When Charles Howell III retires from golf, he can always write a self-help book on how to tame the course at Waialae.

Of all the golfers on the PGA Tour, Howell plays this par-70 layout as well as anyone, even though he has never hoisted the trophy at round’s end on Sunday.

He’s been oh-so-close several times, including last year’s runner-up finish to Johnson Wagner. The same can be said for 2007, when he also tied for second to Paul Goydos.

Or how about 2005, when he finished tied for third, two shots off the winning pace of Vijay Singh? And don’t forget the two times the Augusta, Ga., native placed fourth — in 2009 and in his first tour of duty here in 2002.

That time through, Howell was coming off a PGA Tour rookie-of-the-year performance where he survived 20 of 24 cuts and earned a cool $1.5 million.

Howell made less than that last year, so he’s looking for a better beginning to 2013. He put himself in position Thursday to do just that with an opening-round 66 that left him tied for seventh, four shots off the pace of Scott Langley, who fired a sizzling 8-under 62.

Howell doesn’t want to get too far ahead of himself. Despite earning $1.85 million and change here with six top-five finishes in 11 appearances, none of that guarantees the Oklahoma State alum will earn his third victory on tour.

"But I like it here," Howell conceded. "I don’t know why. I wish I could sort of maybe figure that out. But I like it. I’ve always enjoyed coming here since the first time I came (in 2002). It’s a nice week. It’s an easy way to start, coming to Hawaii."

Howell is one of those players who likes to see America. Dating back to his amateur days in 1996, before turning pro in 2000, Howell has teed it up 365 times on tour, making the cut in 276 of those events. Since first playing a full schedule in 2001, Howell has averaged 29 starts each year on tour. By comparison, Tiger Woods has never played in more than 21 tour events in a single season. In 2012, Woods competed in 19, his most since 2005.

As for this course, nearly 13 percent of Howell’s career earnings have come here, where finding the fairway is almost as important as one-putt greens.

"It’s hard to keep the ball in the fairways off the tee," Howell said. "That’s the No. 1 thing you have to do here. You do have the crosswinds and the fairways get a bit bouncy, so that makes hitting greens difficult."

And the secret to staying near the top of the leaderboard?

"I’ve always felt this golf course was more about hanging in there," Howell said, "taking advantage of the holes that you can, because there’s plenty of hard ones out there. But you need to take advantage of the couple ones that you can."

Something Howell almost didn’t do last year after his putter was bent en route to Hawaii. It might not have cost him the tournament, but it didn’t help.

"We’re all good this year, though," Howell said. "I wrapped them up a little better with towels."