Amid the chaos of the 2025 Ryder Cup, a rarely-seen rule was enacted that resulted in healthy American Harris English sitting out the Sunday singles matches.
It also cost the U.S. Ryder Cup team a chance to complete a historic comeback over the European team.
In a new interview with CBS, English opened up about the Ryder Cup’s “envelope rule” that forced him to sit on the bench Sunday at Bethpage, arguing the “tough” rule “hurts” healthy competitors and, perhaps, needs to be changed.
But the U.S. Ryder Cup team nearly flipped the script at Bethpage Black with a comeback for the ages in Sunday singles. The final score: Europe 15 – U.S. 13.
Though they came up just short, the U.S. team had one less opportunity to gain a point over the European team than they thought they’d have. That is thanks to the “envelope rule.”
At every Ryder Cup, each captain selects one of their players in secret to place in an envelope. With all 24 players competing in Sunday singles, should a player get injured ahead of the singles matches, that player and team does not forfeit the injured player’s match. Instead, the player in the other team’s envelope sits out the Sunday matches and each team is awarded a half point for the match.
Ahead of Sunday’s matches at Bethpage, European player Viktor Hovland determined a neck injury would prevent him from playing his singles match. As a result, the envelope rule was enacted for just the third time in Ryder Cup history.
That forced U.S. captain Keegan Bradley to unveil who he’d placed in the envelope: Harris English.
While the rule gave the U.S. team one less opportunity to complete a Sunday comeback over the Europeans, it also forced a healthy English to miss out on a lifetime opportunity.
Harris English: Ryder Cup Sunday ‘something I’ll never get back’
In a new interview on CBS Golf’s “In Between Shots,” host Patrick McDonald questioned English about the envelope rule at the 2025 Ryder Cup asked if he thought the rule should be changed.
While English didn’t commit to calling for a rule change, acknowledging it’s been in place for “a long time,” he did honestly detail how the rule hurt him personally on Sunday at the Ryder Cup, as well as how it could impact future Ryder Cup competitors.
“It hurts my ability to play for my team on Sunday, and it’s something I’ll never get back. And I know that I might not ever play a Ryder Cup again,” English told CBS. “So it definitely hurts the other player who is able to play and loses the opportunity to play.
For some context, the 2025 Ryder Cup was English’s second appearance on the U.S. team. He was also part of the Americans’ win at the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. While he automatically qualified for the 2025 U.S. team and is currently ranked No. 13 in the Official World Golf Ranking, two years is a long time. English will be 38 when the 2027 Ryder Cup begins, and there’s no telling if he’ll be able to keep up his elite play long enough to make another U.S. team.
English also revealed that he holds nothing against Hovland, whose injury forced the envelope rule to be enacted.
“Viktor [Hovland] was hurt. I know that. He came up to me. I know he couldn’t play,” English said.
While English admitted he didn’t know how to effectively change the envelope rule, he did imply that the negative impacts to players should be considered when reviewing the rule.
“I don’t know how they should change it. I mean I get that you don’t want to have an alternate up there the whole week. But it’s tough. I know that rule has been in play for a long time, and they’ve only had to use it a couple times. It just sucks that it happened this year,” English said.
You can watch English’s full interview on CBS Golf’s “In Between Shots” here.
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