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NORTHERN TRUST OPENFebruary 12, 2008Charles Howell IIIPACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA STEWART MOORE: We'd like to welcome our defending champion, Charles Howell here to the interview room here at the Northern Trust Open. You've played well here in the past, a win, three top six finishes, what is it about Riviera Country Club that seems to suit your eye? CHARLES HOWELL III: First off, excuse my voice. In a very L.A. way, I'm trying to do my impersonation of Kiefer Sutherland. Q. We thought it was Jack Nicholson. CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, bear with it, it's close. Working on it. (Laughter). We filmed a commercial yesterday, so a lot of yelling and screaming. No, I do like Riviera. It's a special place. Not because I've won here; I said I loved this place even when I lost in a playoff to Mike Weir. It's one of the special golf courses where, No. 1, it wasn't built for a housing development, it wasn't built for golf carts. It was built just for pure golf. That's a rarity these days on TOUR. Secondly, I have family that lives here in L.A. so it's a real comfortable week for me. My wife's uncle lives in Beverly Hills, so I get to feel like a superstar for at least one week. (Laughter). STEWART MOORE: Starting with 2008, let's talk about your season a little bit, I believe this is your fifth event of the year, three Top-25 finishes, so you've been playing consistent. Let's sum up your year so far. CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, I had a nice start to the year. Not quite as hot of a start as I had last year, but my goal for this year is to be much more consistent. I think if you look at my records over the past, I've had a bit of the ups and downs to it. If I am going to be the player that I want to be, I have to play more consistently. You know, you look at the Jim Furyks or Vijay Singhs of the world, their names are always there and up near the top of that leaderboard a big part of my plan and goals in playing this year is to play a lot more consistent. Q. Have you noticed a change in the conditions of the course because of the warm weather? How is it setting up? CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, I'm going to go play this afternoon. But I remember last year it was warm. Like Sunday it got to near 80 degrees or something. You know, big changes. The greens were bouncing out and the fairways were running. You know, for the first couple years here I played Riviera, it was unbelievably soft. So a lot of the hole locations that were meant to be difficult were easy. Not until last year sort of later in the week when the ball started bouncing out did I actually see the golf course firm. I've played here where we had to canoe down the first fairway more times than I have when it's been sunny and warm. So this is a nice change. Q. The players are saying that the fairways are firm, the greens are firm and fast, and that there's not a whole lot of rough. What does that add up to? CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, the no-rough lends to lower scoring, but the firmer greens lend to a little higher scoring. Then it gets down to, you know, how is the wind going to be. The one thing that moves scores more than anything is the wind. You know, you can grow rough up, you can do whatever you want to do. It's the wind that's the biggest factor in my opinion. You know, Riviera has never been known for its rough, I wouldn't say. But it has been known, though, for nasty weather, and this is a change for that. But like I said, when those greens get firm, a hole like No. 10 becomes totally different. That wedge shot in there is not easy when the greens are soft, much less when they are hard. Q. Speaking of courses that were not built for real estate developments and also speaking of weather, obviously Pebble Beach last week. I know there's Spyglass, which that wasn't for real estate either, but consecutive weeks you play really good "golf" golf courses, and you've won here. Throw that all in in playing in last week's tournament, this week's tournament; a lot of guys skipped last week, but these are two great tests of government, aren't they? CHARLES HOWELL III: You could even go back to San Diego; Torrey Pines. You look at the courses are that we have on the West Coast, Torrey Pines, even Waialae in Honolulu is a great golf course, as well; tough. You look at some of these golf courses, it's real golf. It's not a big, huge fairways with big hills and the greens with nine shelves on them. And you see the winners that come out of these places. A guy named Tiger Woods won down there again in San Diego; a struggling rookie, but he's developing. (Laughter). You see winners like that, you see the winners that you've had here at Riviera. I think the better golf courses and the better venues lead to better winners. Q. Also I notice this is what every golf's dream is to have his sleeves in front of his shirt covered with logos from sponsors. This must be big now for you, huh? CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, actually, it's funny you mention that. I just started a relationship with an L.A.