Chappell says an equipment superstition may have held him back from going lower than 59

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W. Va. -- Kevin Chappell, needing two birdies in his final two holes to shoot 57 on Friday at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, was not only battling The Old White TPC golf course, but he was also battling a shortage of “new” golf balls.

After every birdie Chappell makes during competition, he switches to a brand new golf ball, because he says that there’s only one birdie in each ball. The problem on Friday was that Chappell made 11 birdies in 16 holes, and he only had 11 new Titleist Pro V1 golf balls in the bag to start the round. That meant, with two holes left and sitting at 11-under par for the day on the par-70 golf course, he had to reuse a golf ball that he had already made birdie with.

Chappell said, in a press conference following his Friday round of 59, having to reuse birdied-out golf balls could be the reason why he failed to birdie his final two holes.

“We ran into a problem there, and that could have been the reason… why I didn’t make those putts on the last few holes,” Chappell said.

In troubleshooting mode down the stretch, Chappell tried out two different used golf balls on his final two holes (he started on the back nine).

“When I made birdie on 7, and I reached in [my bag] on 8 tee, there were no more new balls in the new ball pile,” Chappell explained. “So I had to reuse a ball… I reused a ball on 8, and I didn’t like the way that one went. So I put that one back and grabbed another one, and reused a ball on 9.”

Using the already-been-birdied golf balls, Chappell two-putted from 54 feet 3 inches on his 17th hole for par, and he missed a birdie putt from 10 feet 9 inches on 18.

Throughout the course of the round, Chappell did make his fair share of putts, however. He made 141 feet 2 inches worth of putts in total, picking up 5.008 strokes over the field.

While he may attribute those made putts to his golf ball superstition, he also has a new prototype putter in the bag that helps with his setup.

Chappell has a custom, half-mallet TaylorMade Mullen putter in his bag with a hosel that adds offset to the putter. Since Chappell sets up with his hands behind the putter face on occasion, the offset helps Chappell achieve his desired putter loft.

“It’s got a lot of offset on it,” Chappell explained about his putter. “I tend to get my hands back when I putt, so this the grip sits in front of the face already. So if my hands tend to get back, they’re already in front of the face, so the putter has the proper amount of loft on it.

The putter is actually the second version of a prototype putter made by Chris Trott, Director of Global Tours at TaylorMade. Due to Chappell’s love of the onesie clothing style, Trott stamped the first prototype putter “onesie,” and the second one “twosie.” So, Chappell’s custom TaylorMade Mullen putter that he used to shoot 59 on Friday has “twosie” stamped on the sole.

“It’s the second iteration of a putter that TaylorMade makes, and I have quite the onesie collection at my house,” Chappell said. “Chris Trott with TaylorMade, he named the first [prototype putter] ‘onesie.’ This one has a little bit more offset, so this one is called ‘twosie.’”

Chappell currently sits in 5th place at 10-under par through two rounds, three strokes behind the leaders.