Every Ryder Cup, each captain has an extremely awkward assignment: He has to choose the golfer on his team he trusts the least.
Enter the “Envelope Rule.”
Beginning at the 1979 Ryder Cup, each captain was tasked with putting the name of one player in a sealed envelope to be opened in case of emergency. The theory was this: If somebody on one team got injured during competition, that team shouldn’t be punished. Instead, the other team would choose a player to essentially sit out the final singles session, their non-match would result in a half-point for each team, and the rest of each team would continue in battle.
What makes the job so painful is the strategy behind it. Because you’re choosing a player to sit out singles, you’re picking the guy whose contributions you’re looking forward to the least. It’s no surprise that some captains have said it’s their least favorite part of the job.
Curtis Strange described it well in an AP story: “These guys become family. And it’s like you’re telling one of them you don’t love them as much.”
Because it’s such a sensitive process, the contents of each envelope remains secret; this is a break-in-case-of-emergency situation. So we don’t typically see the names, and if they’re not used, the envelopes are either returned to the captains or, in at least one case, burned. But there were back-to-back Ryder Cups where we found out.
1991: Steve Pate’s car crash
At Kiawah Island in 1991, the event so intense it became known as the “War on the Shore,” an early week car accident involving several members of the U.S. team left Ryder Cup rookie Steve Pate with bruised ribs and a trip to the hospital. Pate sat the first three sessions before U.S. captain Dave Stockton sent him out in Saturday afternoon’s four-ball sessions, where he and Corey Pavin lost 2 and 1 to Bernhard Langer and Colin Montgomerie and he aggravated his injuries.
“Everything on my left side went,” he told Golfweek. “I gutted out the round, but I knew I was done for the week.”
But before Sunday’s singles matches, in which Pate was slated to take on European legend Seve Ballesteros, Stockton announced that Pate was too injured to go. He’d later explain that he couldn’t hit sand wedge farther than 40 yards and didn’t stand a chance.
Once Stockton made the call, Team Europe was forced to unseal its envelope, revealing the name of David Gilford, a 26-year-old rookie who’d lost his first two partner matches 4 and 2 and then 7 and 6.
The move was controversial at the time. “They certainly did it to get a half point,” Gilford said, frustrated to be denied the chance to take on Wayne Levi. And Montgomerie added doubts of his own.
“We thought it was fishy,” he said. “Injuries don’t get worse 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, the Americans had to name their player to sit out, and it came from an unexpected place: Lanny Wadkins, one of the most successful Ryder Cuppers of all time, volunteered for the spot, letting U.S. captain Tom Watson off the hook.
“I was a captain’s pick,” Wadkins said by way of explanation. “The other guys have earned their way onto the team with two years of great play. I have played in eight Ryder Cups now and I don’t know how many matches, and I would hate to deprive somebody of the experience.”
Wadkins’ decision seemed to have an energizing effect for the Americans. Before they went off in Sunday singles, Watson had Wadkins leave the room before addressing the rest of the team.
“Every match today,” he said, “has a little bit of Lanny Wadkins in it. If your match is getting a little too tough for you, think about Lanny Wadkins and what he did for you.”
After Davis Love III holed a putt on 18 to seal his win over Constantino Rocca, Wadkins was the man he sought out first; “that putt was for you,” he said.
That’s the last time the U.S. won an away Ryder Cup.
2009 Presidents Cup: Fred Couples’ Tiger prank
This one’s worth watching: Fred Couples recounting the envelope prank he played on Tiger Woods and the rest of the U.S. team. This wasn’t the Ryder Cup; Couples captained the winning team at the 2009 Presidents Cup. But it’s the same idea …
“At the beginning of the week,” Couples said, “in case of injury, you put a name in an envelope. I’m the only guy in the room with [opposing captain Greg] Norman. He puts a name in, I put a name in and we give them to the head official Steve Carman. So anyway, as the story goes, we go on and we go on and we win Sunday night.
“Steve Carman comes in and he has to give the envelope back to the captain. We’re in the room hootin’ and hollerin’. He pulls me aside and I know what he’s gonna say: ‘Here’s you’re envelope.’ I said, ‘Why don’t you open it up in front of everyone and read the name in there?’
“So he tears it open and he reads it and it’s Tiger Woods. The whole room went silent. They thought I was such a clown that I put Tiger Woods in there as the guy who wouldn’t play on Sunday in case of an injury.
“So I didn’t tell the story for two full years,” Couples continued. “So we somehow unhooked the envelope and I took the name out of the there. It was someone who was a [captain’s] pick, and I put Tiger’s name in there. He texted me for weeks: ‘Dude, you’ve got the biggest balls of anyone I’ve ever seen.’
“I went, ‘You know what? Why not put your name in. I thought I’d stir things up.’ So that went for years. I finally told the story. I took a lot of heck for it, but for two years I had everyone thinking I put Tiger Woods’ name in the envelope.”
Here’s hoping, for the players and captains’ sakes, that everybody stays healthy.
But we’d learn something interesting if they don’t.
