Q. How nice is it to be back?
CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, it's great to be back, holy cow. Yeah, I've never really had an injury before, especially out for 12 weeks. Obviously I never thought it would be like that extent, right, and take that amount of time that it did. But yeah, all is well that ends well, so here now.
Q. So maybe in a nutshell, can you go over exactly what happened?
CHARLES HOWELL III: 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.
That's what I called Dr. Ara, who is obviously our team doctor through LIV and started ordering MRIs and blood tests and whatnot. Found that it was a stress fracture in the lower left tibia.
Q. When was that?
CHARLES HOWELL III: My gosh, May 16, right around there. And yeah, so obviously my days were filled with rehab work and therapy work. You know, good doctors around me helping me. I don't think anybody thought in 12 weeks, hard to putt a timetable on anything but it's good to be back here now.
Q. How frustrated, when you don't know exactly how long you've got to be out, it's got to be frustrating?
CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, there's a lot of anxiety and frustration I think. It's both. I think -- and I was also missing tournaments. Like I really wanted to play in Houston. I wanted to play in Nashville. I love the two in Europe. I think missing the tournaments made it the most, like, I would say kind of depressing part of it. It's like, oh my gosh, I want to be out there playing. I had a nice start to the year, and was excited about that. And then obviously just missed the events, and I wasn't able to practise, either. So now I'm sitting here, I really can't do anything except like rehab and therapy type stuff. Yeah, I'm glad to be out here.
Q. And you didn't get a chance to even see Bryson after Pinehurst, right?
CHARLES HOWELL III: No, no, no. I was obviously in the thick of rehab and trying to get this thing better. But obviously Bryson, watching him play on TV at the PGA and obviously the U.S. Open where he won was phenomenal.
Obviously I watched all the LIV events and how the guys were playing and everybody. I don't know if that made it better or worse. Definitely made you miss it. But glad it's done.
Q. When did you start hitting balls again?
CHARLES HOWELL III: About five or six days ago. Relatively recently. I'm completely fine now. I was able to putt, you know what I mean, for a while there and as it progressed later on I was able to chip some. But been able to hit full swings for five or six days thousand.
Q. Was there ever a point you thought you wouldn't be able to come back this year?
CHARLES HOWELL III: No, no, I would somehow. I would find some way to do it. I was quite disciplined in the things I needed to do to get better and to feel better and made sure I was able to do all that stuff. But yeah, I'm thrilled to be back here.
Q. What is the state of your game right now?
CHARLES HOWELL III: Listen, I have some competitive rust, obviously, you know what I mean. But I'm still able to hit some balls and my swing feels fine and stuff. Obviously have to knock off a bit of rough this week from the competitive side of it but hopefully I can knock that off pretty quick.
Q. Do you have certain expectations this week?
CHARLES HOWELL III: Honestly a little bit to see where my game is at. I've never really had an extended time off and I've had 12 weeks off. To kind of see where I'm at and not be too hard on myself.
Q. Nice to be back with the guys?
CHARLES HOWELL III: Oh, it's great to be back with them. Played a practice round with Paul this morning. Saw the guys yesterday out practicing, and yeah, it's great to be back.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports