Kevin Chappell, a familiar face on the golf scene for many, has decided to retire from golf after a long career. The 39-year-old entered the professional world, turning pro in 2008, and joined the tour three years later. He has played a number of tournaments, and his career highlight was certainly his victory at the Valero Texas Open eight years ago. However, injuries have hindered the progress of this golfer, who has not played much since back surgery in 2018.
In addition to the injury, Kevin Chappell felt that he wanted to devote more time to his family, and that personal challenges sometimes created problems in his professional life. However, Chappell put his family first, aware of what his priorities are in life. During his career, he had, as we have already said, many great moments, and his best career ranking was 23rd in the world.
"It was basically a year and a half when I didn't play a lot of competitive golf, and I really struggled to find any form after that.
And in that time, I started to grow as a person, started to grow as a father, and priorities started to change.
I realised my work ethic was going down and my results were going down."- he said, as quoted by Golf Magic.
Rory and Shane
He turned to the successes of Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy, who excelled this year, saying that watching them asks himself various questions, mainly whether he can ever return to winning ways and how long it will take. However, such emotions are always difficult, and realizing that he no longer had the motivation and desire as before, Chappell decided that it was time to end his career.
"I'm watching Shane and Rory play, and I might not have ever been Rory, but I certainly was a top-30 player in the world, and I'm like, man, the amount of work it's going to take to get back there, and the things I’m going to miss out on, I'm not sure this is worth it to me," Chappell said.
"So, I kind of sat on that thought in the spring and into the summer. Took the family to Europe and played two DP World Tour events and was like, I think this is it."
However, Chappell is a big fan of golf and admits that he will be following events closely in the future.
An experienced golfer believes that the PGA Tour will have a similar model to tennis, with 8-12 events a year that carry significance, while other events will not be so important. In addition, many things could change in golf in the coming years, with the desire to improve the sport and make it more attractive to younger generations.
