a member's point of view, they definitely firmed things up today quite a bit more than I thought they could. After playing last week, I'm surprised at how different they could get the golf course. I know the wind is helping dry things out a little bit, but the firmness of the greens, the speed of the greens, the hole locations, a little tighter to the edges, it's a bit different than last week.

Q. 17th start here, and not to go dark, but you don't have a top 10. What motivates you to come back every single year?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, I love the golf course. As you said, I don't have a top 10 here, but I love the golf course. I love being here. I might have first fallen in love with the milkshakes here and then the golf course was really close behind. But I love it here. I remember the first year I came here, I played with Gary Nicklaus and Jack Nicklaus, and it was a day I still remember walking around this golf course playing with Jack and Gary and him walking me around it and what he was doing and his thoughts and design. I've just loved it ever since, the golf course but also the community. Jack Hanna and the Columbus Zoo, they've been so good to us and our family loves coming up to see all of that, so it's a neat part of the world.

Q. How difficult were those conditions out there today with the wind?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, I didn't expect it to blow this hard, so in a way it got my attention a bit. We got the par-3s, like 8, 12, 16, just brutal with the wind. You hate to say it, but you do the best you can. You feel like you're guessing a little bit and you're holding your breath when the ball is in the air. It's tough out there. And with the firmness of the greens, if you're out of position at all, it's really hard to make up. From seeing it last week to this week and the difference in it, it's quite a bit. It's more than I thought.