SOON after breakfast this morning, Ray Howell will open his antiques and reproduction furniture shop on the Devizes Road in Swindon. Bending to pick up the pile of post that has gathered inside the door, he will make his way to his comfortably untidy office at the bottom of the stairs and turn on the television to watch the transmission of the Abu Dhabi Championship.
Howell is not widely known in golf, not like B. J. Wie, Michelle’s father, or Earl Woods, Tiger’s father. But those in the know recognise the significance of Howell in the career of his son, David, the Europe Ryder Cup player. Ray’s trick was to allow David’s talent to blossom, even though he had no idea about golf. “As David got better and better, I began to think, ‘Gosh, there must be something in this.’ But I had still only heard of one golfer — Nick Faldo,” he said.
Instead of an intimate knowledge of the sport, Ray had the common sense to realise that he had to get expert advice and follow it. The reward for Ray and Sally Howell, who are now separated, is that David, 31, and his elder brother, Ian, are well-balanced and popular, and that David may be the most improved golfer in the world these past two years. He was ranked No11 in the world at the end of last month having been 31st six months earlier.
Nowadays, Ray has become a convert to golf. Bad ankles below his two titanium knees cause him to roll like a drunken sailor when he walks, yet he is usually smiling, even when perspiration is pouring off his face and he contemplates a bumpy walk back to the clubhouse. “I love watching,” he said. “Mark Twain was wrong when he said golf was a good walk spoiled. One day, when David was doing well in the Lancome Trophy, I closed the shop on a Saturday, got the train to Paddington, Tube to Waterloo and caught the Eurostar to Paris and arrived in Versailles about midnight and found somewhere to stay. The next morning I was waiting for him at the caddie shack. ‘Hello, Dave,’ I said when I saw him. ‘Hello father,’ he replied. ‘What are you doing here?’ “David is thoughtful, quite intelligent, witty and deep down very focused. He is a very thorough pro and as a son he is very loyal, very loving and cares a lot about me and my health. If I thought my presence was a problem to him I wouldn’t turn up.”
At the mention of his father, David’s face relaxed into a smile. “Dad is a wonderful supporter of mine,” he said. “He is very supportive, passionate about my career, but he is a terrible watcher. He gets so stressed at the game. He can’t cope with its ups and downs. He is always making jokes, some of which are not particularly funny. It is hard to have a straight up and down conversation with him.”
Advertisement
Ray was a promising footballer and once, when playing for Swindon Schoolboys, he headed a goal from inside his own half. An injury to an ankle when he was in the Army’s Catering Corps ended that and he turned to refereeing, the highlight of which was being in charge of a match between the reserve teams of Arsenal and Cardiff City that featured Bob Wilson in goal and Mel Charles in midfield.
At the same time he was becoming an amateur musician of note. He sang treble solos in the local church choir and, later, tenor solos. He has sung at Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s and Canterbury cathedrals, the Albert Hall and the Cheltenham Festival and although he cannot read a note of music, he conducts with authority. He will end his musical career on Good Friday when he conducts a choir of 100 voices singing John Stainer’s The Crucifixion.
“We had a wonderful, fun-filled childhood,” David said. “Ian is four years older and he was my mentor. But dad let us know life was not all a bed of roses. I show my affection for him by calling him names. My brother is the same. We have a laddish sense of humour.”
Like his father and brother, David was a footballer until, at the age of 6, when on holiday in Spain, he picked up a six-iron and hit three successive shots far and straight, causing a man in the next bay to turn and ask Ray: “How long has been playing?” It was Dave Thomas, a former Ryder Cup player and a course designer. Ray said: “About one minute, actually.”
Thomas said: “He has the most natural swing I have ever seen.” And the rest is history.