THE INTERNATIONAL

August 8, 2006

David Howell

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: David Howell, thanks for joining us here. Your first start at The INTERNATIONAL. You had a chance to play the golf course today. Maybe give us your impression.

DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Pretty much as I pictured it would be, and obviously everyone talks about how far the ball goes and that takes a bit of getting used to. The course is soft and in great condition. I was really impressed with the general layout. Lots of well shaped greens, and elevation changes is obviously always difficult to combat. So a good course and one that ideally suits this format I think.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Talk about your season so far. You're 11th in the world, a win at the BMW Championship and playing well on both tours.

DAVID HOWELL: 10th.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: 11th right now.

DAVID HOWELL: I got the wrong information. Okay.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Play well this week, you'll be back in the Top 10.

DAVID HOWELL: Obviously the season's been great in general looking at it globally. I've had a downtime the last four or five weeks a couple of missed cuts there. The main thing was my swing, and that's been a bit harder to put into place than I thought. But last week with the week off and no pressure, I was able to go back to what I was working on, and I'm feeling really confident again. So delighted with the way things are going in general and looking forward to another good stretch of tournaments over here in America.

Q. How long did it take for you to get over the disappointment of the British Open?

DAVID HOWELL: Oh, not long really. I've had a decade of disappointment in the British Open, so it was more of the same really. Don't get me wrong, it was very disappointing. Obviously I go in with much higher hopes than I used to. So yeah, it was a bit of a letdown the way so many good things have been happening in the last year or so.

But, you know, these things happen. I played with Vijay, No. 3 in the world and he missed the cut so anything can happen. Obviously I followed that with another missed the cut in Germany. It has been a tough stretch for me last month but you know I've had plenty of good times. So try not to get too up when things are going well and too down when things are going badly.

Q. What was the change to your swing?

DAVID HOWELL: It's almost a change to the timing of my setup routine really. I was starting to stand over the ball for very still, two or three seconds, very tense, especially over my right arm, something we've been quite aware for quite a while, myself and my coach. And it cropped up again even at the U.S. Open, even though I played well that week, but my bad shots still seemed to be caused by that flaw. And I just sort of set to the task to try to change it straight after the U.S. Open really and it proved to be very difficult. I feel like I've sort of done it now. As I sit here now, I feel like it's accomplished and it's gone and I can just move on, and basically I'm setting up a bit quicker and that timing issue is something that took a while to settle in.

Q. Who is your coach, Torrance or Cohen?

DAVID HOWELL: My coach is Clyde Tucker.

Q. Oh, sorry. There was some question about your fitness around the time of the Open, what was that?

DAVID HOWELL: Good question. I'm not sure. I've always got question about my fitness to be honest with you, so many little injuries. I can't remember.

Q. But you were not 100% healthy?

DAVID HOWELL: No, I was. I was absolutely fine. I just played badly.

Q. A lot of Ryder Cup talk obviously as it gets closer. Being a rookie, can you talk about the experiences of that first Ryder Cup and now maybe three or four Americans will probably go through in a couple of months?

DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, obviously it's a wonderful experience. The guys, whoever plays for the first time will be really excited and look forward to it. It comes with a lot of pressure and stress, as well.

You want to be going in playing well, and certainly in my experience, you know, I wasn't playing well running up to it and I did find that fairly stressful, even just trying to qualify. And I had a couple of weeks off, and, you know, it was a stressful place to be when you feel you're not on top of your game. Whoever qualifies will want to be playing well.

They are in for the week of a lifetime. And whatever happens, win, lose or draw, it's an experience that any golfer dreams are playing in the Ryder Cup and they are going to have a great time. They will be very lucky to experience it in Ireland for the first time. I can only imagine it's going to be a fantastic event.

Q. Do you find yourself as it gets closer and closer having it pop into your head more and more?

DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, I'm certainly doing that this last month where I haven't played that well. Obviously selfish reasons, you want to play well every week for my own reasons. Ryder Cup coming up, my goal is obviously to try to win the Ryder Cup and hopefully play a bigger role than I did last time. And if I'm playing well, hopefully Ian will allow me to do that.

But again, like last time, you don't want to be going in playing poorly, and certainly on my mind to be on top form. And actually, you know, try to get rid of this tension in my arm, it's sort of part of that, really, and Ryder Cup is just so pressurized, and that was causing me more problems. Not to say that it won't come up and bite me, but in the back of my mind, a week like that, the majors, coming down the stretch, I need to get rid of as much tension from the swing as possible. So hopefully that will work out.

Q. Is Darren still not planning on playing?

DAVID HOWELL: I have no idea to be honest with you. Obviously we know he's taken some time off, but I know as much as you guys.

Q. Have you played The K Club and what do you think of the course if you have?

DAVID HOWELL: Many times. We've had the European Open there for many years now. I haven't played it for three years. They moved to the other course there at The K Club for that tournament. But it's a great venue. The way they have the course now, it gives us water in play on the last six holes I think and really in play on 16, 17 and 18, two of them being par 5s you can reach in two.

So I think it's going to be really exciting golf to watch and pretty nerve wracking golf to play. It's a great venue. It's matured very well over the years, and I think everybody is going to be in for a real treat.

Q. Talking to Padraig Harrington a couple weeks ago, he just said how huge this is going to be for the country of Ireland. Can you kind of put into maybe into perspective of maybe an American looking at it, I mean, how big is this for Ireland and for Irish golf?

DAVID HOWELL: It's a massive thing. I don't know how much investment it brings into a country but, you know, the infrastructure has been changed. They are changing the roads. Lots of things are happening. It's going to improve the environment for the guys that live there after the Ryder Cup leaves town and it's become one of the world's biggest sporting events, I guess. Any town or city that's able to host it is very fortunate and they are obviously excited about it.

