After 17 years as a pro, Kevin Chappell recently announced that he will be retiring from the PGA Tour.
On this week’s episode of Subpar, the 39-year-old explained that after enduring back surgery in 2018 and recovering in 2019, he struggled to regain his form. He sensed a shift in his priorities and work ethic, but it wasn’t until he played with Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry at the Zurich Classic he realized how much work he had to do to regain his competitive edge. After mulling the idea of ​​retirement for several months, Chappell decided that leaving was the right move.
“This is more of a life decision than a career decision,” Chappell said.
In addition to sharing the reasons behind his retirement plans, Chappell discussed a variety of topics with him Subpar hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltzincluding these thoughts on the evolution of the PGA Tour schedule.
“I don’t know what the future holds for the tournament,” Chappell said. “It just seems like it’s very much going back to a model of tennis where you’ll have eight to 12 events a year that really matter, and the rest, there’s going to be a tournament that’s there, but if you’re not a regular fan, you won’t really know what’s going on.
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“There’s an opportunity for guys to make a living in those events, but in terms of relevance, it’s going to be harder and harder to have that long career that you’ve seen in the past,” he continued. “You’re going to have your generational talent that’s going to do it, but I think careers get cut short, guys make more money, they move on and do something else. Somehow they’ve got to get the turnover rate to match the exit rate and it can be sustainable. I don’t like it, but if that’s what the business model says they have to make the game to grow.”
The advent of big-money, field-limited, no-cuts Signature Events has also proven to be a divisive issue for some players.
“Nothing is a given for you, but with these Signature Events, like, if you finish in the top 50, you’re good for the whole year,” Knost said. “And we saw this year only one guy who was in the top 50 last year finish outside the top 100 that wasn’t injured, and that was Matthew Pavon, who just had a really bad year. Like, you really have to mess up to lose the card.
“As a player who has obviously played a number of these events, where do you stand? Would you like to see more people in the field with a cut?”
“Yeah, I think that’s an integral part of the game, making a cut, there’s a good feeling there, there’s a sense of achievement and that should happen in the game,” Chappell replied. “Maybe they don’t want to make full fields, but let’s exclude everyone who held their card the year before on the PGA Tour. Let’s make a field of 110 people and make a cut. It opens up opportunities, creates less division on the money list and the points list and allows people to earn their way into the event a little easier.”
