Kevin Chappell played in over 300 PGA Tour events and won more than $17 million in his career, but the 39-year-old pro recently decided it was time to retire.
Chappell’s best seasons were from 2013 to 2017 – which included his only victory, at the 2017 Valero Texas Open – but he needed back surgery in 2018, missed almost all of the following season and returned during a strange time on Tour after the Covid strike.
“It’s been basically a year and a half where I haven’t played much competitive golf and I’ve really struggled to find any form after that,” Chappell said on this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar Podcast. “And at that time I started to grow as a person, I started to grow as a father, and priorities started to change. I realized that my work ethic was going down and my results were going down.”
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In his 90 starts since back surgery, Chappell made about half of his cuts but failed to record a top 10. Ironically, though, it was one of his final starts that helped make his decision.
In April of this year, Chappell entered the New Orleans Zurich Classic as a substitute and teamed up with Tom Hoge. This duo was paired with Rory McIlory and Shane Lowry for the first two rounds.
“And I’m watching Shane and Rory play, and I might not have ever been Rory, but I was certainly a top-30 player in the world, and I’m like a man, the amount of work it’s going to take to get back there and the things I’m going to miss, I’m not sure it’s worth it to me,” Chappell said. “So I sat on that thought in the spring and summer. I took the family to Europe and played two DP World Tour events and I thought this is it.”
With limited status, Chappell made five PGA Tour starts and six Korn Ferry Tour starts in 2025.
“I think my priorities have changed and to see the level (McIlroy and Lowry) were playing at and the level that I was — I’ve just never played the game just to take a little time,” he said. “It was always about competing and winning and having chances to win and it was just going to take a lot of work and I was going to miss a lot of things that I didn’t want to miss.”
You can listen to the full interview with Chappell hereor look to YouTube above.