Ireland has got a great tradition with golf, obviously, tourist destination as we know and a great history of the Ryder Cup. Hopefully we'll have a few Irish men on the team, as well. It all bodes for a fantastic event. I'm just so excited about the whole prospect to be honest with you.

Q. There's been some talk, Arnold Palmer designed the course that it's almost too Americanized. What are your thoughts about that?

DAVID HOWELL: No, I don't think it's Americanized really. Yeah, if you want to call any course with water in play Americanized, then it is I guess but it doesn't feel like that when you're there. There's beautiful parts on the course and very mature trees, all of the trees they planted in the last decade. They put big trees in to start with anyway and they have matured well. It certainly doesn't feel American.

And besides, if you're heading towards that maybe being an advantage to the American side, then, you know, our team is full of players that play over here anyway. So we all play the same golf courses week in and week out, really.

The one thing that is changing with the Ryder Cup is we all know each other that much better now. Certainly not so much of a case of us and them really. We all know each other and we're best friends and we all know each other well and we play with each other week in and week out. It's nice, it's easy to switch off and be competitive against someone who you consider a friend, and at the end of the day it's back to just being friends. So I think that's good for the Ryder Cup, and that's just what it needs at the moment.

Q. Given Europe's success of late in the Ryder Cup, is it going to be hard to keep the underdog labelled mentality when it's on a home course in Europe, plus because of the success you've had?

DAVID HOWELL: Certainly that might be the case. The U.S. side has still got two of the three best players in the world. Anytime an American team turns up, obviously there's some real challenge there as we know. Looking at it, I'm not sure what the World Rankings are going to tally up if you want to look at it that way, but you're going to have a strong side. And at home as well in Ireland, maybe we might just go in as slight favourites with the bookies, and that's probably when the problems start for us, you know. We've been able to live off the underdog tag for a few years now, and it's certainly probably helped us in a way.

I thought since I played in the last Ryder Cup, you know, as soon as the American side can come to take us on with the same attitude that we have, which is generally an excitement at the prospect of maybe being able to beat the American side, that's the way we've always looked at it. There's an excitement there, and maybe the American side haven't quite ever had that feeling about beating the Europeans. They want to win and they know it's going to be difficult, but maybe not ever been truly excited about the prospects. I might be speaking out of turn, but I don't know, but I think with four or five rookies on the side, I think there definitely will be and the energy will come through from the new guys. Ryder Cups have proved over the years that it's not the players at the top of the rankings that are the pivotal players. It's the guys that are the lesser known teams that are new to the team that generally become the heroes.

Obviously from my point of view, hope it doesn't work out that way for the American side, but I think your team is setting up well from that point of view and there's going to be a lot of positive energy there for them and that's probably what they need.

Q. How much do you draw on staring down Tiger in Shanghai last year, and what do you remember most about that day?

DAVID HOWELL: What do I remember most? Well, obviously it was a huge day for me and gave me a lot of self belief that if I'm on my game, I can look the best world in the eye and play my own game, and that's all you can do. Tiger didn't play his best golf that day. If he played his best golf, anybody is going to struggle to beat him. As we know he's the world's most dominant player. It's nice to know you can handle your emotions well enough to be able to play your own game, and that's all you can do, really.

Any time Tiger plays great, he's going to be tough to beat. But you've got to have it within yourself to play well on the day when you look him in the eye on the first tee and right now I can do that now. It doesn't mean I've got to play great every time I play great against Tiger or Phil or Vijay in a final round but I know I've got it upstairs, if my game is there, that I can handle that situation. So that's nice for me to have in the memory bank, if you like, and certainly I'm sure will stand me in good stead in the future.

Q. Does that almost get lost at home for you in the memory of your performance at the last Ryder Cup? I would imagine in the Ryder Cup is what gets you most free drinks, beating Tiger.

DAVID HOWELL: Doesn't get me any free drinks at the Ryder Cup. I didn't even get any free drinks the night we won the Ryder Cup. Certainly I came out blessed with winning what seemed a vital point with Paul Casey in the Ryder Cup. Actually I didn't play very well in the Ryder Cup last time at the end of the day. I came away very fortunate to be part of a very successful team. I was fortunate on that front.

Q. I think you said that's the only good shot you hit all day.

DAVID HOWELL: Probably about right. Lost track of what the question was.

Q. Whether or not at home you're more remembered for the Tiger inaudible getting lost in the shuffle?

DAVID HOWELL: I would say people were very aware.

Q. What are those emotions when you come to the first tee the final round of an event and you're playing against Tiger? What's bubbling through you?

DAVID HOWELL: That was the first time that I was in that situation. Actually final group, final day with the lead, as well. Excitement, but some apprehension of how the day is going to go. A general sense of I guess what I'm trying to say about the Ryder Cup, with the excitement of trying to be excited about winning and not scared of losing, was generally how I felt that day teeing it up with Tiger. With the opportunity and I knew if things went my way, I would get a lot of praise and pats on the back and really be able to be proud of myself and see this as an opportunity of something great happening.

Obviously that day, it worked out way for me. A mixture of a bit of apprehension but generally excited about this whole situation.

Q. It seems some guys are incapable of coming through even if they are thinking of that, I guess the intimidation factor.

DAVID HOWELL: Plenty of people have beaten Tiger now as the years have rolled on. It has happened. I'm certainly not the only person who has been able to stand up, and beat him and maybe I'm just lucky and he played crap that day.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: On that note, David Howell, thanks.

End of FastScripts.