Open to question

THOSE looking for David Howell to get his season going at this year's Open Championship may want to look away now. His record currently reads six missed cuts in eight starts and, on the two occasions he has made the weekend, he has failed to threaten with a share of 42nd and 45th respectively.

Plenty struggle to cope with the intricacies of links golf but Howell has shown, on plenty of occasions earlier in his career, that he is more than equipped to deal with them.

From 2001-2004 the former British Boys champion (though he won that title in 1993 not by the seaside as is traditional but at inland Glenbervie) finished in the top six three times in the Dunhill Links Championship. In those years he was an accumulative 50-under, so why is his Open record so poor?

"It is more disappointing than any other tournament to be honest. It's by far my worst event. Early on the courses were too difficult for me, I wasn't a good enough golfer. Even though I was qualifying I wasn't able to get to grips with the courses.
They can be as brutal as anything and they'll certainly find you out if you're not on good form. That would be my first five or six years, the last five or so, as I improved as a player, I can't really explain why I've performed so badly."

Coming into this season hopes were high for Howell, having led the 2006 Order of Merit for the majority of the year. Injury and a few blips in form let him down then, as Padraig Harrington and Paul Casey eventually overhauled him, and sadly for Howell his body, or rather his back, has let him down again.

By the end of May he had only started 10 tournaments and in two of those he was forced to withdraw. At the Wachovia he pulled out after the first round, and a week later at The Players Championship he played only two holes before having to concede defeat.

The BMW PGA Championship then came a little too soon and a crack at another prestigious event was missed, only this time Howell would have been defending champion having romped to a five-shot win in 2006. To make matters even worse he only lives half a mile from the West Course.

But there has been the odd silver lining for the former Walker Cupper with no form to speak of Howell opened with a 70 at Augusta, to sit in a share of third, and was only three adrift going into the weekend before rounds of 82-77 saw him plummet back to a share of 44th.

So it's fairly safe to say that the 136th Open Championship could rescue an already forgettable campaign which has been dogged by injury and, despite his poor run of results in the Major, the treacherous Carnoustie could prove to be a welcome refuge for the 32-year-old.

"I know it as well if not the best of all the Open courses and I had my second strongest finish there in the Championship though that's not saying much. I have always played it well in the Dunhill Links (Howell shot 69 there in 2001 and 2003) though obviously it will be a completely different course when The Open comes round.

"I have shot 69 on a really, really bad day weather wise but then I've also had a 79 on an easy day so I've got both experiences."

With time running out to find some form Howell admits that confidence will play a large part in performing well in The Open.
After pulling out of the US Open in the week leading up to Oakmont, Howell is preciously short of big-time golf going into battle at Carnoustie.

Nevertheless, the amiable Englishman, one of the tour's most likeable characters, insists his best form could come flooding back instantly.

"The main thing is to be swinging the club well and to go into it with no fear with my game. If you're not swinging it well and controlling ball then an Open course is always going to be a difficult place to perform well on.

"Last year again I was in a period where I was swinging poorly and then you can't really play well in a Major. I would like to say I am in a position like Nick Faldo was where you can peak for the Majors but my game isn't quite at that level. I will try and prepare as well as I can but sometimes it can depend on a little more luck than judgment whether I'm going to be playing well."

As for his preparations Howell may take a different route to those of the last few years in an attempt to change his luck.
Last year at Royal Liverpool he played a couple of practice rounds two weeks before the championship but that tactic is unlikely to be repeated.

"As it happened I caught two of the windiest days of the year so that didn't really help me. I saw the course as a bit of a monster but it turned out to be fairly easy, as we saw with the scoring, so that tarnished my judgment of the place."

This year the two-time Ryder Cupper may just take a more relaxed approach and bowl up on the Tuesday of Open week, just two days before the championship tees off.

"I know Carnoustie very well so I don't need a lot of practice rounds. Maybe I've got to the point with The Open where I might need to pitch up like a normal tournament and play one and a half rounds in practice. One thing I have never done so far is to treat it like an absolute normal event. It is very hard to do as its nice to be at the Open early and soak up
all the atmosphere and enjoy it from Monday morning onwards.

"I have not made any plans yet but it is certainly in the melting pot to come over after playing Loch Lomond or I may come up on the Tuesday, it's an option."

Of course Howell is not the only British or Irish star to come a cropper in The Open. He is one of seven (Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington, Paul Casey, Justin Rose, Ian Poulter and Colin Montgomerie being the others) in the world's top
40 and between them they have only managed four top-10s in 58 starts, two for Monty and one each for Harrington and Rose.

No doubt pressure plays it's part but it's a run that Howell is desperate to put right.

"I can get swinging well again going into it and then I perform very badly again that will be very disappointing. The record is something I want to change in the next decade of my career. I'd like nothing more than to perform well in an Open."

Four days in Angus will provide the acid test.