Chappell makes Presidents Cup team

NORTON, MASS. » Kevin Chappell made his first Presidents Cup team by a fraction of a point, and he needed a lot more help that he realized.

“I made it a lot more exciting than it needed to be,” Chappell said.

Chappell, who won his first PGA Tour event earlier this year in San Antonio, earned enough FedEx Cup points from the Dell Technologies Championship to secure the 10th and final automatic spot on the U.S. team.

Rounded off, Chappell and Charley Hoffman finished with 4,369 points. Stretched out to include decimals, the PGA Tour said Chappell beat Hoffman by 0.073.

This was the final qualifying event for the Presidents Cup, which starts Sept. 28 at Liberty National.

Chappell will be one of at least four Americans making their debut in a Presidents Cup or a Ryder Cup. He spent the last month getting weary of talking about the possibilities, suggesting that he could live with however it turned out.

That changed when he shot a 69 on Sunday and was projected ahead of Hoffman, meaning he controlled his own fate.

“I didn’t know what it meant until I tried to go to sleep last night,” Chappell said Monday on his way to the airport to catch a flight home — in coach, no less — to Seattle.

Hoffman, who showed up at the TPC Boston at No. 10 and with a slim lead, closed with a 68 on Monday and tied for 40th. Chappell appeared to have it locked up until three bogeys over a four-hole stretch on the back nine.

He answered with a birdie on the par-3 16th, but then his shot from a fairway bunker on the par-5 18th came to rest on a loose piece of dirt, and his wedge came up well short. Chappell pitched to 10 feet, missed his par putt and closed with a 71.

That’s when he needed some help, and Russell Henley unknowingly provided it.

Chappell was tied for 35th, and Henley also was in that group at 2-under 282. If Henley had made one more birdie, that would have taken points away from Chappell, and Hoffman would have moved past him.

Henley, however, made bogey on the 17th and failed to birdie the 18th to tie for 40th. That was all Chappell needed.