Two weeks after his controversial withdrawal at the Ryder Cup, Viktor Hovland is back in action in the India Championship.<\/p>\n
Hovland withdrew before the Sunday singles session at Bethpage Black after an MRI exam revealed a disc bulge in his neck. Because of the Ryder Cup captain\u2019s agreement, his final match against American Harris English was considered a halve, with each side receiving a half-point in what became a 15-13 European victory.<\/p>\n
Hovland called the situation \u201cpretty upsetting,\u201d not just for himself but also English, who went 0-2-1 and was forced to the sidelines on the last day. Hovland, who went 1-1-1 for the week, was also a late scratch for the Saturday fourballs session.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re so used to in sports, if you can\u2019t play because you\u2019re hurt, obviously that should be a loss of point,\u201d Hovland told reporters Tuesday in India. \u201cBut I think in the spirit of the Ryder Cup, and the spirt 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\u2019s more of a gentleman\u2019s agreement that, OK, you were hurt this time, and maybe the next time there\u2019s a guy on the U.S. team is and we\u2019re all kind of sympathetic about the person being hurt and not being able to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s kind of a mutual understanding that if we were healthy, we would all go out there and play. I don\u2019t think people are using that to really finagle the system and try and squeak by.\u201d<\/p>\n
In place in the Ryder Cup since 1979, the \u201cEnvelope Rule\u201d hadn\u2019t been used by a team since \u201993. As the Americans staged a frenetic final-day rally at Bethpage, it appeared as though Hovland\u2019s half-point for not competing might prove to be the difference, with Europe needing only 14 points to retain the cup.<\/p>\n
That only further ramped up calls for the rule to be amended for the modern matches. U.S. captain Keegan Bradley, who signed the pre-match agreement with Luke Donald, said afterward that the rule needed to be changed before the 2027 edition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rule has to change,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cI think it\u2019s obvious to everybody in the sports world, in this room. Nothing against Viktor. But that rule needs to be changed by the next Ryder Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bradley said he had \u201ca few ideas\u201d on how to change the rule but didn\u2019t elaborate.<\/p>\n
There isn\u2019t an easy solution.<\/p>\n
Each team carrying an alternate (13th man) also comes with its share of unintended consequences, with the potential for underperforming players to potentially fake an injury for the benefit of the team. Losing a full point for a withdrawal also could be tricky \u2013 knowing that the other team will want to send out on its best players early in the singles session to mount a comeback, Hovland said, the injured player could be slotted in the lineup as a \u201csacrificial lamb\u201d and take the loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any ideal to way to do it,\u201d Hovland said, \u201cbut I think (a half-point each) is just a better way overall to do it, even though it\u2019s just a tough situation. And at the end of the day, I think we\u2019d all be wanting to go out there and play.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for how Hovland is feeling, he told reporters that he didn\u2019t touch a club for a week and a half after the Ryder Cup to let his neck issue calm down. He played back-to-back rounds at home without much discomfort and decided to make the long flight to India, where he was relieved to find that he won\u2019t have to hit many drivers because of Delhi Golf Club\u2019s narrow corridors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat definitely helps my neck because it\u2019s the driver that gives me the biggest amount of pain,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully we\u2019ll stick to the 3-iron and the neck will be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two weeks after his controversial withdrawal at the Ryder Cup, Viktor Hovland is back in action in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-212749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}