Even Ryder Cup matches leave us with a winner and a loser.
But no The Ryder Cup loser has left as snakebitten as Harris English left Bethpage in late September.
“It all started with that,” English said Wednesday Sirius XM PGA Tour Radiorecounting the disaster that cost him Sunday at the Ryder Cup. “I mean obviously you’re very angry. I’m getting ready, getting ready to go play a singles match on Sunday in the Ryder Cup and then Keegan came and told me.”
Perhaps you remember the story. In Saturday morning’s alternate-shot pairings, Viktor Hovland dropped a solid tee shot on the 17th hole to protect a European lead, resulting in a thunderous punch that silenced the American crowd. As Hovland delivered his follow-through, he felt something snap in his neck – a pain that only increased when he and Robert MacIntyre closed out a 1-over win on the 18th. By the time the afternoon sessions had begun, it was clear that Hovland would be unable to compete again. (Later, an MRI would diagnose Hovland with a bulging disc in her neck.)
But there was just one problem: The Europeans still had one more day of racing in Bethpage. Hovland was one of 12 players expected to compete to defend a European Ryder Cup lead in Sunday’s singles.
As Sunday morning dawned in Bethpage, European Ryder Cup management shared the unfortunate news: Hovland was not healthy enough to suit up. But instead of losing his point to a player on the American side, the Europeans took advantage of an unusual Ryder Cup rule: the so-called “Envelope Rule” under which both captains are required to hand over an envelope with their bottom-ranked player, who will be out of the competition on Sunday in the event of an injury to the other side. If an injury causes a player to withdraw, the injured player and the “envelope player” sit out, resulting in a halved match and 0.5 points on each side of the book.
No player was more affected by the rule than the Englishman, the 36-year-old Ryder Cup veteran who had played some of the best golf of his life in 2025 to earn a spot on the US team. When word came that Hovland could not compete, word immediately followed that of English the “envelope rule” was selected. on the American side. He would be forced to sit out for Sunday’s singles pairings.
The rule was an esoteric piece of Ryder Cup lore – something you might not have known existed (especially if you don’t follow GOLF.com’s social media channels) before Hovland’s injury. But on Sunday afternoon, the internet went up in flames.
It’s been a long two months for English since that Sunday morning in Bethpage. But before the start of his first PGA Tour since the Cup at the RSM Classic, English sat down with SiriusXM’s Gravy and Sleeze to talk about that long morning at Bethpage.
“That was one of my two main goals for this year was to win the Ryder Cup,” English told hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. “And not being given that opportunity to play on Sunday was really bad.”
English said he didn’t have much time to mope. US captain Keegan Bradley quickly fitted him with a headset and microphone and sent him onto the field to attend to the 11 players remaining in their matches.
“It was a bit of a shock,” he said. “I had to process it for a bit, and then I put on my headset and my microphone and then I became another pseudo-assistant captain.”
Eventually, the Europeans would locked the Americans in a nailwith the American team winning six of a possible eleven matches – and drawing another five – to move 1.5 points short of a Ryder Cup victory.
The good news for English? His point against Hovland wouldn’t matter in the grand scheme of things: even a win wouldn’t turn the tide.
However, the bad news was clear: the Englishman had been robbed of his Ryder Cup moment – even if the memories were still sweet.
“I had a great time. To see those guys compete on Sunday and come back to beat the Europeans was incredible. I was just looking at the pairings early that morning and I was saying ‘I could see a scenario where we could win literally every match,'” English said. “And it almost happened, and so happy to be a part of that team and watch those guys fight to the end.”
Of course, the opportunity in a Ryder Cup Sunday singles match may not come again for the Englishman, a Tour lifer with two Cups under his belt. He will be 38 when the Cup returns to Adare Manor, Ireland in 2027. But as Keegan Bradley showed us this year, stranger things have happened than a 38-year-old making a bid for the team.
“The Ryder Cup is great. It’s the pinnacle of our sport. It’s something I’ll always want to be a part of,” English said. “I’m looking forward to playing an away game in Ireland in two years and I’ll do my best and work as hard as I can to get back there.”
