Each Ryder cup, each captain has an extremely difficult task: he has to choose golf player in his team he trusts less.
Sign in the “envelope rule”.
Starting from the Ryder Cup of 1979, each captain was tasked with putting a player’s name in a closed envelope to open in an emergency. The theory was this: if someone in a team was injured during the competition, that team should not be punished. Instead, the other team would choose a player to reduce the last session of bachelors, their non-distribution would result in half a point for each team, and the rest of each team would continue in the battle.
What makes the job so painful is the strategy behind it. Because you are choosing a player to sit on the whim, you are choosing the boy whose contributions barely wait at least. It is not surprising that some captains have said it is their least favorite part of the job.
Curtis Strange described it well In an ap history: “These people become families. And it’s like saying one of them that doesn’t love them so much.”
Because it is such a sensitive process, the content of each envelope remains a secret; This is a random situation of chance. So we usually do not see the names, and if they are not used, the envelopes or return to the captain or, in at least one case, are burned. But there were Ryder’s back-back cups, where we discovered.
1991: Car Car Dropping
On the island of Kiawah in 1991, such a strong event became known as “Coast War”, a car accident in the early week involving some US team members left Ryder Cup Pate’s ribs with ribs and a hospital trip. Pate sat in the first three sessions before the US captain Dave Stockton sent him to four -ball sessions on Saturday afternoon, where he and Corey Paul lost 2 and 1 to Bernhard Langer and Colin Montgomerie and deteriorated his injuries.
“Everything on my left side went,” he said Golf. “I pulled out the round, but I knew I was done for the week.”
But before Sunday’s bachelors’ matches, in which Pate was scheduled to receive European legend Seve Ballesteros, Stockton announced that Pate was very damaged to go. He would later explain that he could not hit the sand wedge more than 40 yards and had no chance.
After Stockton made the call, Team Europe was forced to reveal its envelope, revealing the name of David Gilford, a 26-year-old rhythm who would lose his first two partners matches 4 and 2 and then 7 and 6.
The measure was controversial at the time. “They probably made him to get half a point,” said Gilford, frustrated who was denied the opportunity to get Wayne Levi. And Montgomerie added his suspicions.
“We thought it was fish,” he said. “Injuries do not deteriorate overnight.”
1993: Sam Torrance’s toe
In 1993, European Stalwart Sam Torrance was unable to go on Sunday, suffering from an infected toe. In response, Americans had to name their player to sit down, and this came from an unexpected place: Lanny Wadkins, one of the most successful Ryder cup of all time, voluntarily for the country, letting Captain Tom Watson leave the blow.
“I was a captain’s choice,” Wadkins said by explanation. “Other boys have won their track on the team with two years of great game. I’ve played in eight Ryder Cups now and don’t know how many matches, and I would hate to deprive someone of the experience.”
Wadkins’s decision seemed to have an energetic effect on Americans. Before leaving Sunday bachelors, Watson had Wadkins to leave the room before addressing the rest of the team.
“Matchdo match today,” he said, “there is little by Lanny Wadkins in it. If your match is getting more or less harsh for you, think of Lanny Wadkins and what he did for you.”
After Davis Love III tried a blow to 18 to seal his victory over Kostandino Rocca, Wadkins was the man he first sought; “This stroke was for you,” he said.
This is the last time SH.BA won a Ryder Away cup.
2009 Presidents Cup: Fred Couple ‘Tiger Prank
This is worth a look at: Fred’s stuffy recounting the envelope he played in Tiger Woods and the rest of the American team. This was not the Ryder Cup; Captain the winning team in the 2009 presidents Cup. But it’s the same idea…
“At the beginning of the week,” couples said, “in the event of injury, you put a name in an envelope. I am the only boy in the room with (reverse Greg) Norman. He puts a name, I put a name and we give them official Carman.
“Steve Carman comes in and he has to give the envelope again to the captain. We’re in the Hoot and Holler room.” He draws me aside and I know what you mean, ‘Here you are envelope.’ I said, ‘Why don’t you open in front of everyone and read the name there?’
“So he tears him openly and he reads it and is Tiger Woods. The whole room was silent. They thought I was such a clown that I put Tiger Woods there as a guy who would not play Sunday in the event of an injury.
“So I didn’t tell the story for two full years,” couples continued. “So we somehow lifted the envelope and I took the name there. It was someone who was a choice (Captain) and I put Tiger’s name there. He texted for weeks: ‘Boy, you have the biggest balls of anyone I have ever seen.”
“I went,“ you know what? Why not enter your name. I thought I was going to stir things. “So went for years.
Here you are hoping, for players and captains, so that everyone stays healthy.
But we would learn something interesting if they don’t.
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