Viktor Hovland Withdraws From Ryder Cup Saturday Four-Ball Session With Neck Injury

Team Europe’s Ryder Cup could have barely gone any better after three sessions, taking a commanding 8.5-3.5 lead into the Saturday afternoon four-ball.

However, their apparently relentless charge to the title has been dealt a significant blow with the withdrawal of Viktor Hovland from the final session of the day.

The Norwegian has suffered a neck injury and has been replaced by Tyrrell Hatton in the four-ball session, with the Englishman alongside Matt Fitzpatrick in the fourth match against Sam Burns and Patrick Cantlay.

A statement released by the Ryder Cup confirmed the news, saying: "Due to a neck injury Viktor Hovland is unable to play Match #4 of this afternoon’s Four-Ball Matches.

"Tyrrell Hatton will be substituted for Viktor Hovland in Match #4.Per item 3.c) in the Captains Agreement: For Foursome and Four-Ball:
It is agreed that in the event of illness, injury or other emergency reason to a player selected to play in a match, he may be substituted by another member of the team previously not selected, prior to the commencement of this match."

Hovland played alongside Robert MacIntyre in the morning session of foursomes, where they claimed a 1 up win over Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley.

While there is no official news on the severity of the injury, Sky Sports' Jamie Weir reported he will is expected to be fine for the Sunday singles session, describing the withdrawal as "precautionary."

That will come as a relief to not just European captain Luke Donald, but, unusually, also US counterpart Keegan Bradley.

If Hovland's injury had been severe enough to rule him out, the little-known Ryder Cup envelope rule would come into play, which has the potential to place the captains in an unenviable position.

It requires each captain to place the name of one of his players in an envelope – essentially, the player he is most comfortable not playing in the event a player withdraws.

If all 12 players from each team are able to play in the Sunday singles, the envelope remains unsealed and the player whose name is inside it never finds out it was him.

If Hovland were not able to play on Sunday, the name US captain Keegan Bradley placed in the envelope would be revealed and paired with Hovland, and the match will be halved.

It's not the first time in recent months Hovland has had to withdraw because of a neck injury.

He cut his final round of June's Travelers Championship short after just two holes.

After the withdrawal, he explained: “I was just going to hit a little bit last couple drivers before I was going to go to the first tee, and hit one shot and then felt a little bit in my neck, but it didn't, it felt fine, didn't feel hardly anything at all, just felt like something was maybe brewing.

“Then the next shot that I hit with a driver it just felt like, yeah, it just cracked. I don't know exactly what happened, but there's something that happened and just couldn't move.”