-based company in Lexus. What a dream relationship that is for me. Funnily enough, when I turned pro, the first car I bought with my own money was a Lexus, believe it or not. I actually bought it from a dealer in Houston, Texas back when I lived in Oklahoma. You know, I've been real lucky to partner with great companies from Bridgestone and now Lexus, Rolex, the Hartford and I've had companies that I'm proud to be associated with. You know, I've never viewed companies as sponsors. I'd rather them be partners. It's got to be a win/win on both accounts. You know, the golf can reach and touch so many people. It's hard to do a corporate outing with a basketball player. I mean, what am I going to do, go play with Shaq? Or how am I going to do a corporate outing with a football team? Am I going to go throw balls to Randy Moss? So golf has a very unique way of touching people, because everybody in this room can play it and they can play for a long time. Q. Do you ever feel like a race car with all the logos when you look at yourself in the mirror? CHARLES HOWELL III: No, I can't run with a 6.40 40 (40-yard dash). (Laughter) Q. When you look back at last year, is there some frustration that you didn't built on this win for the last part of the year, or was it important for the building blocks with short game and driving? CHARLES HOWELL III: Good question; both. You know, the start I got off to last year, I was really excited going into the Masters, and you know, all of the tournaments that are now spaced out over the summer, which are really important events, majors and THE PLAYERS Championship, whatnot, and I didn't build on it at all. I really squandered away a really good start to the year. But in saying that, I did learn that I needed to improve my driving, No. 1. You know, it's awfully difficult to make birdies driving it in 50 percent of the fairways, and I've spent a lot of time in this latter half of the off-season working on the driving aspect, No. 1. You know, and then my scoring, the short game. That's been the one big change I beginning of last year to the end was I was able to turn a 70 into a 68 or a 72 into a 70. Those little shots each day make such a big difference come Sunday. You know, not to harp on it, but if you go back to the guys that are at the very, very, very top, say Tiger, Phil, whoever, they always find a way with their short game just to sort of manage something out of the round. You're not going to hit it great for four days but they are always able to find a little bit of something, and that's the one area which I am getting better at. Q. What was the ad you were filming yesterday and where, and is that part of coming to this tournament, do you end up doing some stuff like that more so than otherwise? CHARLES HOWELL III: The commercial was for breath stone, it was filmed Agua Dulce Airpark up in the middle of nowhere. We saw three dead bodies up there, too, which I guess it's remote. (Laughter). It was filmed on an airstrip for Bridgestone. It was essentially a golf ball racing a race car. Bridgestone does have a Formula I car, and it was a playoff of the golf ball along with the car. I happened to be a commentator for the race, which led to a lot of yelling and screaming, which I'm not known for, and led to a voice that's a little raspy. Yeah, luckily we are able to do stuff like that. It's part of relationships with companies and it's what you want to do. The better job we can do with our partners, the better job they can do and it's a win/win. Those things are fun to do and they are always enjoyable and hopefully it turns out well. I'm not an actor by any means, though. Q. Is there more of that going on when you come to Riviera to this tournament, considering the location? CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, it does make it easier. The crew that was there yesterday was amazing. I know nothing about the movie business, but it's just all the people involved. You know there's a guy to move a light and there's a guy to help a guy move the light and there's a guy to watch him do it and they are all protected by another guy; and if they don't like the food they can walk away and leave. So those are the little tidbits I learned yesterday. (Laughter) No, because we are here, it does make it easier for sure. Q. Can you talk about this home in Beverly Hills, you say you get to live among the famous people, but do any of the neighbors come over when they know you're there? CHARLES HOWELL III: Right down the road, David Beckham lives there. And I didn't know that was his home, until I saw this line of paparazzi last year, which was