BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) — NASCAR has postponed the Monster Energy Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway because of heavy rain that is not expected to let up on Sunday. The race was pushed until Monday at 1 p.m. Weather has been a problem all weekend at Bristol, where Friday qualifications were washed out. On
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The first time happened six years ago, ironically enough at the Valero Texas Open. Kevin Chappell finished solo second, a late bogey costing him a chance to force a playoff against Brendan Steele. Oh well, thought Chappell. It was just the ninth start of his rookie season on the PGA TOUR. Plenty more opportunities would come. Winning would happen soon enough. He took it for granted. “That was the worst attitude I could have had,” he acknowledged. Indeed. Chappell kept putting himself in position but each time fell short. He posted a couple of third-place finishes the remainder of that 2011 season, including at the U.S. Open. A runner-up in 2013 at Jack’s place, Muirfield Village. Then last season, four more runner-ups, including THE PLAYERS Championship and a playoff loss at The TOUR Championship. By the time he arrived at TPC San Antonio this week, he was 0 for 179 in his TOUR career. What had been a formality now threatened to be a burden. It was, he would say, a monstrous monkey on his back. So you can imagine the emotions Chappell felt Sunday as he rolled in a birdie putt from 8 feet, 2 inches on the 18th green for his first win. There was joy. There was relief. There was satisfaction. On his 180th start, he finally fulfilled that promise of six years ago. “I felt like I had some unfinished business here,” Chappell said. “… A lot of hard work went into this, and I don’t think I would have had it any other way. “Those people that know me [know] I do everything the hard way – and 180 starts later, that’s pretty hard.” Through those six years, though, Chappell never lost faith in his game. Sure, there were times of discouragement when he didn’t play well. But perhaps more telling, Chappell admits he didn’t do a good job of enjoying the near-misses. Instead, he dwelled too much on the outcome. The TOUR Championship last year was especially painful, said Chappell’s caddie Joe Greiner. Chappell led by two shots with two holes to play, but suffered a bogey and was caught by Rory McIlroy and Ryan Moore. He was then eliminated with a par on the first playoff hole, with McIlroy eventually beating Moore three holes later. “It was the last tournament of the year and he had played so well,” Greiner said. “He was there. It just didn’t work out. But last year was huge for him. He played so well under pressure. “Today, his composure was great. He played awesome. He deserved every second of that win.” Celebrating his win on the 18th green Sunday was his wife Elizabeth, and their two young kids, Wyatt and Collins. Having a family offers the kind of perspective Chappell didn’t have six years ago when he came so close at the Valero. Golf has a different priority now. Elizabeth never bought into the storyline that the close calls had become a burden for her husband. “I think that was sort of a stigmatism that everyone kind of put on him,” she said while watching Kevin pose with post-victory photo shoot. “I think he’s come into his own and has been playing phenomenal golf the last year. That wasn’t necessarily the truth – but it was still around.” On Sunday, he was determined to put an end to it. He made an early statement with two quick birdies and he bounced back from his first bogey with another birdie two holes later. At one point, Kevin Tway joined him atop the leaderboard before falling back with a double bogey. Then hard-charging Brooks Koepka also grabbed a share of the lead a couple of times. But Chappell stayed steady. He and Greiner had pinpointed 12 under as the target number. Chappell got there with a birdie at the 14th, but fell under it again with a bogey on the next hole. Still, no panic. He knew there were birdie opportunities down the stretch. He just had to convert one of them. When Chappell reached the teebox at the drivable par-4 17th, he needed a bathroom break. But then something flashed in his memory. Six years ago at TPC San Antonio, Chappell arrived at the 17th in the final round tied for the lead with Steele. Chappell took a bathroom break before playing the hole. By the time he putted out at 17, he had suffered the crippling bogey that took him out of contention. Facing the same situation again, Chappell took a different approach. No bathroom break this time. “Wasn’t gonna do that today,” he said with a grin. After a par at 17, Chappell took two shots to set himself up for an 89-yard pitch shot. A half-hour earlier, Koepka had the same shot, and he converted it for birdie. Now Koepka was warming up on the range, hoping for a playoff if Chappell couldn’t do the same thing. But this wasn’t like the first 179 starts of Chappell’s career. Even Koepka, even though it was at his own expense, was happy to see Chappell break through. “You look at all the stuff he’s done, it’s pretty impressive,” said Koepka, who won in just his 22nd start on TOUR. “It’s kind of amazing that he hasn’t won, how good he’s played.” But no longer do we have to mention the ones that got away from Chappell. Now we can focus on the one he did capture – and speculate on how many more to come. “I don’t have to answer that question anymore,” Chappell said. “Feel like I have a base to kind of jump off from with my career moving forward.” In other words, don’t expect him to make 180 more starts before his next win.
