He’s Off the Wall, Not Off the Rack
In this pro golf game, Charles Gordon Howell III, the baby-faced son of a pediatrician from Augusta, Ga., may be the greatest thing since sliced grits. Of course, you can’t slice grits, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.
Howell is cutting quite a dashing figure out there at Riviera Country Club, where he tied the course record Saturday with a 28 on the front nine, on his way to a third-round 64 at the Nissan Open. But it’s not just the booming drives, the precise iron shots or the seeing-eye putts that increase Howell’s entertainment value.
For one thing, Howell is pleasant, talkative, relaxed and friendly. And he’s a professional athlete? He’s only 22, so maybe he doesn’t know any better. But wait, there’s more. Here’s a kid from the Deep South who is taking clothing advice from the veteran eccentric Jesper Parnevik. Let’s just say that Sweden rotates on a slightly different axis for Parnevik. Howell signed a clothing endorsement deal with Parnevik’s designer friend and very bleached blond Johan Lindeberg.
Now, as we have come to know him, Parnevik sometimes wears colors so unique, they don’t even have names yet. And we also know that Howell is a newcomer to the business of power dressing. Coaxed into a tuxedo by his mother for the senior prom, Howell complained he looked like a penguin.
He did a photo shoot for Lindeberg a couple of months ago in Palm Beach, Fla., and Howell was there in front of the cameras for eight hours. Maybe he was nervous, which is understandable when you realize that the photographer’s last gig had been for Victoria’s Secret.
Lindeberg is noted for his “Euro chic” fashion design. Until he hooked up with Lindeberg, Howell might have thought that Euro chic was some type of continental fried chicken. All that’s in the past now, because Howell is way up to date in the clothes category. Totally dressed for success.
Golf photographers have a special fondness for Howell, who not only wears snappy clothes, but is also fairly expressive out on the course. One special Howell quirk is that he sticks out his tongue after he finishes his follow-through and watches the ball on its way toward the hole. Sticking out the tongue is a Michael Jordan thing, and you have to say it’s worked pretty well for him.
If a guy could make a living by sticking out his tongue or by making armpit noises or even by walking backward down the fairway, all the while dropping putts from all over the place and winning golf tournaments, then you have to nod your head and say, yes, it’s a darned good act.
Getting good is something Howell has been tracking for quite awhile. He started playing golf when he was 7, and by the time he was 11 he had won five tournaments. David Leadbetter got a star pupil when Howell began working with the famous teacher. Howell went on to star at Oklahoma State, where he was NCAA champion in 2000. He was a two-time first-team All-American and turned pro in June.
Howell played 13 events in 2000, but his only opportunity to keep playing the PGA Tour was on seven sponsors’ exemptions in 2001. In his sixth tournament, Howell made enough to get temporary status and wound up playing 24 events, banking $1.784 million and solidifying his reputation as a force to be reckoned with.
He became the fourth pro to earn his PGA Tour card through sponsor’s exemptions (Tiger Woods, Justin Leonard and Gary Hallberg were the others). He improved his official world ranking from 324 to 45 (he’s 38th now) and became the first player with no official world tour status to qualify for the Masters in the modern era.
Howell hasn’t won a tournament yet, but he’s in position to make a go of it today. His 10-under-par 203 puts him in sixth place, four shots behind third-round leader Scott McCarron. There is quite a pile of players with a shot at the $666,000 winner’s share; 14 are within seven shots of McCarron’s lead.
Howell is used to groupings, usually concerning the peers in his age group. It includes Sergio Garcia, David Gossett, Matt Kuchar, Ty Tryon, Luke Donald, Paul Casey, Aaron Baddeley, Adam Scott and Justin Rose.
When Howell was asked what would serve to distinguish the players, the first thing he mentioned was clothes. He was joking. The real answer, he said, is victories, but the fact that he even mentions the clothes issue is a noteworthy facet of Howell’s potential growth into a superstar. In the J. Lindeberg catalog, Parnevik wears the flamboyant stuff and Howell wears the more subdued styles. On Saturday, it was a tan shirt and a brown argyle sweater. What’s he going to look like if he has to wear a tuxedo to some formal club affair after he wins some tournament?
That’s easy. He’ll look like a champion.