On the eve of the last major championship in men’s professional golf, last summer’s PGA Championship, caddie Jimmie Johnson stood on a putting green, talking about perception, particularly as it applied to his boss, Charles Howell III.
Armed with all kinds of numerical evidence like top-10 finishes and money-list rankings that favored his man versus peers like Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald, Johnson asked why it was that other players were considered stars or up-and-comers, while Howell was dismissed as an underachiever.
The answer, of course, came down to a single digit – one. As in, finishing at the top of the heap in tournament play. At age 29, Donald had won twice on the PGA Tour, including earlier that season; Garcia, 26, had won six times. Meanwhile, the 27-year-old Howell, who early in his career seemed destined to join the mix in the discussion about rivals for world No. 1 Tiger Woods, had been unable to back his 2002 triumph in the Michelob Championship with another win, playing 127 events without lifting an oversized cardboard check.
Today, however, in anticipation of the first major of 2007, the golf world is once again making observations about Howell, only now the question is: Can he overtake Woods, defending champion Phil Mickelson and the other 94 players in the field and win the Masters in his hometown of Augusta, Ga.?
“Well, first off, it’s just nice to be in the darn thing again,” Howell said recently. “At the start of the year, I was 86th in the world rankings so I wasn’t qualified to play in World Golf Championship events or even one major – I didn’t have anything.”
That changed quickly. After spending the offseason concentrating on his short game, Howell began 2007 with a second-place finish at the Sony Open, the first full-field event of the year. Even when he added another runner-up finish, coming in two shots behind Woods at the Buick Invitational – the ninth time he’d finished second since his lone win – the idea of Howell breaking through seemed more a matter of when than if.
Indeed, two weeks later, Howell rallied in the final round, defeating Mickelson in a playoff at the Nissan Open. With two other top-10 finishes since then, it would be fair to say the perception of Howell has changed.
“It’s always been a funny thing,” he said. “Expectations are good in some ways, because they mean people think you can play, that you have a chance to play well and have a chance to win tournaments. But I did everything but win, so I can understand where (criticism) came from. It seemed like I had a lot of chances after 2002 to win again. I lost a playoff to Mike Weir, I had a ball hit the flagstick and spin back into the water (at the 2005 Buick), I’ve had leads with nine holes to play and didn’t win. I lost about every way I could.”
The magic formula
With the exception of Woods and Mickelson, the difference in talent and skill – and thus winning and losing – among tour players is minuscule. More often than not, gaining even one shot per round can mean the difference between making a cut versus going home, but also finishing first or second.
The challenge comes in learning how to control a golf tournament, a seemingly impossible proposition when looking at a sport in which the play of one individual ostensibly has no control over what another man does. But once players learn how to win, be it through the ability to maintain a lead coming down the stretch by not making careless errors, or playing well enough to be in position to take advantage of a competitor’s mistakes, something seems to click.
Cherry Hills Village resident David Duval is a prime example. While going winless in his first 90-plus PGA Tour events, the talk was always that once he won a tournament, Duval would begin winning them in bunches. In the 1997 International, Duval missed the cut, one of four over the next five weeks.
After that spotty stretch, he finished in a tie for ninth at the Buick Challenge. He then won three straight events to finish the season, then won two of his first 10 events the following year.
But golfers can’t simply wish it so and make winning happen.
“It can be very frustrating,” said Arron Oberholser, who has one victory in 100 starts. “It can be very humbling, very humbling. But then, when you start making the small steps that will get you over the hump, it can be very rewarding.”
Oberholser said it’s the failures that often lead to later success.
Home cooking
If there’s anyone who should be comfortable at Augusta, it’s Howell, who grew up in the shadow of the course. But his best finish there in six appearances is a tie for 13th; the past two years he’s missed the cut, shooting 80-84 in 2006.
Now, given his start to this season, the pressure is on for a much better result – pressure that Howell readily admits is all around him.
“Sometimes you get motivated by fear – and I really didn’t want to be watching that tournament from home,” he said. “One of the benefits of growing up in Augusta watching all those Masters is that you get to learn the course pretty well – but one of the negatives is that you learn about all the disasters. Sure there’s pressure, but it’s up to me to deal with it a little better than I have in the past.”
Facts
What: The 71st Masters Tournament.
When: Thursday-Sunday, April 8
Where: Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Ga.
Course: 7,445 yards, par 36-36-72.
Purse: To be determined ($7 million in 2006).
Field: 97 players (five amateurs).
Defending champion: Phil Mickelson.
Streaking: Gary Player will compete in his 50th straight Masters, tying the record held by Arnold Palmer.
Key statistic: Woods and Mickelson have combined to win five of the past six Masters.
Noteworthy: The field includes a record 50 international players, the first time they have outnumbered Americans.
Quoteworthy: “It’s my favorite tournament to get to, and my favorite tournament to leave.” – Mark Calcavecchia.
Television: Thursday and Friday, 2-5 p.m., USA Network; Saturday, 1:30-5 p.m., CBS; Sunday, April 8, 12:30-5 p.m., CBS.
Internet : One hour of coverage on www.masters.org before the telecast starts each day.
Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