around the time that he came here. I had no idea. I mean, we don't do this stuff in Georgia. But there's cars lined up everywhere outside this house, all of these guys with cameras, I figured Tiger Woods lost his ball over there or somebody lived there, and come to find out it was David Beckham. So, yeah, he's a little more important. He gets recognized a little bit more than I do. Q. Have you had a chance to meet him? CHARLES HOWELL III: No, I have not. No, no, because he's at the bottom of the hill and at the top is a girl, Britney Spears, I don't know if you've heard of her and she gets a lot of attention, too. Not the attention I want, either. I don't think my partnership with Lexus would be going on very long if I acted like that. (Laughter). Q. You made a reference to that Woods fella; a week when he doesn't play, do you approach it as kind of an opportunity for everybody else or is there a little disappointment that you don't have that challenge of going after No. 1? CHARLES HOWELL III: It's twofold. We always like Tiger in the field because if you do happen to win the event, you always want to beat him and win an event that he's in. And you know, like it or not, he is the guy that moves the needle the most. He is our biggest star. On the flipside, when he doesn't play -- you know, his winning percentage is pretty high these days, so it does free that up a little bit. He's a good friend of mine and I do give him a good time about never winning at Riviera, and he will be back here for sure. You know, it is fun when he's in tournaments. I think everybody player likes that. It does add a little more buzz to it. These chairs in the media room seem to be a little more filled when he's here. There is a little more attention and the fan interest is a little bigger, and when you see this mass of humanity on the golf course, you always know where he is. There's pluses and minuses to it, but obviously all the more good, though. We all owe the guy, you know, a percentage of what we make just should go to him. Q. You won't volunteer it, though? CHARLES HOWELL III: If he asks for it. He deserves it. Q. You guys are obviously independent contractors, etc., etc., do you guys talk about, hey, Tiger isn't here or do you just ignore the fact -- like on the range, are there discussions about that? CHARLES HOWELL III: I don't think many players talk about it. I think nowadays in the area of the FedExCup and majors, we all pretty much know what his schedule is going to be. Now with the FedExCup, we can all guess what the guy is going to play, apart from one or two events here or there, you know, Riviera, is he going to play Memorial; is he going to play Riviera. You know, there's a couple question marks in there, but I think guys now pretty much know which events he is going to show up at and which ones he isn't. I think he'll be back here. He's too competitive to go through his career without a win at Riviera. I think he would want it on his resume, just his competitiveness would want it on there. Q. He played here as an amateur here as his first pro tournament. CHARLES HOWELL III: Correct. But he couldn't afford the plane ticket, I don't think. I think he got stuck. He just got stuck. (Laughter) Q. I know you're disappointed with the playoff loss to Weir, but bouncing off of that, what does last year do for you, just your psyche and what do you think it will bring you? CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, the beginning of last year, I had a two-shot lead with nine to go in Hawaii and lost to Paul Goydos, and then finished second again in San Diego to Tiger. I really never had a great chance to win there. But you know, after kind of letting the Sony Open go, it was huge for my confidence to win here. You know, the gap between first and second seemed to get bigger and bigger the more times I did finish second. You know, after my first win, I think I finished second nine or ten times before I won again. You know, people always say that you can draw off the past experiences of winning, but when you have nine or ten second-place finishes in between there, it sure doesn't feel like you've won before, so you've got to go through those feelings again, and on top of that, to go into a playoff with Phil Mickelson, and that isn't your easiest guy to go up against, either. And as well as Phil was playing at that time, too, he just won the week before at Pebble. Yeah, it was a lot bigger for my confidence than had Bill got the ball up-and-down on 18 and won the tournament for his own sake. Q. Two-parter about Tiger. You had said last week, as well, you would be disappointed if he didn't play here and he's obviously not. Are you surprised? And the second part of that is you think he'll be back here for sure and we all know how competitive he is, but having missed two in a row now, don't you think it would be hard to actually get this back on his schedule, and has he