Beyond The Course - Vol 6

Charles Howell III was ranked inside the #LIVGolf "Lock Zone" at the conclusion of the final round in Singapore, ranked 19th in the season long standings to be exact. That was 12 weeks ago, and he hasn't played a round of competitive golf since after being sidelined with the first injury of his professional golf career. In that 12 weeks he’s fallen to 27th in the rankings, with only the top 24 guaranteed a spot for next season.

He's one of a number of players who has found a resurgence in their game since joining LIV Golf. As part of Bryson DeChambeau's Crushers GC, Charles started off the 2023 season with a bang, with a dominating win in Mayakoba where he shot 8-under par in the final round to win by four strokes. He'd follow that up with a 5th place finish in Tucson, and would have a few other top 10s throughout the season. His play isn't flashy, but steady, and his performances reflected just that. Always hanging around the top third of the leaderboard, he was a reliable member of Crushers.

2024 started right where 2023 left off as he posted three top 10s in the first four weeks of the season, two of which resulted in a win for his team, one of the only teams that featured the exact same roster as the 2023 season. The next three events (Miami, Adelaide, Singapore) didn't go as well as the first four, and midway through Singapore he'd reach out to the medical staff to get some treatment for what he believed to be shin splints.

"Yeah, I started feeling some pain in my lower left leg in Singapore. Kind of felt like what I would guess would be shin splints. Never had shin splints before but I guess that's what it was. Came home and rested it for a little bit. Tried to hit balls, couldn't. Rested some more. Tried to hit balls and couldn't."

He decided to finish the event as LIV Golf's next event wouldn't be for a few more weeks when they'd head to Houston, a perfect time for him to break and let the inflammation die down. Only it didn't, and he wasn't able to practice.

It wasn't until a week later, when the pain still hadn't subsided and no amount of rest was helping that he sought out help from the Crushers GC team doctor. They'd go on to order blood tests and an MRI which would eventually lead to the diagnosis of a stress fracture in his tibia. At 45 years old, 26 years into his professional golf career, right when he'd been playing some of the best golf of his life, Charles Howell III would be sidelined by his very first major injury.

The next 12 weeks for CH3 were filled with rest, rehabilitation, and increasing levels of practice as the time went on. "I was able to putt" he says "and as it progressed later on was able to chip some. But I've been able to hit full swings for (only) five or six days now".

Now tomorrow he returns to the course as a competitor, with two events left to get himself back inside the lock zone and secure his spot on LIV Golf for the 2025 season. There's no guarantees if he finishes outside the top 24, but with as good of friends as the Crushers have become, I think his spot is pretty secure regardless of how these next two events go.

The expectations he's got for himself this week? "To see where I'm at and not be too hard on myself" he remarked "I'm still able to hit some balls and my swing feels fine"

With two individual events left in the regular season of LIV Golf before the Team Championship in Dallas, his spot for 2025 is all but guaranteed. CH3 has these two events to get back into the competitive mindset as Crushers GC looks to defend their team championship.