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3 IRISH OPEN

July 29, 2010

David Howell

KILLARNEY, IRELAND

STEVE TODD: Well, David, nice to have you in here with us. I'm sure it's a nice feeling to be in here with us as well. 7-under par, 64, your best round of the year so far. Must be very satisfying.
DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, well, funny enough, I just haven't got off to a good start all year. Obviously I've not been playing well, or as well as I know I can, but my form has not been that bad. But it's pretty hard to make cuts out here when you shoot 73 in the first round, puts added pressure, and I've been dying to get off to a nice start. That finally happened today.
STEVE TODD: The signs have been there the last few weeks, that you're coming into form; nice to actually get the score on the board, as well.
DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, very much so. I've been working hard and persevering. Been back with my coach for six months now, Clive Tucker, my old coach, and we are working really hard on some technique things. I've certainly been hitting the ball a lot better in the last two or three months. It has not been paying off necessarily with great results but when I've been missing cuts, I probably should have been making them. So I knew myself my form has not been terrible. But obviously you need scores on the board to prove otherwise.
And so no surprise to me that I had a good round in there, but obviously a pleasant one that it was low as a 64.
STEVE TODD: No mistakes out there and the putting was on form today.
DAVID HOWELL: No dropped shots. That was nice. Haven't done that for a long time but I holed a few bombs today. I chipped in and I think I holed three long ones, as well. As it happens, I had a few more chances that I missed but I certainly holed more than my fair share, which in fairness you normally do when you shoot 64.

Q. How do you stay patient when things are not going so well. Have you had some frustrating moments?
DAVID HOWELL: I wouldn't say I have stayed that patient really to be honest with you. My patience ran out a good while ago. Certainly last year was just very, very hard work. The worst year I can remember. I had no direction last year, as well, but the choices I've made this year and going back to Clive Tucker and I have a lot of faith in what he was telling me. So at least I had a path to head down, and it's easier to be patient when you feel you're heading in a certain direction. And I certainly didn't have that last year. That's helped.
Obviously we know I've played a lot better and I've played some really good golf over the years, but it's not been that bad this year. Last year it was atrocious. So it's been a bit easier to take this year, and slowly but surely, I felt like things are starting to come around.

Q. Is has to be a bit more than coaching, you're the one that hits the shots. Anything fundamental that you've changed with Clive?
DAVID HOWELL: Well, absolutely. I could bore you with some technical points, but I wouldn't imagine you would want me to do.

Q. Maybe one big point.
DAVID HOWELL: I've just been trying to swing the club better to be honest with you, get it or on plane in the backswing so that it comes down in a better line, stay more connected through the shot. It's been hard work. I've been swinging it really well on the range. With what we are trying to do -- I can do on the range. That started about six weeks ago, I was swinging the club well but with an awful lot of thought and I've been working really, really hard to try and swing the club well with less and less thought and the next stage is just to go out and play with it.
I'm not quite there yet but certainly getting down the line -- further down the line than I was six, seven weeks ago. I've got a new caddie, as well, John Mulrooney. We got off to a nice start together, it was a partnership last week and so that was good. That almost felt like a fresh start, as well.
Yeah, everything is in good place at the moment.

Q. Have there been spells where you wanted to get away from it totally, and indeed, have you done?
DAVID HOWELL: I've never wanted to give up. But it's crossed my mind that if I carry on playing as I did last year, I wouldn't have a career to be worried about, anyway. And just going to work and doing your job terribly every day, even if you have the best job in the world is not a lot of fun.
So I never thought of giving up, but I'm a hard worker and I still have a lot of passion for the game. Try as I might to take three weeks off to get away from it at times, I never do. A week later I'm dying to get on the range again.
The TV work has been a nice aside to be honest with you. As hard as it is not playing in the majors, once I got my head around the fact that I dropped off that level, for the time being, you know, the next best thing is so to sit there and talk on the TV. That's a nice thing to be able to do, and that's kind of been my way of getting away from my own golf to be honest with you.

