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David Alexander Howell (born 23 June 1975) is an English professional golfer. His career peaked in 2006, when he won the BMW Championship and was ranked in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking for a short time. He played in the Ryder Cup in 2004 and 2006. Howell holds the record for most starts on the European Tour.


Career

After training and competing at Broome Manor Golf Club, he became a professional golfer in 1995. He won the 1998 Australian PGA Championship, and the 1999 Dubai Desert Classic. He had no further wins for six years, but his form was nonetheless on a general upwards curve. He was tenth on the European Tour Order of Merit in 2004 and 2005 proved to be even better. In the spring he had back to back second places in The Daily Telegraph Dunlop Masters and the Nissan Irish Open, and in August, won the BMW International Open. By the autumn he reached the top 20 in the world rankings. In November 2005, he won the inaugural HSBC Champions tournament, the first event of the 2006 European Tour season. The win took him to a career high of number 13 in the Official World Golf Ranking, making him the highest-ranked British player and the second highest-ranked European at that time. In May 2006, he won the BMW Championship and moved into the world top ten for the first time. In June he moved to a new high of ninth. After leading the Order of Merit for most of the 2006 season, he eventually finished in 3rd place; a back injury caused his form to suffer in the latter half of the season and limited his appearances through 2007. In 2013, Howell had his first European Tour win in seven years at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, beating American Peter Uihlein in a playoff. Howell had previously gone 0–4 in European Tour playoffs. In 2014, Howell became the second youngest player in history to reach 500 appearances on European Tour when he played at the Open de France. Howell won the Beko Classic, a tournament sanctioned by the PGAs of Europe, by 5 shots after rounds of 70, 69 and 67 at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal in Turkey in 2015. The season 2017 proved to be Howell's most disappointing on tour and, speaking in December, said it had been 'two years of hell'. His season was ravaged by back and wrist injuries and he made only five halfway cuts from 20 events, the fewest he has ever made in a whole season resulting in his worst ever Order of Merit ranking. He suffered another injury setback in January 2018 with a shoulder injury forcing him to retire from the BMW South African Open. At the Nordea Masters in August 2018, Howell became just the tenth player in the European Tour's history to reach 600 career appearances. Howell was a member of the winning European Ryder Cup teams in 2004 and 2006. As a member of the Great Britain & Ireland team in the Seve Trophy he was on the losing side in 2000, but a winner in 2003. He has also represented Europe at the Royal Trophy twice in 2006 and 2013 and has been on the winning side on both occasions. He came from 3 down with 4 to play to win his singles match in 2013 against Kim Hyung-sung as Europe pulled off an impressive fightback. In 2014, Howell was named as part of a five-man selection panel deciding Europe's 2016 Ryder Cup captain. The panel unanimously appointed Darren Clarke to the role. In January 2017, it was announced that Howell had been voted unanimously to succeed Thomas Bjørn as chairman of the European Tour's Tournament Committee. In August 2022 at the Cazoo Classic, Howell became just the third player, after Sam Torrence and Miguel Ángel Jiménez, to reach 700 career appearances on the European Tour and the youngest to ever do so. He surpassed Jiménez for most European Tour starts at the 2023 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Howell's 722nd event. Howell ended the 2024 season with 726 European Tour starts. Howell is represented by
Octagon In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...
. He also occasionally works for
Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...
as a commentator and analyst as well as writing regular columns for The Golf Paper and Worldwide Golf. He is sponsored by Titleist and plays with the Titleist ProV1x ball. He was sponsored by Adams Golf for three years from May 2013 but has since returned to TaylorMade.


Amateur wins

*1993 Boys Amateur Championship


Professional wins (7)


European Tour wins (5)

1Co-sanctioned by the
Asian Tour The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf professional golf tours, tour in Asia except for Japan (which has its own Japan Golf Tour). It is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Official money events on ...
,
Sunshine Tour The Sunshine Tour is a men's professional golf tour based in Southern and East Africa. For much of its early history it was known either as the Southern Africa Tour or Sunshine Circuit; through sponsorship deals, it has also been known as the F ...
and
PGA Tour of Australasia The PGA Tour of Australasia, currently titled as the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia for sponsorship reasons, is a professional golf tour for men, owned and operated by the PGA of Australia. Official events on the tour count for World Golf ...
, but unofficial event on those tours. European Tour playoff record (1–4)


PGA Tour of Australasia wins (1)


Other wins (1)


Results in major championships

CUT = missed the halfway cut
WD = withdrew
"T" indicates a tie for a place.


Summary

*Most consecutive cuts made – 3 (twice) *Longest streak of top-10s – 1


Results in The Players Championship

CUT = missed the halfway cut
WD = withdrew
"T" indicates a tie for a place


Results in World Golf Championships

QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = tied
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.


Team appearances

Amateur * Jacques Léglise Trophy (representing Great Britain & Ireland): 1993 (winners) * European Youths' Team Championship (representing England): 1994 * Walker Cup (representing Great Britain & Ireland): 1995 Professional * Alfred Dunhill Cup (representing England):
1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...
* Seve Trophy (representing Great Britain & Ireland):
2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...
, 2003 (winners),
2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
(winners) * Ryder Cup (representing Europe):
2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...
(winners), 2006 (winners) * WGC-World Cup (representing England):
2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
, 2006 * Royal Trophy (representing Europe): 2006 (winners),
2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...
(winners)


References


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Howell, David English male golfers European Tour golfers PGA Tour golfers Ryder Cup competitors for Europe Sportspeople from Swindon People from Virginia Water 1975 births Living people