His year began with a devastating tragedy and ended with a miraculous championship.
UCLA senior golfer Kevin Chappell learned on Oct. 4 that his older brother, Stephen Casey Chappell, had died of heart failure at the age of 24. Kevin had started the game of golf at age five, and as a child he would play with Casey and their father.
It was a hugely difficult time for Chappell and his family, but they all found some sense of calm in the game of golf.
“Golf is an escape,” Chappell said in an interview with the Daily Bruin earlier this year. “It’s the only place where I don’t think, where my mind doesn’t wander. I focus on the task at hand. That’s been my healing process ““ playing golf.
“Even my family, they enjoy watching me play golf; that’s been very therapeutic. It’s been healing for all of us.”
Chappell’s parents made the trip to watch him play at the NCAA Championships on May 28 in West Lafayette, Ind.
And there, on the biggest stage of college golf, Chappell led his UCLA team to its first national championship in 20 years and won the individual title himself.
It almost slipped away from Chappell on the tournament’s second-to-last hole. He hit a poor shot into the water on the par-3 17th hole, a shot that could have cost him the individual crown and almost certainly would have eliminated UCLA from championship contention.
But Chappell was most resilient when he most needed to be.
He sank a daunting, downhill chip shot on that 17th hole to save bogey. Then he parred the 18th hole, dropping a short putt to seal the title for UCLA.
He said he felt his brother’s presence throughout the tournament.
The win made him the first UCLA golfer to ever win the NCAA individual title. He also won the Pac-10 Player of the Year award, and the Nicklaus Award, which goes to the top player in collegiate golf.
But Chappell has always said that the team title meant the most to him.
The win was a tremendous achievement for a UCLA program which has often competed for titles but had never reached the sport’s most elite echelon.
Chappell will leave the UCLA program in great condition; the Bruins return three of the five players from this year’s NCAA title team and also have a young nucleus of players who did not play on the traveling team this year.
He’ll also leave a lasting legacy.
Chappell set the UCLA all-time scoring record earlier this season over 54 holes at the Arizona Intercollegiate. He is also one of only five Bruins ever to win the Pac-10 Player of Year award. The other four, Corey Pavin, Tom Pernice Jr., Steve Pate and Duffy Waldorf, all went on to successful professional careers.
That is definitely the next step for Chappell.
He plans to play on the U.S. Palmer Cup team later this month. That event slates eight of the best American college players against eight of the best Europeans. Chappell will travel to Scotland for the event, and immediately afterward he will turn professional.
The rigor of professional golf and the intense travel and pressure of the PGA tour will be a challenge for Chappell, but it’s a challenge he looks forward to. And a challenge that many believe he will handle with his unwavering mental strength.
“He’s got the mental makeup, and he’s got the physical makeup,” UCLA coach Derek Freeman said. “He’s got all the tools required to be successful at the next level. He needs to have a little luck and things go his way; when that happens he’s going to have a wonderful and successful professional career.”