Q. And the comedy circuit?
DAVID HOWELL: Not yet. I think my golf's been a bit of comedy for the last couple of years. But no, we'll leave that to the pros, that's for sure.

Q. When did you last shoot a round like that; do you remember?
DAVID HOWELL: No, I can't remember. Funny enough before I hit my putt on the last, I was talking up, 7-under, and standing quite nice, and then I realised it was a par 71, so that was going to be 64, and I had a putt for 63.
And I think it was the TCL classic in China, I think I started 63, 64 or vice versa back in 2005 or 2006 would be probably the last time I shot 64 I would think. Or perhaps it might have been last round in Portugal 2007 to get into a playoff. It been a while. I haven't even shot that at home with my mates to be fair.

Q. What have guys like Darren Clarke or Rory McIlroy been saying to you, he himself isn't the most patient man in the world?
DAVID HOWELL: I think patience isn't necessarily the word. You just have to take it on the chin, don't you. I don't think -- Rory doesn't have any words, we are playing different levels of golf at the moment, so I'm not going to go to Rory for any words of wisdom to be fair. Clarkey is a member at my club, and we have both been having a tough time. Nice to see him turn things around at JP's event and Loch Lomond.
I played nicely at JP's event. That was a nice couple of days for me to sort of free-wheel it a bit with my new technique, and I also took it very seriously and it wasn't a Tour event. I had a good chance to win and Darren did in the end. That was a nice confidence boost for me to be honest just as it was for Darren. It was a two-day charity Pro-Am, but we are all trying to do our best and Darren's carried it on to Loch Lomond, and didn't do me any harm having that come along when it did.

Q. I know you've had injuries since 2006; is that the real reason why you went from being Top-10 player from around that time to not being anything like a Top-10 player?
DAVID HOWELL: Well, 2007, I could put down to injuries. I had a very bad injury start of the year. I had some fairly well-documented personal issues with, you know, split up with my then girlfriend -- I wasn't a happy person to be honest with you for most of 2007 and added to playing rubbish, it was a pretty lonely, miserable time.
So finally got around to sorting my personal life out in the last couple of years which has been nice. I can't blame injuries for anything last year. I had a good year health-wise. I just played like an idiot last year. I have absolutely no excuses. I wouldn't say my head was necessarily quite as clear as it needed to be at the start of last year but certainly this year I'm in a good place and happy point in my life and I'm healthy and happy and just want to shoot some low scores.

Q. Can you compare the pressure of playing in a Ryder Cup to the pressure of fighting yourself out of a slump?
DAVID HOWELL: Very different, very different feelings really. Obviously you're at the top of your game if you've qualified for The Ryder Cup; the pressures are there. But it's a very different feeling to try and make cuts and -- golf is very difficult when you're a pro and you don't know where the ball is going. It's a very stressful thing to do. And people find that hard to believe that we're like that, but an awful lot of the time we are if you've lost your form. It's pretty nerve-racking with water left and this and that and the other, and if you don't know where the ball is going to go, it's a stressful way to earn a living, and it's been that way for the better part of three years. That's why I'm losing my hair really.

Q. Has there been one shot where you thought, that's how I used to play?
DAVID HOWELL: No, actually I think I swing the club much better now than I did three or four years ago. Every department -- my putting has not been as excellent. Today was fantastic. But in general, I haven't been holing as many putts this year. That's for sure. But I feel pretty good with every part of my game.
Again, I guess at JP's event, I had a chance to win with four holes to go and I hit two or three shots, first, second, third and fourth, shotgun start, and I hit three really nice shots coming down the stretch and one poor one and started to trust what I was doing. Yeah, it's changed since then again but starting to believe in myself and what I was doing a little bit there.
STEVE TODD: Best of luck, David. Thanks a lot.

End of FastScripts

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