How playing with Rory McIlroy led to this pro’s retirement

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 win, at the 2017 Valero Texas Open — but he needed back surgery in 2018, missed almost all of the next season and returned during an odd time on Tour after Covid hit.

“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,” Chappell said on this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar podcast. “And in that time I started to grow as a person, started to grow as a father, and priorities started to change. I realized my work ethic was going down and my results were going down.”

In his 90 starts since his back surgery, Chappell made about half his cuts but failed to record a top 10. Although oddly enough, it was one of his final starts that helped him come to his decision.

In April of this year, Chappell got into the Zurich Classic of New Orleans as an alternate and teamed up with Tom Hoge. That 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 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.”

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 watch the level [McIlroy and Lowry] were playing at and level that I had — I just never played the game just to get a tee time,” he said. “It’s always been to compete and win and have chances to win and it was just going to take a lot of work and I was going to miss out on a lot of things I didn’t want to miss out on.”

You can listen to the complete interview with Chappell here, or watch on YouTube above.

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