voiced that to you? CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, I'm always disappointed when he doesn't play tournaments that I play. Just from a player's perspective you always want that chance that you can win a tournament that he's in, No. 1. And no, I think for sure he will be back. He didn't come straight out and say, "Hey, Charles, I'm going to play next year." But, as well as I do know Tiger and as competitive as he is, I would be very, very certain he'll come back here again. Heck, he grew up in southern California. You've got to remember, too, he just went to Dubai and played. He's not going to play there every year. You know, his schedule will change up a little bit to free up the time to come to here. Q. When rookies like Anthony Kim last year, Jason Day this year, come on to the tour, a lot of media type, do you the players, look at guys like that with interest, or do you feel there's so much depth out here, it's just wait and see; there's a lot of golf to be played? CHARLES HOWELL III: You know, I look at it with interest because I like to follow golf. I like to read what you guys write and I like to armchair quarterback what you guys right. No, I always follow that stuff. I knew Anthony from his days at OU. I knew he was a heck of a player. I knew he was cocky and brash. You know, kind of the intangibles that you probably need to play well out here, extremely talented. Jason Day I don't know as well. I know of him but I really don't know him. It's funny, there's always one rookie every year that gets the spotlight. You know, I know because I was lucky enough to have it. And it always comes out; people I think are so desperate for someone to challenge Tiger. I think the fans, the media, you know, people are more intrigued in who is No. 2, as opposed to who is No. 1. They are so desperate for a guy to challenge Tiger Woods, which that adds to the hype of a new rookie every year; who is going to be the guy. I think a lot of times where golf is such an individual sport, if you worry about your own game and focus on your own thing, that will take care itself. Tiger always talks about winning and how winning handles everything. And a guy to challenge Tiger on a consistent basis is going to have to win a lot. Listen, we all know that everybody's goal out here is to beat the guy and challenge him. I just think that a lot of times people talk more about it, as opposed to letting the clubs do it for them. Q. You were just mentioning yourself and you came out with a lot of good reputation; what's it like to be that rookie, and does it put a lot of extra pressure in trying to make it good? CHARLES HOWELL III: I think it's twofold. I think No. 1, it's a compliment because people think you have a chance, they think you can play, they think you've done something to deserve the hype and attention and whatnot. Secondly, if you listen too much to it or you pay too much attention on it and you lose focus on what you're trying to do, it can be a negative and a distraction. You know, I know my rookie year my No. 1 goal was to keep my job the next year. I wanted to learn enough money and earn enough in the Money List and World Ranking just to keep a spot for the following year. You know, it got written that I was going to be the Tiger challenger at age 20. Hell, I wanted a job. Let's make everything -- let's get everything prioritized here. So with the depth of fields and how difficult it is and is becoming, you've got to remember that if you throw Tiger Woods out of the way, Phil Mickelson is the greatest golfer we've ever seen besides Jack Nicklaus. If Phil isn't there, you look at Vijay Singh; look at all the tournaments he's won in his 40s. People today and the media today is so impatient that they want great results from you yesterday. Sergio García, he's a failure. Really? The guy's had a hell of a career, but in a lot of people's eyes, he hasn't won a major, so he needs to hang it up and quit -- Q. But he hasn't won the major, and you haven't reached quite where he is, but he came over and that's the next step for him. CHARLES HOWELL III: Sure, but in a lot of lights he's portrayed as a failure or he's portrayed as not reaching where people expect him to be, and if you pay attention to that, it can be detrimental. You have to have enough self-confidence and wherewithal to No. 1, trust what you're doing, trust the people around you and really get stuck in what you're doing. You know, Tiger has skewed the bar to an extent where a lot of the times the young players are judged on a little different scale, as opposed to being patient, knowing that the peak of many careers, guys are in their mid to late 30s. STEWART MOORE: Charles, thanks so much for coming in this week. Good luck this week. CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, that ended abruptly. (Laughter). End of FastScripts |
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