Howell defends title as he, others try to succeed in Tiger era
LOS ANGELES -- With two years left in his 20s, Sergio Garcia already has won 16 times around the world and seriously contended in the majors, including runner-up finishes to Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington.
"Sergio Garcia, he's a failure. Really," Charles Howell III said in a voice hoarse from a commercial shoot and dripping with sarcasm. "The guy has had a (heck) of a career, but in a lot of people's eyes, he hasn't won a major, so he needs to hang it up and quit."
Majors aren't the only problem, and maybe not even the biggest.
It's Tiger Woods.
Howell knows from experience, part of a growing list of young players who arrive on the PGA Tour with high expectations and get buried under an avalanche of comparisons with Woods.
Howell, 28, won at Riviera last year by closing with a 65, getting into a playoff thanks to a late mistake by Phil Mickelson, and making 3 clutch pars to outlast Lefty on the third extra hole.
It was only the second victory of Howell's career, feeding the perception that he's an underachiever.
Take Woods out of the picture, and Howell's career might not look that bad. He earned his card without going to Q-school, was voted rookie of the year, has made the Presidents Cup team twice and is a regular at the Tour Championship.
Howell is the defending champion at a tournament now called the Northern Trust Open, a strong field that includes eight of the top 10 players in the world, minus only Woods and Ernie Els.
Riviera is loaded with talented young players, all of them held to a higher standard because of Woods.
"Tiger has skewed the bar to an extent where a lot of times, the young players are judged on a little different scale, as opposed to being patient, knowing that in the peak of many careers, guys are in their mid to late 30s," Howell said.
When he turned 30, Woods already had won 54 times worldwide and 10 majors, including the career Grand Slam twice over. No one before or after Woods came along has won so much so soon.
"At some point in time, it's going to be unfair to compare Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods," Paul Goydos said earlier this year. "What he's accomplished is nuts. It's nuts. To even mention Tiger in the same conversation with young players and what they're going to accomplish is blatantly unfair."
Adam Scott took the trophy home from Riviera in 2005, although it wasn't an unofficial victory because rain allowed for only 36 holes, and Scott beat Chad Campbell in a one-hole playoff Monday. Scott, 27, has five other PGA Tour victories in reputable places, such as The Players Championship, Tour Championship and the Deutsche Bank Championship.
He has climbed as high as No. 3 in the world, yet getting to No. 1 can look next to impossible at times.
"For me, all my life as a kid dreamt of being No. 1 in the world," Scott once said. "How am I going to live up to that dream? I've got to somehow figure a way to play better than this guy over a pretty long period of time."
Garcia is making his PGA Tour debut this year at Riviera, trying to put behind him a season in which he was on the cusp of his first major until a bogey on the 72nd hole at Carnoustie, then losing the British Open in a playoff.
Also at Riviera is Justin Rose, 27, who captured the Order of Merit on the European Tour last year. Luke Donald is now 30, and while he has played on the last two Ryder Cup teams for Europe, he only has 2 victories on the PGA Tour.