Kevin Chappell ties record and makes history at the Greenbrier

Kevin Chappell, who hadn’t played a PGA Tour event in 10 months before this week, tied the record with nine straight birdies and shot 59 at the Greenbrier.

It was a historic return to the PGA Tour for Kevin Chappell on Friday at the Greenbrier.

Chappell, who was lying on his couch wondering when he would be able to play again 10 months ago, tied the PGA Tour record with nine straight birdies in the second round on his way to the 10th round of 59 in tour history.

It’s an old saying that a player can’t birdie all 18 unless he birdies the first, and Chappell didn’t, settling for par after starting his round on the 10th. But that would be the last time he walked off a green without a birdie for quite a while. From the 11th hole to the first, Chappell ran off nine straight birdies, tying the record set by Mark Calcavecchia in 2009 at the RBC Canadian Open. He hit every green in regulation and made five putts from outside 13 feet.

He got to within one of Calcavecchia’s mark with a nearly 30-foot putt over a ridge at the par-three 18th and tied it with a right-to-left 13-footer at the first hole.

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The run finally came to an end at the second when his putt from 23 feet came up two feet short. Chappell added two more birdies on his round, holing a putt from just off the green at the seventh to go to 11-under. He came to the ninth hole needing a birdie to tie Jim Furyk’s record-low round of 58, set in 2016, and had a good shot at it, leaving himself just 10 feet short of the hole. His putt, though, just broke to the left at the cup and stayed out.

Chappell tapped in for par to become the first player to shoot 59 on the PGA Tour since Brandt Snedeker at the Wyndham Championship in 2018. He’s the second to do it at the Greenbrier, joining Stuart Appleby in 2010. His previous best score on the PGA Tour was 63, which he did twice in 2014, at the Humana Challenge and Crowne Plaza Invitational.

After opening with a one-over 71 in Thursday’s first round, he jumped from 115th place at the start of the day all the way to fifth, three shots behind leaders Scottie Scheffler, Joaquin Niemann and Robby Shelton.

“The last hole, you know, had a great look at 58 but maybe under-read the putt a little bit,” he told Golf Channel after the round. “But, all in all, couldn’t be happier with where I’m at and more proud of myself to do what I did today.”

The round was an emotional one for the 33-year-old Chappell after what he’s had to endure the past 10 months. His last tournament on the PGA Tour was in November. Shortly afterward, Chappell announced he was undergoing a microdiscectomy to fix a back problem. He missed the entire 2019 portion of the schedule last season, only returning to play two Korn Ferry Tour events in August where he didn’t finish higher than 51st.

Chappell could barely hold back the tears when describing what this round means to him. “Ten months ago I was on the couch. Couldn’t walk,” he said. “There was probably as much growth mentally as there was physically in that time off. Gave me some perspective on what the game means to me and what my family means to me and maybe why I play the game.”

“I’d like to say I never stopped believing, but it’s always nice to see you can do it.”

The injury was a blow to a player who was just establishing himself as one of the best on tour. Chappell has 29 top-10s in his PGA Tour career, with a career-high eight coming in 2016 when he lost in a playoff to Rory McIlroy at the Tour Championship. The next year he won his first tour event, the Valero Texas Open, and was a member of the victorious American Presidents Cup team that fall.

But in 2018, struggling with his back problems, Chappell’s game suffered. He missed seven cuts that year and fell to 83rd in the FedEx Cup standings after finishing 27th and eighth the previous two years. He rose to as high as 23rd in the World Golf Rankings in 2017 but enters this week ranked 226th.

The Military Tribute at The Greenbrier is the first event of the 2019-20 PGA Tour season. If the rest of the schedule matches what’s already been achieved this week, it’s going to be quite a year on tour.