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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 5, 2007

David Howell

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA

LARRY PUGH: My pleasure to introduce David Howell who shot 2-under par today, terrific round, congratulations. Do you have any comments you would like to make regarding your round?
DAVID HOWELL: Well, obviously delighted with it. I didn't come into today with an awful lot of confidence from my play before this week. A little nervy on the first tee wondering how the day was going to go. And you know, I basically went out there to try to manage my game as well as I can and not to make any major errors and blow myself out of the tournament. As the round progressed, obviously things stayed on track and delighted to shoot 2-under.
LARRY PUGH: Good for you. Questions?

Q. As you were looking at the scores earlier, obviously it's a tough day out there. Did that help you kind of get a different mind-set going out there?
DAVID HOWELL: Yes, certainly. For instance, on the 4th, I made a stupid double-bogey, it's a tough par 3, a stupid 3-putt and a bad error off the tee as well. 2-over par after four, but with the scoring, you know it's tough, but you finish the day 2-over, it would be a reasonable round of golf. It always gives you that bit of leeway to mentally stay in the right place knowing that it's going to be a long week, a tough week. It's not like a normal tournament where you are looking to get to 20-under par and being 2-over is a bit of a disaster.
As long as you hang in there, make one birdie, finish 1-over, you're in good shape. It certainly helps mentally on that front I think.

Q. Can you take us through the eagle on 15?
DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, pleasure. I hit a good drive. I was a bit steery off the tee all day really, and I sort of let one go there and I managed to get myself in range with an iron. I think I had about 215 front, 217 maybe. I just went in a 3-iron, which my caddie thought was barely enough, and he was correct; it landed one foot short of the green and it looked like it nearly went in.
Delighted to roll the putt in for eagle there and looking forward to a little bit of crystal coming my way which generally happens here, which is always very nice.

Q. Justin Rose was just in here talking about what a better player he is now since he was in contention three years ago; how about yourself, you were in the mix two years ago, wasn't it?
DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, two years ago certainly. I played reasonably well last year but never quite in the frame.
Well, I haven't played as well in the last year as I have the previous years. Whether I'm a better player or not, I wouldn't particularly say that, but gaining experience all the time. Up-and-downs of golf we know come along, and you've got to ride out the storm when things are not going to well. I think I've got a lot of real improvement and I'm convinced I will improve. That's the plan anyway.

Q. But just being on the top of the leaderboard, that experience as well?
DAVID HOWELL: Absolutely. I'm going to be teeing off in a major one shot off the lead in the morning. That's something you can't buy; you can only earn that, put yourself in those situations. Lucky enough here at the Masters more than any other major, I seem to be gaining that experience, which is great.
So long may it continue and we can hopefully gain some experience from being in the hunt on Sunday. That's obviously the plan.

Q. Players have been talking about it for several years now, would like to see this course with dry and firm and fast and no rain during the week, and it appears we have that. Are you glad it's here, do you miss the rain, or does it matter to you?
DAVID HOWELL: I don't think anyone misses -- I don't think anyone really wants it to rain, do they?
That being said, we wish for dry, firm, fast conditions, and the scoring average is about 76. So, you know, be careful what you wish for is the answer there I guess.
We all know this course is going to play really tough when it's dry and firm and fast. You know, it's a major championship; it's arguably the best course in the world. It's that beautiful mix between the most beautiful place in the world to play golf and also the most difficult.
So I think that's the great contradiction with Augusta and that's why everybody loves it so much.

Q. Paddy Harrington said the other day with regards to the eight-year European drought at majors that he feels that collectively you guys just need one guy to win one, and all of a sudden everyone can exhale and majors will be handed out to everybody. Would you agree with that and, if so, why?
DAVID HOWELL: I don't think it's quite that easy. There's a reason we haven't won one. It's very difficult to do.
I don't necessarily agree that suddenly everyone is going to win if Paddy wins or I win. But we play against each other all the time. Like I grew up almost playing amateur golf against Padraig and I know I can beat him on my day, and should he win, yeah, it's going to give that little edge to think that "if he can do it, I can." But many Europeans that you fancy your chances against have won majors in the past and we're still finding it difficult.
You know, the world's great players, there's certainly one great player in the world that's head and shoulders above the rest, and the other top guys, we all know who they are. They are very tough players and tough to beat on tough golf courses. Let's hope that's the case, and if someone breaks through, this is as good a week to do it.

