A happier Howell (From This Is Wiltshire)

A happier Howell

8:10am Saturday 20th March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

DAVID Howell has admitted his lack of form over the course of the past two or three years has put something of a dampener on life in general.

Speaking before returning to action on the European Tour in this week’s Trophée Hassan II at the Royal Golf Dar Es Salam in Rabat, Morocco, Howell conceded a winter spent in the Middle East did little to ease his mind from the rigours and stresses of a poor season.

“I spent the winter in Dubai and had a rest and didn’t really do a lot,” he said.

“Although it was perfect practise weather, I felt a bit jaded from everything that has gone on in the last few seasons.”

However, the Broome Manor pro has acted to salvage his status as one of the country’s elite golfers, recruiting former coach Clive Tucker in place of Jamie Gough. And the former Ryder Cup star believes it is working a treat.

“I started off the year with Jamie overseeing me, who I worked with for the majority of last year and the year before that,” he said.

“I was working with a coach who was based in South Africa who travels a lot on tour so I didn’t have anyone on hand to do any hard work over the winter, not that I really wanted to.

“We’ve parted company and I’ve made the move back to Clive, my old coach, who I’ve had success with.

“That’s a new relationship started over again just in the last couple of weeks, so we haven’t spent a lot of time together yet.

“But the lessons I have done with him recently were very promising. We have certainly located a couple of things that I could do an awful lot better.”

And Howell confirmed the new start has given him a more positive outlook on the upcoming year of competitive action.

“I’m more upbeat about that. I’ve got my old team back in place, which is the one with whom I had all my success.”

That team has obviously had some impact, with Howell making the cut in Morocco after shooting a second round 69 to go with his opening round of 70. His overall score of five-under-par sees him sitting pretty in 25th position with two rounds left of the tournament.

The Swindon man fired birdies at four, five, 10 and 18 after an early bogey had threatened to derail his good work on Thursday.

Howell comfortably made the two-under-par cut and tees off for his third walk of the course tomorrow morning.