WGC AMERICAN EXPRESS CHAMPIONSHIP

September 28, 2006

David Howell

SCOTT CROCKETT: All right, everyone, David, thanks as always for coming in to join us. An excellent start to your event here, 5 under par 66. Give us your thoughts on today. Must have been the thought you were looking for.

DAVID HOWELL: Very much so. Delighted, really. Thursday seemed to come around very quickly after the shenanigans of Sunday and more importantly Sunday night, so I didn't feel overly prepared.

But the atmosphere was great on the first tee and there were plenty of people there for us to tee off and got straight back into the swing of things really, and very pleased with the way I played in Germany.

SCOTT CROCKETT: Just the one mistake, and other than that it looked pretty solid with the figures.

DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, that was really nice run around the turn there. I missed a couple chances very early on, to be honest with you.

Yeah, to play as well as that in the first round of a big tournament is always pleasing. If I can just drive the ball slightly better than I did today, then I'll be looking forward to a good week.

SCOTT CROCKETT: Give us your details before we take questions. You birdied 15.

DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, that was a sand wedge from about 80 yards to a foot, just tapped it in.

SCOTT CROCKETT: 17, par 4.

DAVID HOWELL: 8 iron to four feet.

18, 8 iron to 12 feet.

1 was a pitch to about 15 feet.

2, par 5, 8 iron to five feet.

SCOTT CROCKETT: And your only bogey at 6.

DAVID HOWELL: Just missed the fairway, just sort of hacked it short of the green and ended up missing a five foot putt for par.

Then hit a nice 4 to four feet on the 8th.

Q. I'm sure you were pleased as punch with that one (laughter). When it came around to the Ryder Cup singles in a fairly quiet stance, you just exploded with a bunch of birdies.

DAVID HOWELL: I guess that's the way you want to start, lots of solid shots onto the green, birdie chances that I wasn't able to take advantage of. After a few holes you just wonder whether the rest are going to start to drop, and sure enough, they did around the turn. I hit a lot of nice shots from 150 yards and in. I gave myself some really good birdie chances there.

So yeah, it was the course was there for the taking today, very little breeze and nice temperature to play in and the greens are absolutely perfect.

Q. Does it feel like a big tournament after what went on last week?

DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, it does. Obviously the emotions aren't quite the seem as standing on the first tee at the Ryder Cup, so from that aspect, you know it's not as big a deal, but it's a different deal. This is what we do week in and week out. And it's a huge event and it's great to have such a big event in England, obviously the first time the world championships have come here, and an English winner sounds good to me (smiling).

Q. Looking up the leaderboard, there's Tiger Woods up there around you. Looking down the leaderboard, Paul Casey is a long way below you at the moment. Which of those two will be utmost in your mind?

DAVID HOWELL: I'd like to win the Order of Merit certainly, so I know me and Paul are going to be battling out amongst others. Robert is playing well I see again this week.

At the end of the week I'll be interested to see where I am and where Paul is, but we'll take it one day at a time. I'm going to have to play some fantastic golf in the last three tournaments to overtake Mr. Casey. That's the deal for me.

Q. You've played some fantastic golf over the next three rounds to beat Mr. Woods the way he's going.

DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, Tiger is a legend, isn't he? He looked like he was struggling with his game last week and still came away with three points.

Obviously with those greens out there, if you can keep it somewhere near the fairway, Tiger is going to give himself lots of opportunities, and we know what a great putter he is, so he's back to being the man to beat.

Q. I just happened to flash on ShotLink over there. Did you go a different way on the third?

DAVID HOWELL: I got a little bit confused as to which fairway I was playing for there, Mark, yes. Your point, sir (laughter)?

Q. I just wondered if it was a new way to play the hole?

DAVID HOWELL: It wasn't the worst way. If you're going to miss it, miss it very wide. It was a bit of a shock, that one, actually. I haven't hit a drive as badly left as that for a long time. I hit many good ones. I have forgotten about it, thank you.

Q. I'm just wondering, do you think this course is a stern enough test for golfers of these calibres in a competition of this prestige?

DAVID HOWELL: Yes.

Q. Why? The scores seem to not indicate that.

DAVID HOWELL: Well, there's no wind out there today, very little maybe, maybe a club wind. The rough is very thick. I think you'll see the scoring will get quite spread by the end of the week. The guys that keep it in the fairways and the greens are going to shoot low, and the guys that aren't playing quite so well are going to struggle. It's a new venue obviously. I think it's a good course and it's as well presented a course as I've seen for a long time.

Q. You made us laugh on Sunday when you said that you had hardly thought about it, about the Order of Merit race during the Ryder Cup week. When did you start getting down to thinking about it again?

DAVID HOWELL: I'm aware of the situation out on the course obviously. Every round I play at this time of year is huge from that point of view. You know, it's at the forefront of my mind to try and play well and give myself a chance.

It's going to be difficult. Paul is obviously playing fantastic golf in general at the moment, and

Q. Is it different this year because there are these very big money events, and normally by this time, somebody would be way ahead, wouldn't they?

DAVID HOWELL: Well, possibly, but yeah, whoever wins this week or next week or the Volvo Masters, that's a huge chunk of points on the board, yeah. Not necessarily just myself or Paul; I mean, there's Robert up there, and I haven't looked exactly how far everybody is behind.

But hopefully we can go to the last event and I suppose I guess everybody that's up there would just love to go to the Volvo Masters in the lead, and Paul is in that position at the moment and he deserves to be. He's played some fantastic golf this year, and he's going to be a tough man to beat.

Q. You say "the shenanigans on Sunday." Can you just take us through? You say you weren't fully keyed on when you arrived here; how your week has been from Sunday?

DAVID HOWELL: I got home Monday and pretty much went straight to my osteopath in London to try and sort my neck out. How shall I put it; my body was very tired after Sunday night, I should say. I wasn't in the best of shape on Monday.

And Tuesday I just had a very easy day, went to the gym and eventually came here in the afternoon and played a very enjoyable practise round with Sergio, Poults and Luke yesterday. Thursday seemed to come around very quickly this week, but probably not a bad thing. Kept me off the range, which is probably what I need today do.

Q. You mentioned "shenanigans." What time and in what condition did you call it a day?

DAVID HOWELL: I was in bed I was early, half 1:00 I was in bed. It had been a decent party for a few hours by then. We were all knackered. It wasn't as long a night as two years ago for some of the guys, but it was an awful lot of fun. Well, a day, a week and a night I'll always remember.

Q. Did you have to pay for your drinks this time?

DAVID HOWELL: They were all free this time, yeah. That was nice not to have to worry about that. Although I did end up in the tented village and had to beg for a pint of Guinness.

Q. Again?

DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, but it was very forthcoming.

Q. You're going to get a reputation in this room.

DAVID HOWELL: Yeah (laughing).

SCOTT CROCKETT: David, thanks very much.

End of FastScripts.