Golf-Europe’s Hovland withdraws from Ryder Cup singles match

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FARMINGDALE, New York (Reuters) -Europe’s Viktor Hovland has withdrawn from his singles match at Bethpage Black on Sunday due to a neck injury, a decision that leaves his team 2-1/2 points from winning the Ryder Cup.

As per the Ryder Cup captains’ agreement, the Norwegian’s clash with American Harris English, which was to be the anchor match of the day, is treated as a tie and gives Europe a 12-5 lead over the U.S. heading into the 11 singles matches

“There is nothing more I would like to do than be out there representing Team Europe and trying to help them win the Ryder Cup today,” said Hovland.

“Not being able to do so is pretty heartbreaking. I will be backing my team as hard as I can and rooting them on.”

According to Ryder Cup Europe’s Chief Medical Officer an MRI confirmed Hovland has a flare up of a previous injury – a disc bulge in his neck.

Hovland who was a late scratch from his Saturday fourballs match and later had an MRI, which had left his status for the final day of the Ryder Cup in question.

The Norwegian played a Saturday morning foursomes match with Robert MacIntyre and the European duo earned a 1UP victory over U.S. world number one Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley.

During the match, Hovland took anti-inflammatories and felt okay when he walked off the course but started feeling more pain after when he was hitting balls on the range.

Hovland’s withdrawal triggered the use of a seldom-used ‘envelope rule’ for the closing singles matches.

When captains submit their singles lineup on Saturday, they will each provide a name in a sealed envelope.

The player named in the envelope would then sit out if the opposing team had a player who was unable to play because of illness, injury or some other emergency reason.

(Reporting by Frank Pingue; editing by Ken Ferris and Pritha Sarkar)