Vincent Publishing - Index

Vincent Publishing - 2008 Northern Trust Open - Index

18 2008 OFFICIAL TOURNAMENT MAGAZINE
He didn’t miss his first cut until the EDS Byron Nelson
Championship in April, his first appearance since finishing
tied for 30th at the Masters near his home in
Augusta.
“I did have a little bit of a let down after the Masters,” he
said. “It’s such a big event for me that I do put a lot of
emphasis on it and after it was over and done, I did have
a let down there.”
His first missed cut of the year happened at the latest date in
his TOUR career, going all the way into late April. It was the
first of only seven on the year, four occurring after withdrawing
from the Memorial on Sunday because of an illness.
“I had to do something that I’ve never ever had to do
before and that was withdraw from a golf tournament,” he
said. “I had food poisoning. I was up all night and trust me,
if there was any way I could have got out of my hotel room,
I would have played. Of all the tournaments you don’t
want to withdraw from, you don’t want to withdraw from
Jack Nicklaus.’”
Howell’s short game returned in time to finish in the top 30 at
the final three events comprising the PGA TOUR Playoffs for
the FedExCup. After missing the cut at The Barclay’s, the first
of the four events, Howell qualified to play in the Deutsche
Bank Championship where he finished tied for 30th. After finishing
tied for 18th at the BMW Championship, Howell
made it to the final at THE TOUR Championship at East Lake
in Atlanta, where he finished 28th.
“The fun part of golf is having a chance to
win on Sunday afternoon. And I think
that’s what some folks miss is that if
you’re in the mix on Sunday afternoon
with a chance to win, when a good back
nine will give you a shot at winning,
that’s what’s fun,” he said.