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By John RegerPA SportsTicker Contributing Writer
PACIFIC PALISADES, California (Ticker) - The golf swing ofCharles Howell III is right out of a teacher's manual. Fluid,flawless, powerful, it is a swing that the 28-year-old has spenta lifetime perfecting.
The swing helped him win two PGA Tour titles, including lastyear's Northern Trust Open, but Howell wants to be known formore than just a pretty swing.
Back to defend the title at the $6.2 million event startingThursday at Riviera Country Club, Howell is hardly satisfiedwith two victories in seven years especially when he wasexpected to make his mark as one of the best golfers in theworld.
"You know, between the wins, I had had nine runner-up finishesand I think every time I finished second, the gap between firstand second got bigger," Howell said. "When I did win last year,it certainly didn't feel like I had won or done this before.You know, five years is a bit removed from winning."
It wasn't his swing that was preventing him from winning more,but his short game. Howell struggled from 100 yards and in, andwas especially dreadful with his putter.
In 2006 Howell ranked 174th in putts per round. Last year he was149th. So far this year, he is ranked 85th and knows that is akey to him winning more events.
"Putting seems to me that you don't see many guys putt at a highlevel consistently," Howell said. "And the one guy that in myopinion putts at a high level real consistently is Tiger."
Howell has been friends with Woods for several years and haslearned from the game's best player.
"If he's not already, Tiger will go down as the greatest putterof all time," Howell said. "It's completely the most unheraldedpart of his golf game, his putter. I don't know that anyone hasmade as many clutch putts as Tiger Woods has."
Howell averages 29 putts a round and knows that is too high,though despite the high number, he is leading the tour inthree-putt avoidance this year.
Banging balls on the range was what players of Howell'sgeneration did. They might be on the range for several hours andthen spend 20 minutes on the putting green, almost as anafterthought.
"I grew up in the generation of video cameras and I grew up inthe generation of swing thoughts and swing positions andmechanics," Howell said. "And quite frankly, when you're chasingperfection in a golf swing, you know, that's a lifetime ofwork. It doesn't leave much time for something else."
It was all part of a philosophy Howell wanted to employ the lastcouple of years. Before his emphasis was banging balls on therange, now he is emphasizing quality over quantity.
"I didn't spend enough time on it and it had nothing to do withthe fact that I wasn't at the golf course for eight hours aday," Howell said. "It's just the fact that I wasn't spending asmuch time on it as I should have been. So over the past fewyears, I've taken a real hard look at how much time I allocateto each part of my game and to keep it balanced."
When Howell first came out on tour he was obsessing about hisdriver. He could hit the ball a mile, surprising given his 5-11,155-pound frame. He was consistently in the top 20 in drivingdistance on the PGA Tour.
But length was prohibiting accuracy and Howell couldn't scorewhen he was constantly scrambling out of the rough.
"I didn't drive the ball straight enough," said Howell, who was195th in driving accuracy last year. "We started playing somegolf courses where the fairways were a little tighter, the roughis a little deeper. You started seeing the majors come intoplay and I didn't drive the ball good enough as far as that'sconcerned."
The work has paid off and Howell has improved in both fairwayshit and greens in regulation.
"I'm much happier right now with the way I'm driving the ballthan I was really for any part of the second half of last year,"Howell said. "You know, you can get away with it for a littlebit, driving the ball in the rough, and then after awhile it'sawfully tough to make birdies from the rough out there."
While Howell has been emulating Woods, he does have oneachievement that Woods does not, a victory at Riviera in Woods'backyard of Southern California.
"I think it's the only thing I have on Tiger, and I do remindhim of it quite often," Howell said. "There isn't much anybodyhas on Tiger, and by virtue of the fact that I see him all thetime, I do remind him of that quite often."
Of course Woods is able to trump Howell, by virtue of winning inHowell's hometown of Augusta, Georgia.
"He mentions all of his green jackets quite quickly and that hasa very quieting effect on me," Howell said laughing.
Though if the changes Howell is working on take more effect,Howell will get one up on his friend.
"The only way that you're ever going to be ranked high in theworld is to perform consistently well," Howell said. "The mainthing for me to improve, you know, if by the end of the year I'mranked in the top ten in the world, then that's a great goalfor me. And to do that, I need to put myself in contention muchmore consistently."
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