After 17 years as a pro, Kevin Chappell recently announced that he has hung up his PGA Tour.
In this week’s episode, the 39-year-old actor explained that, after enduring back surgery in 2018 and recovering in 2018, he struggled to regain his form. He saw a shift in priorities and work ethic, but it wasn’t until he played against Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry at the Zurich Classic that he realized how he needed to improve his competitive edge. After downplaying the idea of ​​retirement for several months, Chappell decided to move on.
“This is more of a life decision than a career decision,” Chappell said.
In addition to sharing the reasons for his retirement plans, Chappell discussed many topics with SubPots Colt Knost and drew these thoughts on the evolution of the PGA Tour’s schedule.
“I don’t know what the future holds for tourism,” Chappell said. “It looks like it’s turning more and more into a model of tennis where you’ll have eight to 12 events a year which is very important, but it’s going to be a fan base, but it’s going to be kind of normal, you never know what’s going to happen.
“There’s an opportunity for guys to make a living at those events, but until they get to the right level, it’s going to be difficult to have that long career that you’ve seen in the past,” he continued. “You’re going to have your production talents doing it, but I think jobs are getting shorter, guys are making more money, they need to do something.”
Big money starts, limited field, uncut signing events have also proven problematic for some players.
“Nothing should be given to you, but with these signature events, it’s like, if you finish in the top 50, you’re good all year,” Kost said. “And we only saw this year one guy who was in the top 50 last year finish outside the top 100 without an injury, and that was Matthew Pavon, who was just confused about losing your card.
“As a player, it’s clear that he played a lot of these events, where do you stand? Would you like to see more people in the field?”
“Yeah, I think that’s an important part of the game, making the cut, there’s a good feeling there, there’s a sense of accomplishment, and that needs to happen in this game,” Chappell said. “Perhaps they don’t want to make perfect fields, but let everyone keep their cards last year before the PGA tour is released. Let’s do the opportunity to separate, and it allows people to enter the event a little easier.”