Q. Justin said three years ago his biggest problem was his thinking time he has away from the course, and you had the addition of playing with Tiger. Was that a bigger factor in what happened?
DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, I mean, it was pretty -- pretty difficult circumstances the first time in a major playing with Tiger after about a three-hour rain delay. Not the easiest of situations to cope with, and disappointed with the way I handled that situation.
But, you know, it's all experience that I've got to take on with me now and hopefully I can use that this week.

Q. If we could discuss the birdie on 10.
DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, I hit a nice 3-wood down there. That was playing quite short today with the firm conditions and 9-iron nicely below the hole. It wasn't quite where I was trying to hit it, but always just trying to go just past the flag, came up a little short than I thought it might to about ten feet. I just managed to roll the putt in.

Q. Have you managed to furnish the house yet?
DAVID HOWELL: I believe. Via text message, it's being done as we speak.

Q. Do you have a new house? For the Americans over here.
DAVID HOWELL: Well, it's not brand new, but I've been a little slow on furnishing it. It was a little bit sparse the last time he came around for a cup of tea.

Q. What did he have in it?
DAVID HOWELL: (Laughing.)
Q. There were four bananas.
DAVID HOWELL: There were only three after you left, but I won't mention it. (Laughter.)

Q. What did your caddie say when he said he did not want you to hit 3-iron?
DAVID HOWELL: Well, you'd have to ask him. But he said I sounded strangely confident for some reason, so he just let me go with it (laughter).

Q. Did you have any good saves out there?
DAVID HOWELL: 9. I hit a poor drive out to the right, just squirted one under the trees and had a tricky chip to about four or five feet above the hole, which is not where you want to be on 8. That was a typical Augusta knee-knocker of a putt, but I managed to roll that one in.
I hit a very poor pitch to 13, which I missed long and left from 80 yards, cardinal sin there, but managed to 2-putt from down in the valley there. That would have been a real momentum-stopper had I bogeyed that hole after playing strategically very safe, and leaving myself in trouble was not very clever.

Q. Can't speak for the ten hours of the day, but the little time I was out there, it seemed more quiet than usual.
DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, strangely, I was chatting with Nick my caddie, first time he's been here, and we were discussing how muted the atmosphere was but very pleasant. I think for some reason more than any other golf tournament in the world, you know, the Masters sort of seems to bring that out of the crowd. Everyone's happy to be here. They are just -- I guess a lot of the crowd come here year after year. They know a good shot from a bad shot, very knowledgeable crowd. And with the scoring the way it was, I guess maybe there were not all that many good shots to be cheering for.
Put that all together, as you mentioned, it was sort of strangely quiet but a very pleasant atmosphere to play in I would say.

Q. Can you go over your birdies on 7 and 8?
DAVID HOWELL: I can indeed. I hit a 3-wood on 7 and a 7-iron to about three feet.
And 8, again I played very conservatively. I hit a 3-wood to leave myself short of the fairway bunker, another 3-wood up and I wedged to two feet from 111 yards.

Q. Have you accepted start of the year as just the ebb and flow of golf, or is it getting to you a little bit more?
DAVID HOWELL: Well, I'm hoping it's the ebb and flow of golf and it's not going to continue.
You know, I have struggled which is obviously not what we want coming into, the first major is upon us already and I have not put one good performance in. The longer that continues, the more frustrating it's going to get, but hopefully I can turn that around this week.
LARRY PUGH: Thank you, David, and good luck the rest of the week.

End of FastScripts

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