David Howell
It was in the immediate aftermath of David Howell’s victory at the WGC – HSBC Champions at the end of 2005, where he took down the Tiger in the final round, that Woods uttered that famous line: “He’s a real cool dude.”
Howell, at that point in his life, was living the pro golf dream. Having played in Bernhard Langer’s record-breaking Ryder Cup Team that humbled the USA 18 ½ - 9 ½ in their own back yard in 2004, the Englishman embarked on a golden period of form that saw him go head-to-head with Woods in Shanghai before he lifted The European Tour’s greatest prize in May 2006 – the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club.
Four months later Howell’s dream got better still as he helped Europe to equal that Ryder Cup record at K Club, capping a period of success that had seen the affable Englishman rampage his way to Number Nine on the Official World Golf Ranking.
But just as Howell was cementing his place among the world’s elite, he took his eye off the ball – something that you simply cannot do at the highest level of one of life’s toughest sports.
In the blink of an eye he went from a career-high third place on the 2006 Order of Merit to 147th in 2007. His 45th place finish 12 months later showed signs of recovery, but in 2009 he fell off the radar, placing in a career-low 156th in The Race to Dubai.
As his form slump continued into 2010, Howell fell to 569th position in the World Ranking last October – an astounding drop of 560 places in the space of four years.
One thing that has remained constant throughout Howell’s rollercoaster career over the past seven years is that he remains a cool dude. One of the Tour’s most engaging and popular characters, he is creeping his way back to the kind of form that made him a world beater.
He is not there yet, but recent results (most notably a fifth place finish at the recent Commercialbank Qatar Masters presented by Dolphin Energy), and, perhaps more importantly, ball-striking displays, have inspired a spark of confidence that have had a visible effect on the 35 year old.
Howell is once again lurking with intent on the golf course, as opposed to wandering without purpose.
“I have had a couple of top tens in the last five months which isn’t an amazing return but there is lots of optimism and reasons to feel that I should be a bit more confident,” said Howell at the Avantha Masters. “Qatar really was the result I needed to cement the return of a good bit of self belief so I am really looking forward to the weeks and months ahead.
“What has inspired the change? I have just got my head down really, thought a bit less and trusted myself a bit more. I’m having less swing thoughts and I’m basically trying to uncomplicate the game as much as I can. When you manage to do that successfully you find that, bit by bit, your natural instincts return.
“That is obviously a lot more difficult to do than it is to say but it is coming back more and more and, as a result I am playing the kind of golf that I used to. Am I playing the kind of golf that I was when I was in my ‘prime’? Obviously not, but I am not a million miles away from that.”
There are hundreds of examples of golfing comebacks for Howell to reference as he continues his renaissance on the fairways, the most obvious of which is that of the current World Number One, Lee Westwood.
Westwood’s comeback, from outside the top 250 to World Number one is the stuff of Hollywood movies, but as Howell explained, you can’t walk someone else’s path on the road to recovery – especially not in a sport as maddening as golf.
“I haven’t really spoken to Lee about how he recovered and all of that. Everyone is different in that respect so I don’t think that you could just apply the same steps and hope for the same result. The most interesting thing about that is that Lee’s slump came 12 or 13 years into his career and mine happened at the same time in my career.
“I have thought about it that respect. I was starting to play really well at the time Lee was starting to struggle, but it goes to show that you can come back better than you ever where providing you get your mind back into the right place and work harder than you ever have done.
“It is very easy when you have a long period of poor form to get that little bit lazy, that little bit downbeat without trying to and before you know it you are not doing what you used to do because it is such a soul-destroying thing to go through. You have to get to a point when you can give it your full attention again which is hard to do when the results are still pretty poor.”
So what has changed recently? Was there a ‘Eureka’ moment, a low point?
“The point where my upturn started, so I suppose you can call this the lowest moment because it couldn’t get lower, was in Holland last year. I made the cut but then played rubbish over the weekend, and I mean awful.
“I was coming down the last fairway on the last day and I actually turned a shot down. I was looking at my approach to the green and the golfer in me was telling me that it was a drawn six iron to the green. It was never any other shot but my mind got in the way and I didn’t believe that I could hit a drawn six iron so I quickly thought ‘nah, I’ll just hit a five iron’.
“Afterwards I realised how ridiculous that scenario was. I could have played that shot when I was nine years old and here I was standing in the middle of the fairway at a European Tour event aged 35 and not attempting it. I knew there was something seriously wrong if I wasn’t happy to hit a drawn six iron.
“That was the moment where I thought ‘ok, let’s get back to basics and see where I go from there’. That has led me to this point of reasonably consistent form. There are some missed cuts in there – there always will be – but the most important thing is that I am optimistic again and the confidence is back.
“I just reminded myself that I am actually pretty good at this game and used to be able to compete with the best. Fingers crossed things will continue over the coming weeks and months and who knows – you might just see me back up there one day.
“Will I get back to the heights of World Number Nine again? Who knows. Will I keep improving from where I am? Definitely. As we all know these things can snowball and you can move up pretty quickly. My goal for the next year-to-18 months is to get back in the top 50 in the world. If I can get there then the doors can open pretty quickly and I might just be able to give these new boys a game.”
