'The Most Uncomfortable Thing I Ever Had To Do' - The Little-Known Ryder Cup Envelope Rule

One of the more obscure Ryder Cup rules involves an envelope sealed by the captains with the name of one of their players and handed in within an hour of the end of the second day’s play.

However, it doesn’t concern the action taking place on the Saturday, but rather a potential issue in the Sunday singles.

Since 1979, which was also the first Ryder Cup between the US and Europe, the Sunday singles session has adhered to the format of all 12 players from each team taking on an opponent.

That wasn’t the case in earlier editions, where there was no obligation for each member of the team to compete in the final session of the match.

The change of format presented a potential issue, though – what if a player gets ill or injured and can’t compete in the final session?

To answer that question, the envelope rule was introduced for the Greenbrier edition in 1979.

It requires each captain to place the name of one of his players in the envelope – essentially, the player he is most comfortable not playing in the worst-case scenario.

Clearly, that is not an enviable choice, and 2002 US captain Curtis Strange suggested as much, saying it was “the most uncomfortable thing I ever had to do.”

There is some good news for the captains. The first is that, if there is no need to unseal the envelope, the player whose name has been chosen need never find out. That’s because the envelope is destroyed if there’s no reason to open it.

Another positive for current captains Keegan Bradley and Luke Donald is that history is on their side, with the envelope only needing to be unsealed twice in the 22 editions leading up to the Bethpage Black match since it was introduced, with the most recent time coming 32 years ago.

The first time it happened was in 1991 at Kiawah Island, when US player Steve Pate was injured in a car accident earlier in the week.

He was unable to play in the Sunday singles, meaning European captain Bernhard Gallacher’s choice was revealed – Englishman David Gilford. As a result, Gilford didn’t play, and the hypothetical match was halved.

Interestingly, the US won the match by just one point – 14.5 to 13.5, surely leaving a sense of what might have been had Gilford and Pate faced each other and Gilford won.

For the record, had that happened, the Europeans, as the holders, would have retained the trophy as it would have resulted in a tie at 14-14.

The second and most recent time the envelope was unsealed came just two years later at The Belfry.

On that occasion, US captain Tom Watson’s life was made considerably easier when Lanny Wadkins volunteered his name for the envelope after Europe's Sam Torrance picked up a foot injury and couldn’t play.

Once again, that match was halved, with the US going on to win 15-13.

There has been one occasion where the rule has been tweaked, and that came in 2021 at Whistling Straits in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Captains Steve Stricker and Padraig Harrington still had to hand over a sealed envelope containing one name, but they were also required to submit a second envelope containing three more names in order of substitution.

That was to safeguard against the possibility that one or more players could need to skip the Sunday singles if they tested positive for Covid-19.

Once again, the rule was that, if that were to happen, each team’s player would be treated as having been paired together, and the match would be halved.

In the event, neither envelope needed to be unsealed and all 24 players competed as the US ran out 19-9 winners.