After having to withdraw from the Ryder Cup early due to a neck injury, which led to last month at Bethpage Black, Viktor Hovland is back on the course this week.
Hovland is set to compete in the DP World Tour’s India Championship, marking his first outing since his neck injury knocked him out of the Sunday singles matches at the Ryder Cup. While Europe still won the event 15-13, the halved match due to Hovland’s withdrawal and Harris English sitting out for the American side nearly played a massive role after the U.S. team mounted a wild comeback.
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“The whole situation was pretty upsetting, just the fact that I didn’t get to play, and I felt really bad for Harris, who also didn’t get to play a match, even though there was nothing wrong with him,” Hovland said on Tuesday. “He just didn’t get to play, and he was upset about that, and I feel very bad for not being able to compete.”
Ryder Cup rules state that if a player is injured and unable to compete in the singles session, a player from the opposite team will sit out that session and each team receives half of a point. Both captains write down a name and seal it in an envelope, hence the name of the rule, with the hope of never having to open it. The rule has only been used a handful of times in Ryder Cup history.
Naturally, since the Ryder Cup. Keegan Bradley called it out after the loss, too.
“The rule has to change,” Bradley . “I think it’s obvious to everybody in the sports world. Nothing against Viktor, but that rule has to change.”
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But, it’s important to note that had the Americans received a full point instead of splitting the match, they still would have lost by one.
Hovland was asked directly about the idea of a rule change for the next Ryder Cup, but he doesn’t have a good answer. If the rules is adjusted, he said, it would be easier to game the system.
“It’s tough,” he said. “I think we’re so used to in sports that if you can’t play because you’re hurt, obviously that should be a loss of point. But I think in the spirit of the Ryder Cup and the spirit of the game and the history of it, knowing that this Ryder Cup is just a part of many, many Ryder Cups to come, I think it’s more of a gentlemen’s agreement that okay, you were hurt this time and maybe the next time there’s a guy on the U.S.’s team and we’re all kind of sympathetic about the person being hurt and not being able to play.
“I think there’s kind of a mutual understanding that if we were healthy we would all go out there and play. I don’t think people are using that to really finagle the system and try and squeak by.”
Hovland has won seven times in his career on the PGA Tour, most recently at the Valspar Championship earlier this year. He’ll enter the India Championship at No. 13 in the Official World Golf Rankings.
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