Amid the turmoil surrounding the 2025 Ryder Cup, a rare rule has been enacted that will force healthy American Harris English to sit out Sunday’s singles match.
It also robbed the U.S. Ryder Cup of a chance to pull off a historic comeback against a European team.
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In a new interview with CBS, English spoke about the Ryder Cup’s “envelope rule” that forced him to sit on the bench at Bethpage on Sunday, arguing that this “draconian” rule “hurt” healthy competitors and probably needs to be changed.
‘Envelope rule’ to be enacted on Sunday for 2025 Ryder Cup
European teams dominated the first two days of the 2025 Ryder Cup, eliciting abusive behavior from some American fans and leaving other teams fearing a historic margin of victory.
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Viktor Hovland
But the U.S. Ryder Cup team made its long-awaited comeback in singles Sunday, almost flipping the script against Bethpage Black. Final score: Europe 15 – America 13.
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Although they fell just short, the U.S. team had one less chance of picking up a point against the European team than they expected. That’s thanks to the “envelope rule.”
Each Ryder Cup, each captain secretly selects one of their players and places them in an envelope. All 24 players will be participating in Sunday singles, so if a player is injured before a singles match, the player and team will not have the injured player withdraw from the match. Instead, players in the other team’s envelope will miss Sunday’s game and each team will be awarded half a point for that match.
Ahead of Sunday’s match in Bethpage, European player Viktor Hovland ruled out a singles match due to a neck injury. As a result, this is only the third time in Ryder Cup history that an envelope rule has been enacted.
This forced U.S. captain Keegan Bradley to reveal who he put in the envelope. It was Harris English.
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The rule gave the U.S. team one less chance to pull off a come-from-behind victory over the European team on Sunday, while leaving healthy Brits missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Harris English: Sunday’s Ryder Cup is ‘something you can never get back’
In a new interview on CBS Golf’s “In-Between Shots,” host Patrick McDonald asked English about the envelope rules for the 2025 Ryder Cup and asked if he thought the rules should be changed.
English did not commit to calling for a rule change, acknowledging that the rule has been in place for “a long time,” but was honest and detailed how the rule hurt him personally at Sunday’s Ryder Cup and how it could affect future Ryder Cup competitors.
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“Playing for my team on Sunday was a blow to my ability and it’s something I’ll never get back from, and I know I may never play in the Ryder Cup again,” English told CBS. “So it definitely hurts other players who could play and they lose the opportunity to play.
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Harris English will play against our team in the Ryder Cup on Sunday
For context, the 2025 Ryder Cup will be the Englishman’s second appearance with the U.S. team. He also helped the U.S. team win the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. He automatically qualifies for the 2025 U.S. team and is currently ranked No. 13 in the Official World Golf Rankings, but two years is a long time. English will be 38 years old when the 2027 Ryder Cup begins, but it remains to be seen whether he can continue playing elite form long enough to join another team in the United States.
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English also made it clear that he had no hard feelings about Hovland’s injury forcing him to enact the envelope rule.
“Viktor (Hovland) was injured. I know that. He came to me. I know he couldn’t play,” English said.
Mr English admitted he did not know how to effectively change the envelope rule, but suggested the negative impact on players should be considered when reviewing the rule.
“I don’t know how they should change that. I mean, I understand you don’t want to have substitutes all week, but it’s difficult. I know that rule has been in place for a long time, but they’ve only had to apply it a few times. It’s really unfortunate that it happened this year,” English said.
Read English’s full interview on CBS Golf’s “In Between Shots” here.
The post ‘It’s terrible’: Pro struggles with ‘draconian’ Ryder Cup rules that cost him the post appeared first on Golf.
