Charles Howell III

Charles Howell III: 25 years as golf’s Mr. Consistent

With Charles Howell III, you feel that golf isn’t just his career, it’s been a lifelong obsession.

“I love the game of golf, I think golf’s the greatest thing ever,” he told Fairway To Heaven, LIV Golf’s official podcast. “I could play every day. I almost do play every day.”

That’s perhaps not so much of a surprise as Howell was born and raised in Augusta, Georgia, where the best golfers in the world gather every April to compete in the Masters.

In the quarter century since he turned professional in 2000, Howell has competed in over 600 PGA Tour events and has been a LIV Golf regular since 2022.

Howell was a three-time winner on the PGA Tour and racked up an incredible 98 top-10 finishes to establish a reputation as one of the most consistent golfers to have graced the game.

He became just the eighth player to win an individual LIV Golf event by claiming victory at the 2023 season opener in Mayakoba.

He was also a member of Crushers GC who conquered all comers to take the 2023 LIV Golf League title at the end-of-season Team Championship in Miami.

Making an early impression

Howell attended Oklahoma State University where he majored in Business Management but had already competed in his first PGA Tour event, the 1996 Buick Challenge, at the age of 17.

While at OSU in 2000 he was an individual winner at the NCAA Division-1 Golf Championship and was the recipient of the Haskins Award, which honors the country’s most outstanding collegiate golfer.

ESPN announcer Charlie Rymer is credited with creating Howell’s nickname that has stayed with him all these years, after referring to him as ‘Chucky Three Sticks’.

Howell’s debut as a professional saw him register a T32 finish at the Greater Hartford Open in July 2000.

Howell booked his permanent place on the PGA Tour for the 2002 season and landed his first win in October’s Michelob Championship at Kingsmill, notching a two-stroke victory over Scott Hoch and Brandt Jobe.

From here Howell began to build his reputation as Mr. Consistent. Having made 27 cuts from 32 events in 2002 he made 29 from 31 tournaments the following year, as well as achieving his career best finish in a major with T10 at the 2003 PGA Championship.

His next win came at the 2007 Nissan Open where it took a third extra playoff hole to see off Phil Mickelson’s challenge at the Riviera Country Club, California.

In November 2018 Howell took the honors at the RSM Classic where he beat Patrick Rodgers on a second extra hole after both players were tied at 19-under for the tournament.

That win booked him an automatic place at the 2019 Masters in his hometown, ensuring his first participation since 2012.

Agreeing to join LIV Golf

Howell signed up for the inaugural LIV Golf season in 2022 in time to feature in the third event at Bedminster.

He explained on Fairway To Heaven why he felt the time had been right to try something new.

“I’d played the PGA Tour for 22 years and it was awesome,” he said.

“It was a childhood dream of mine; I remember I told my parents when I was 10 years old, I wanted to play golf on the PGA Tour and they probably thought I was crazy.

“I had fulfilled that dream and was at the point where I had been to a lot of the venues and a lot of events 22 times.

“When LIV came about I was very excited about it, but I didn’t know if I’d get an opportunity to play.

“When I originally heard of LIV it sounded like it would be the top 48 players in the world ranking and that was it.

“So when I got the opportunity through Bryson [DeChambeau] and through Crushers I jumped at it because it’s sort of reinvigorated myself, it’s reinvigorated my love for competitive golf.

“My son Chase absolutely loves it, so there’s all kinds of elements to this, and I get to travel the world.

“I get to travel to a lot of places I’ve never been to in my life and now I can also call myself – when this is all said and done – a global golfer as well, and I think that’s really cool.”

A LIV Golf winner at Mayakoba

Charles Howell III could not have got off to a better start in 2023 as he grabbed the fourth professional win of his career at LIV Golf Mayakoba in some style.

A bogey-free 8-under 63 in the final round saw him end the tournament four strokes ahead of runner-up Peter Uhlein, the biggest winning margin of his pro era.

It also helped Crushers take their first-ever team title.

“I’ve played in a lot of golf tournaments in my life, and I haven’t won a lot of them, and you have the doubts and the feelings, will you ever win again?” Howell said after celebrating the double podium.

“To do it against this competition with these guys standing up here is more than I could ever dream of.”

That team victory set Crushers GC on a winning trajectory and having finished the regular season in second place behind 4Aces GC, the foursome of Howell, DeChambeau, Paul Casey and Anirban Lahiri lifted the overall Team Championship at the end of season finale in Miami.

Howell’s solid game throughout the year saw him clinch 10th place in the player standings.

Keeping golf in the family

Charles Howell III’s father is Dr. Charles Howell, a renowned pediatrician who performed an estimated 16,000 surgeries and procedures during a 40-year career.

Along with mother Debbie and younger brother Ben, the Howell family would embark on monthly seven-hour drives from Augusta to Orlando so that 12-year-old Charles could receive instruction from legendary swing coach David Leadbetter.

Howell would become one of the best collegiate players of his era and one of the most consistent pros. Howell married his Oklahoma State University sweetheart Heather Myers and they live in Orlando, Florida, with their two children.

In April 2019, daughter Ansley and son Chase caddied for Howell at the family-oriented Par-3 Contest at Augusta. Chase, then aged 9, almost reached the green at the ninth hole after taking his dad’s tee shot.

Analysing the Charles Howell III swing

There is no better person to talk about Charles Howell III’s swing than legendary coach David Leadbetter, especially as he has worked with Howell since he was a promising youngster.

“Pound for pound, Charles was probably the longest hitter on the PGA Tour,” Leadbetter told Golf Digest in 2021.

“He has an excellent set-up with a little bit of knee flex and great bend from the hips.

“He works the club away in a nice one-piece motion – hands, arm, shoulders all moving away.

“He has a huge wind up with large upper body rotation, well past the 100-degree mark with a lot of resistance from the lower body so it produces tremendous torque.

“At the top of the backswing his left wrist is a little bit bowed and the club face a bit closed and you’ll see how high his left shoulder is.

“One of the problems I’ve always seen with Charles’s swing is how his shoulder plane tends to flatten out on the backswing.

“As he starts down, he comes in really angled towards the ball but then there’s good extension through the shoulders.

“For me Charles’s issue is that he has so much lag in the downswing that he can’t get that whip, but he’s a tremendous striker of the ball and great at iron play.”