Chappell’s joy spills onto Quail Hollow with an opening-round 66

Kevin Chappell has been trying to raise his level of happiness on the course to match it off the course this year.

He’s hoping the 6-under-par 66 he shot Thursday in the opening round of the 13^th Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club will be the beginning of a joyous stretch on the links.

Chappell’s wife gave birth to the couple’s first child last month, son Wyatt. The birth comes during a stretch of perhaps the worst golf of Chappell’s career, as he has six missed cuts and a tie for 66^th in his past seven tournaments.

The 66 Thursday included an eagle and birdie on two of his final three holes and has him tied for second with Patrick Reed, a shot behind leader Robert Streb after 18 holes.

“Hopefully today is the start of a new chapter, and that chapter will last the rest of the year and we can build some momentum from today and play the golf I know I can play,” Chappell said. “I probably needed a little attitude adjustment. I couldn't be happier off the golf course and couldn't have been more miserable on the golf course. I don't know what the change was but I mean I just needed to enjoy it a little bit more and get back to being me and finding my identity on the golf course.”

Chappell, whose caddie of nearly the past three years is Galivants Ferry native and South Carolina grad Michael Maness, eagled the par-5 seventh hole with a chip-in from 38 feet, birdied the par-4 eighth with a wedge to 5 feet and hit his approach from 194 yards to 7 feet on the ninth green but watched his putt to tie Streb for the lead tail to the right.

“You know, it’s kind of been uncharted territories for me lately getting off to a good start in the tournament. I’m very encouraged by that and look forward to playing three more solid rounds of golf,” Chappell said. “It's tough out here. It's easy to get down on yourself. It's not easy to gain confidence, especially missing cuts and you’ve just got to trust what you're doing.”

Six golfers are just behind Chappell and Reed in a tie for fourth at 5 under including Webb Simpson, Ricky Barnes and Stewart Cink, while Carl Pettersson and K.J. Choi are among three golfers who shot 68.

Chappell played the first round with a putter he pulled out of a Nike tour staff bag on the practice putting green Monday while waiting for Maness to arrive prior to his tee time in the Monday pro-am. He’s used to a blade-style head and this new putter has a larger mallet-style head.

But the ball started going in the hole on the practice green Monday, he putted well in the pro-am and decided to stick with it. Chappell has been alternating between just two putters for the past two years.

“This is completely different than anything I've ever used,” Chappell said. “It’s obviously completely different than any results I've been getting so I like that.”

Chappell made five birdies, the eagle and one bogey Thursday. He started his round with a 30-foot birdie putt and later added putts of 8, 10, 16, 11 and 13 feet during the round. His 23 putts are tied for second lowest Thursday and his length of putts made is first.

Chappell is trying to regain his form of 2011, when appeared to be a young golfer on the rise with a runner-up at the Valero Texas Open and a pair of third-place finishes.

The 28-year-old former NCAA individual champion at UCLA has retained PGA Tour playing privileges each year since and had a runner-up at the 2013 Memorial, but 2011 remains his best year.

“I was young and immature and probably didn’t know why I was having the success I was having, and in looking for the why I probably lost my golfing identity a little bit,” Chappell said, “the things that make me successful, which is see ball, hit ball at target and go chase ball. I do believe my skills are better than they were in 2011 I just need to do a better job of being me and I think things will be alright.”

Streb is seeking his second win of the 2014-15 season and made seven birdies without a bogey.

The Oklahoma native and 2009 Kansas State graduate is in his third year on the PGA Tour and earned his first win in October at the McGladrey Classic in a playoff over Brendon de Jonge and Will MacKenzie.

The win was part of a strong start to the season for Streb, as he finished in the top 10 in five of his first eight events.

But his play waned over a stretch of eight events in 10 weeks, as he missed five cuts and didn’t finish inside the top 40. His game showed signs of a rebound with a tie for 30^th last week at The Players Championship with rounds between 69 and 73 at TPC Sawgrass.

“Last week I had a pretty solid tournament,” Streb said. “I had a few hiccups here and there but was making some birdies. Really everything is kind of trending the right way at the moment.”

Streb has played the Wells Fargo in each of the past two years, missing the cut in 2013 before tying for 23^rd last year the week after finishing second in last year’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

“It’s obviously a good test of golf and I didn't play very well the first time around and last year I was fresh off a tied for 2nd in Louisiana so felt like I was playing pretty good,” Streb said.

Rory McIlroy, the 2010 Wells Fargo winner and top-ranked golfer in the world, is tied for 30^th after a 70 that included a double bogey on the par-3 17^th hole, where his ball hit a rock wall fronting the green and bounced backwards into the water. Phil Mickelson is tied for 45^th after a 71.

“For the most part I’m satisfied. I felt like I did what I wanted to,” McIlroy said. “You can make your pars on the tougher holes and take advantage of some of the easier ones like the par-5s and couple of the short par-4s. I did that pretty well today.

”If I can play the same sort of golf and get rid of the mistakes it will be close this week.”

This story was originally published May 14, 2015 at 9:55 PM with the headline "Chappell’s joy spills onto Quail Hollow with an opening-round 66."