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DUBAI DESERT CLASSIC

March 3, 2005

David Howell

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

RODDY WILLIAMS: David, very well played. What happened on 8?

DAVID HOWELL: Well, hit a really great drive and a lot of club really but 3-iron wasn't going to be quite enough to mess around with the water, I just didn't release it. Worst shot of the year I would say. Luckily I still shot under par. All in all, I'm very happy.

RODDY WILLIAMS: After that it was a very good round.

DAVID HOWELL: Yes, the last three weeks I played absolutely dreadfully and then the great greens here, everything is nice, familiar territory. Went back to work on a few old drills a got away from and all in all I played quite nicely today.

Q. What happened with the eagle at 10?

DAVID HOWELL: I don't know what happened to the drive, maybe this week just working out hard, and hit it on to the green, hit a 6-iron on the green and holed it from 40 feet. Pretty simple.

Q. (Inaudible.)

DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, I've been playing dreadfully. The first week at Pebble I didn't have much preparation for one reason or another. Putting was more of a problem there early in the week. My game deteriorated like the weather over the three weeks so glad to see the sunshine -- right, left, short, long, playing awful.

Q. Did nothing click in in your match with Maruyama?

DAVID HOWELL: That was quite strange, before I played, about my lowest ever in I don't know how long, so I didn't play that great early in that round. And I just got on a run of nine holes, hit it straight, holed the putts, and did everything correctly. Obviously it felt like a very impressive victory which it was but I reversed it the next day.

I've just been off-track a little bit at the moment and I need to work hard on the right things and try to get back a little bit to where I was last year.

Q. Is there a sense of different territory, feeling uncomfortable over there and now you're back where you belong?

DAVID HOWELL: Well, yes, I mean maybe that is a part, I don't know. I just wasn't playing well. I didn't play well in Singapore, either, and it was hot and cold really in South Africa my first event of the year. Everything carried on playing poor, really. Obviously not being in top form and being in slightly more different surroundings is slightly more harder than being familiar and feeling great about yourself. It wasn't a great trip.

Q. What's your status over there, you're playing to play 15 over there and 11 here?

DAVID HOWELL: I don't have any exemption over there at all. It looks like I'll play ten or 12 maybe throughout the year including the majors and the world tournaments, and 18 or so over here.

I think it was, the way I understand it, you have to be a foreign member of the Tour and the Ryder Cup side gave you an exemption, but I wasn't a member of their tour.

Q. Do you keep hoping they are going to move this back to the Creek?

DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, I haven't played well here of course over the years. For a while I was pining for the Creek for a few years there. But last year, great result and maybe I'm getting used to it. The first year I played here I saw it as a very difficult course and make I'm getting better or just getting used to the course. It's nice to see a good score around here now.

Q. Are you starting to be a bit too hard on yourself maybe, because we heard the same thing from you a few times last year when you said you were hitting it sideways and whatever and the results were pretty good, again, as you said before, Maruyama for nine holes, you couldn't do anything wrong.

DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, but I just knew, golf is a funny game. You to need to be in control of the ball at the end of the day. I controlled the ball well that day, but it didn't feel like I controlled it and there's a difference there. It's hard to put your finger on it. At the moment I've love to be playing as I was last year and not think about it. That's what I'm trying to work to get back to and I need a period of another good solid play to get a hold of the good feelings and adjust it a little bit.

Q. Are you disappointed with the way things have gone after the Ryder Cup?

DAVID HOWELL: I had a great end of the year in the World events and I had a couple of chances to win towards the end of last season, so that was great. In general my early season form hasn't been great in the last few years anyway, so nothing to worry about. Last year, playing in the Ryder Cup doesn't mean you're going to be a great player all of a sudden. You have to keep working hard and doing the right things. So that's what I'm trying to do and I'm sure things will fall sooner or later.

Q. What are your thoughts on Woosie and Nick as the next two captains?

DAVID HOWELL: Well, very difficult, really, whichever way around it was was debatable really. Nick in America, he seems to be very comfortable over there now, so it's probably the best deal all around. I think it was the right thing to do to name two captains with both candidates being such good candidates. To not give Nick the American one then, that might have left a bitter taste in his mouth and he didn't deserve that. So I'm sure they are both happy. Woosie will do a great job and Woosie in Ireland probably, you know, is perfect.

RODDY WILLIAMS: David, well played. Keep it up.

End of FastScripts.

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