Below is a Question and Answer session with England’s David Howell, the current Number One on The European Tour Order of Merit. The interview features in the July edition of Golf Monthly.
Q. You played through the BMW Championship despite an injury (was it rib or spine?) – was it a case of beware the inured golfer?
A. I have had a problem with my lower spine which is not so much an injury as a build up of stress caused by bad bio-mechanics.
Q. You played superbly from tee to green at Wentworth – is there anything special you’ve been working on with your coach Clive Tucker?
A. I haven't really been working on much new apart from fundamentals and ensuring my balance is correct under my feet. I'm also trying to create slightly more time at the top of the backswing which actually helps me complete it.
Q. Have you been recognised in the street any more than usual since winning the BMW?
A. I can't say that my BMW win has meant more recognition on the street because I haven't been on one since Wentworth, but US fans are slowly but surely becoming aware that I'm David Howell not Charles Howell.
Q. You’ve been a great supporter of The European Tour’s more far-flung events - what the most interesting place you’ve visited this season?
A. The most interesting place I've been to has been China's Sanya Island. It's the country's southernmost province and what a very pleasant and relaxing place with a wonderful beach.
Q. Your first win on the Tour was in 1999 then you didn’t win again until 2005 and now it seems you can’t stop! What, if anything, do you feel was holding you back in those years?
A. I hope you're right that I can't stop winning, but this game is very fickle. What held me back? Well, I've always been able to play the game, but didn't swing well enough to win. I had chances in the five year period between wins, but wasn't able to control the ball well enough under the gun to get me across the finishing line. Now I have more control.
Q. You lost back-to-back play-offs last season – what did you learn from those disappointments?
A. The two play-off defeats last season didn't really teach me much, because I believe you learn more from success than failure... and the both felt like failures, particularly the British Masters. Driving home from the Forest of Arden was the lowest point of last year after the way I'd played the sudden-death. The only positive out of two negatives was that I played well enough to get into the play-offs.
Q. Are you tempted to play more in America as a result of new higher ranking?
A. I am a US PGA Tour player this year playing 15 events which is an increase on last year. For the foreseeable future and if my form continues I see myself as a worldwide player playing a significant number of events around the globe.
Q. Having booked your place in The Ryder Cup Team so early in the season, will that affect the way you approach any events between now and September?
A. It's great that the pressure of qualification for The Ryder Cup has been taken away. Now I'm in the ideal situation of being able to play each event on its own merits rather than having other reasons.
Q. You seem such a calm, easygoing unflappable chap – is there anything either on or off the course that makes you really angry?
A. There isn't a great deal that angers me. In golf, I get frustrated when I don't perform as well as I would like, but nothing else really gets to me. Off the course, I hate litterbugs.
