David Alexander Howell (born 23 June 1975) is an English

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

. His career peaked in 2006, when he won the BMW Championship and was ranked in the top 10 of the

Official World Golf Ranking The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolli ...

for a short time. He played in the

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...

in 2004 and 2006.

Career

After training and competing at Broome Manor Golf Club, he became a professional golfer in 1995. He won the 1998

Australian PGA Championship The Australian PGA Championship is a golf tournament on the PGA Tour of Australasia. It is the home tournament of the Australian PGA. Since 2000 it has been held in the South East Queensland region. The tournament was part of the OneAsia Tour fro ...

, and the 1999

Dubai Desert Classic The Dubai Desert Classic is a European Tour golf tournament held on Majlis course at Emirates Golf Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. In 1999 and 2000 it was held at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club, all other editions have been held at Emirates Go ...

. 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 The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

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 The Irish Open (currently known as the Horizon Irish Open for sponsorship reasons) () is a professional golf tournament on the European Tour. The Irish Open was first played in 1927 and was played annually, except for the war years, until 1950. ...

, and in August, won the

BMW International Open The BMW International Open is an annual men's professional golf tournament on the European Tour held in Germany. History Founded in 1989, it was held near BMW's home city of Munich every year until 2012. From 1989 to 1993 and from 1997 to 2011 i ...

. By the autumn he reached the top 20 in the world rankings. In November 2005, he won the inaugural

HSBC Champions The WGC-HSBC Champions was a professional golf golf tournament, tournament, held annually in China. Inaugurated in 2005, the first seven editions were played at the Sheshan Golf Club in Shanghai, then moved to the Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenz ...

tournament, the first event of the 2006 European Tour season. The win took him to a career high of number 13 in the

, 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 Peter Uihlein ( ; born August 29, 1989) is an American professional golfer who formerly played on the PGA Tour and the European Tour and now plays LIV Golf. He was a member of the victorious U.S. team at the 2009 Walker Cup, where he compiled a 4 ...

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 The Open de France is a European Tour golf tournament. Inaugurated in 1906 it is the oldest national open in Continental Europe and has been part of the European Tour's schedule since the tour's inception in 1972. The 100th edition of the event ...

. 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 The Scandinavian Masters is an annual golf tournament on the European Tour played in Sweden. In 2020 the tournament became co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour and rebranded as the Scandinavian Mixed, in which both male and female golfers c ...

in August 2018, Howell became just the tenth player in the

's history to reach 600 career appearances. Howell was a member of the winning European

teams in 2004 and 2006. As a member of the Great Britain & Ireland team in the

Seve Trophy The Seve Trophy was a biennial golf tournament between teams of professional male golfers; one team representing Great Britain and Ireland, the other team representing Continental Europe. The tournament was played in years when there is no Ryder ...

he was on the losing side in 2000, but a winner in 2003. He has also represented Europe at the

Royal Trophy The Royal Trophy was a men's professional team golf tournament which was played between 2006 and 2013. The competing teams represented Europe and Asia. Eight man teams played a series of 16 matches involving foursomes, four-ball and singles for the ...

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 Kim Hyung-sung ( ko, 김형성; born 12 May 1980) is a South Korean professional golfer. Kim has played on the Japan Golf Tour since 2009. He won his first tour event in 2012 at the Vana H Cup KBC Augusta. Professional wins (7) Japan Golf To ...

as Europe pulled off an impressive fightback. In 2014, Howell was named as part of a five-man selection panel deciding Europe's 2016

captain. The panel unanimously appointed

Darren Clarke Darren Christopher Clarke, (born 14 August 1968) is a professional golfer from Northern Ireland who currently plays on the PGA Tour Champions and has previously played on the European Tour and PGA Tour. He has won 21 tournaments worldwide on a ...

to the role. In January 2017, it was announced that Howell had been voted unanimously to succeed

Thomas Bjørn Thomas Bjørn (born 18 February 1971) is a professional golfer from Denmark who plays on the European Tour. He is the most successful Danish golfer to have played the game having won fifteen tournaments worldwide on the European Tour. In 1997 he a ...

as chairman of the European Tour's Tournament Committee. In August 2022 at the

Cazoo Classic The English Open was a professional golf tournament held in England. First played in 1988, it was an annual event on the European Tour until 2002. After several aborted attempts at reviving the tournament, it returned to the tour schedule in 20 ...

, Howell became just the third player, after

Sam Torrence Samuel Robert Torrance (born 24 August 1953) is a Scottish professional golfer and sports commentator. He was one of the leading players on the European Tour from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s, with 21 Tour wins. Torrance was a member of E ...

and

Miguel Angel Jimenez --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places * Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands * São Miguel (disa ...

, to reach 700 career appearances on the European Tour and the youngest to ever do so. Howell is represented by

Octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") 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, whi ...

. He also occasionally works for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

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 Adams Golf, Inc. was an American sports equipment manufacturing company based in Plano, Texas, focused on the golf equipment market. The company produced golf equipment (more specifically clubs). In 2012 it was acquired by TaylorMade (owned by Ad ...

for three years from May 2013 but has since returned to

TaylorMade TaylorMade Golf Company is an American sports equipment manufacturing company based in Carlsbad, California, United States. The company focuses on the golf equipment market, producing golf clubs, balls, and clothing. TaylorMade Golf is currently ...

Amateur wins

*1993

Boys Amateur Championship The Boys Amateur Championship is a golf tournament which is held annually in the United Kingdom. The competition is organised and run by The R&A. History The Boys Amateur Championship was first played at Royal Ascot in 1921. In 1921 boys had to ...

Professional wins (7)

European Tour wins (5)

¹Co-sanctioned by the

Asian Tour The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan, which has its own Japan Golf Tour, which is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Official money events on the tour count for Wor ...

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 South African Tour or Sunshine Circuit; through sponsorship deals, it has also been known as the Vod ...

and

PGA Tour of Australasia The PGA Tour of Australasia, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia, is a professional golf tour for men, owned and operated by the PGA of Australia. Official events on the tour count for World Golf Ra ...

European Tour playoff record (1–4)

PGA Tour of Australasia wins (2)

¹Co-sanctioned by the

and

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 The Jacques Léglise Trophy is an annual amateur boys' team golf competition between Great Britain & Ireland and the Continent of Europe. It was first played in 1977, as a one-day match before the Boys Amateur Championship, but since 1996 it has b ...

(representing Great Britain & Ireland): 1993 (winners) *

Walker Cup The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup Match (not "Matches" as in Ryder Cup Matches). It is ...

(representing Great Britain & Ireland):

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

Professional *

Alfred Dunhill Cup The Alfred Dunhill Cup was a team golf tournament which ran from 1985 to 2000, sponsored by Alfred Dunhill Ltd. It was for three-man teams of professional golfers, one team representing each country, and was promoted as the "World Team Championshi ...

(representing England):

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

(representing Great Britain & Ireland):

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

(winners),

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

(winners) *

(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 6 ...

(winners),

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

(winners) *

WGC-World Cup The World Cup of Golf is a men's golf tournament contested by teams of two representing their country. Only one team is allowed from each country. The players are selected on the basis of the Official World Golf Ranking, although not all of the fir ...

(representing England):

(representing Europe):

(winners),

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

(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