It was not the type of emotion typically seen on a golf course.
Two strokes after sending his tee shot into the water, Kevin Chappell stood awkwardly, watching his chip trickle toward the cup at the 17th green on the second-to-last hole of the NCAA Championships.
The ball slid slowly down the green, finally fell, and Chappell rocketed into the air. His fist banged against his chest wildly as he looked into the crowd.
He picked up his ball and left the green while the other two players in his group finished off the hole.
Once he got to 18th tee, he dropped to a crouch and buried his head into his hands.
“My emotions definitely got the best of me; I was very excited because I felt like I was so close to losing the golf tournament for my team,” Chappell said. “It was a lot to take in, even at the moment, and it took me a while to calm down, but I was able to relax and focus.”
Once Chappell gained that composure, he cruised to a par on the final hole which sealed a national title for his team and an individual title for himself.
Chappell finished the 72-hole event at 2-under par to become the first UCLA golfer to ever win an NCAA individual championship, beating Indiana’s Jorge Campillo and Washington’s Nick Taylor by three strokes. He also led the Bruins in scoring as UCLA hung on for a one-stroke win over Stanford after a week at the Kampen Course in West Lafeyette, Ind.
The tournament turned on that 17th hole.
Chappell’s consistent play had separated him from the 150-man field, and he was the only player under par when he stepped to the 17th tee. Although Chappell had basically locked up the individual title, the team championship was very much on the line down the stretch.
That made Chappell’s tee shot, which went left and into the water hazard, all the more shocking.
“I thought we had lost it right there,” said coach Derek Freeman, who was standing next to Chappell on the tee. “I just tried to get him to calm down and understand it was one bad swing.”
Chappell had to drop and hit his third shot from 167 yards away. He hit the shot perfectly on line but muscled it over the green. From there he had a daunting chip, with poor footing and the green sloping downhill away from him. The chip flew just a few feet in the air and rolled most of the way toward the pin and down into the cup.
“I’ve seen that emotion only one other time, when he made a huge putt at the Pac-10 Championships,” Freeman said of Chappell’s reaction. “He’s just an emotional guy. He’s emotional on the high and on the lows; you’re going to know how he feels about things.”
This entire season has been packed with emotion for Chappell. At the beginning of the season his brother, Steven Casey Chappell, died of heart failure. Kevin dedicated the season to Casey’s memory and scribbles his brother’s initials on every one of his golf balls.
“That’s something that I think about a lot,” Chappell said. “My brother was with me the whole day.”
Things didn’t slow down for Chappell after the win. He went to Dublin, Ohio, Sunday to accept the Nicklaus Award, which goes to the top collegiate golfer each year. Today he will play in a U.S. Open qualifier in Ohio. He plans on turning pro after competing at the U.S. Palmer Cup in June.
Chappell said in an interview Sunday evening that he was still trying to grasp what had happened over the weekend.
“It’s all still really fresh,” Chappell said. “It’s awesome. I’ll be able to say I’m the only person that ever won the individual title at UCLA. But the team championship means more to me; it took five of us together to do it, and we were able to overcome so much adversity.”