The Age reported that he "secures the handsome second award, gives every promise of becoming a player of the foremost rank, and he has made an excellent beginning ...".

[5] In early 1901 Howden left Melbourne and it was reported that he had won the championship of Nhill golf club in western Victoria.

[10] Later in the year he was runner-up in the Victorian Amateur, although 23 strokes behind the winner, Walter Carre Riddell.

[11] Howden played in the first Australian Open was held in 1904, which acted as qualifying for the amateur championship.

[16] In 1909 at Royal Melbourne he finished tied for 8th in the open but was drawn against Michael Scott in the first round of the amateur, losing 4&3.

[17] In 1910 at Adelaide he was again tied for 8th in the Open and reached the final of the Australian Amateur, losing again to Scott 10&8.

[18][19] In 1911 at Royal Sydney he finished tied for 6th in the open and then went on the win the amateur championship, beating Claude Felstead 4&3 in the final.

He then beat the defending champion Walter Sturrock in the semi-final and Tom Howard in the final, by one hole.

[24][25] Howden also won the NSW Country championship, for golfers from outside Sydney, finishing 11 strokes clear in the 36-hole event.

[29] Howden was in poor health with tuberculosis and in the middle of 1913 he took up a similar position at Leura Golf Club in the Blue Mountains.