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SAN ANTONIO — Kevin Chappell made an 8-foot putt on the final hole to win the Valero Texas Open by one stroke on Sunday. Chappell had a 4-under 68 in the final round to finish at 12 under for the tournament, edging Brooks Koepka at TPC San Antonio to earn his first PGA TOUR victory in his 180th career start. “A big relief,” the 30-year-old Chappell said. “There’s been quite the monkey on my back for some time now about getting that first win. And to take that off and not have to answer those questions anymore is nice.” Koepka, a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team last year, was looking for his second PGA TOUR win. He had the best round of the day at 7-under 65. Before Chappell came down the 18th hole, Koepka had birdied the hole with a 3-foot putt to tie him. “It’s hard to win out here — everybody knows that,” Koepka said. “I’m knocking on the door to get my second win. It’s nice for Kevin to get his first win. That’s pretty cool.” Second-round co-leader Tony Finau got in a position to tie Koepka when he birdied four of five holes on the back nine. But his par-bogey finish left him to settle for a final-round 69 and a third-place tie with Kevin Tway (69) at 9-under. Australian Aaron Baddeley fired 68 to finish fourth at 8 under. Brian Gay (70), Sung Kang (68), Ryan Palmer (71) and Cameron Smith (71) were tied for sixth at 7-under, five shots behind Chappell. Koepka, trailing Chappell by a shot coming up the 18th, took a 3-metal out of his bag and considered taking a crack at reaching the 606-yard par-5 in two. But he had 293 yards left with a slight uphill shot into the wind with a creek fronting the green. “I really wanted to go for it — I really wanted to,” Koepka said. “But my caddy was kind of pulling the reins back and he wanted me to lay up, and it was probably a good thing that we did.” He put the club back in his bag and laid up to create a 90-wedge approach. He stuck that to about three feet and made the birdie to go into the clubhouse tied with Chappell. Chappell had almost the same distance for his approach on 18, and he landed it past the hole to set up the winning putt. “I wouldn’t want it any other way,” said Chappell, a Californian who had been runner-up six times in his career. “Brooks kept me honest out there today. He made me had to do it the right way. There wasn’t any question I was going to make 4 (birdie) and win the golf tournament.” Finau closed with birdies on four of five holes coming to the 17th. He was just a shot behind Chappell’s lead, but he parred there and drove next to a cactus bush on the 18th. He punched out to the fairway, removed cactus needles from his leg, then put his approach into the creek. He took a penalty drop, and his bogey ended his chances. Chappell clung to a one-shot lead after Koepka birdied No. 11 with a 23-foot putt and another one at the next hole putting inside seven feet. Koepka let a scoring opportunity get away at the 14th, a reachable par-5 at 567 yards. He tagged a 328-yard drive, but he found the rough and failed to get to the green with his second shot, and then missed a 4-foot birdie putt. “It was an awkward little putt,” Koepka said. “I probably didn’t read enough break. It was probably the worst putt I hit all week and the worst I’ve hit in a long time.” About 45 minutes later, Chappell came to the hole and sent his second shot 221 yards, about pin high on the green. Even though he lipped out the 11-foot eagle, his tap-in birdie gave him two strokes over Koepka. Chappell gave Koepka new life when he bogeyed from a greenside bunker at the 15th, and it took until the 18th for Koepka to finally equalize. Gay, who made it into the field thanks to a 27-event medical exemption due to thumb surgery, earned enough money to make good on the exemption and regain full status on the TOUR. Chappell had a one-shot advantage over first-round leader Branden Grace and John Huh entering the day, the first time he has led after 54 holes on the PGA TOUR. Koepka, who won two years back at Phoenix, was four back and had 10 players between him and the lead. But Koepka made the charge with birdies on his opening two holes, then a streak of three more starting with a 20-foot birdie putt at No. 6. He followed with birdie of almost 40 feet on the seventh green and knocked in one from 10 feet at the eighth to tie Chappell. But while Chappell stuck his tee shot on the 189-yard seventh inside five feet and made birdie to get to 10-under, Koepka would make bogey even after hitting the green at the tough par-4 ninth. He left his putt from 42 feet well short and missed the 9-foot par putt he had remaining. It gave Chappell a two-shot lead with nine holes to play.
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