Harris English breaks his silence on Keegan Bradley putting his name in the envelope at the Ryder Cup

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The envelope rule was a hot topic of discussion after Europe beat the United States at the Ryder Cup this year.

Harris English was the man who received the unwanted honor of being named as the player who Keegan Bradley picked as his 12th man at the Ryder Cup, so to speak.

The Ryder Cup ‘envelope rule’ is one of the most controversial regulations at golf’s showpiece event.

Both captains have to designate one of their players at the start of the week as the person who will miss out on the singles matches, if a player from the opposing side is injured.

The thing is, it has only been called into action three times in the history of the tournament – in 1991 and 1993 and in 2025.

English called for the envelope rule to be scrapped immediately after the Ryder Cup singles matches had reached a conclusion.

However, that is clearly something that Bradley and his players should have been pushing for BEFORE the competition started, not after.

Europe have now won six of the last eight meetings with the United States and nine of the last 12.

But would things really have been any different, had Viktor Hovland been fit to face English?

Harris English breaks silence on his name being in the envelope at the Ryder Cup

English played two games before the singles, losing both foursomes matches alongside his partner Collin Morikawa.

The decision from Bradley to pair English and Morikawa together in the foursomes on Friday and Saturday was, quite frankly, a horrendous one.

However, the American team seemed to focus on the envelope rule as the reason why they lost on the final day.

Missing out on the singles was obviously gutting for English, but how did he react when he actually found out that his name was in the envelope?

When speaking on The Gravy & The Sleeze Podcast with Colt Knost & Drew Stoltz, English responded when asked how he really felt when Bradley told him that he wouldn’t be playing in the singles matches at Bethpage.

He said: “I mean obviously you’re pretty pissed. I’m gearing up, ready to go play a Sunday singles match at the Ryder Cup.

“That was one of my two main goals this year, to make the Ryder Cup, and to not be aware that opportunity to play on Sunday, it sucked.

“Keegan came and told me and it was a little bit of a shock, and I kind of had to process that for a little bit.

“Then I had to put my earpiece on and microphone on and kind of had to be another assistant captain.

“But I had a great time, watching those guys compete on Sunday and almost come back to beat the Europeans was incredible.

“I was looking at the pairings that morning and I was like, ‘I can see a scenario where we win every single match’, and that almost happened.

“I was so happy to be a part of that team and watch those guys battle to the finish.

“The Ryder Cup is awesome, it’s the pinnacle of our sport, it’s something I always want to be a part of.

“I’m looking forward to having the opportunity of going to play in Ireland in a couple of years and I’m going to work as hard as I can to try and get back there.”

Edoardo Molinari made a great point about the envelope rule

Not long after the Ryder Cup had finished, European vice-captain Edoardo Molinari commented on the American complaints about the envelope rule.

He said: “I think the envelope rule is the lesser of two evils probably.

“If you had a 13th guy around, the 13th guy would have played a practice round and then just sit around all week.

“I don’t know, I don’t think that’s a great idea.

“The other thing I heard was that if someone is injured, you just lose your point. But that opens the door to, well if one of my players is injured I’m trying to put him out in one of the first few games and get one of the best players out from their team as well. That means Scottie Scheffler or Bryson would not have played on Sunday, which is pretty s—-y.

“Obviously it happened this time, I don’t think it should be changed because most of the time it’s irrelevant and it doesn’t happen very often at all.

“You have to think also that players would love to go out and play on Sunday. So if Viktor had any chance to go out and swing a club, he would have gone out and maybe lose a point or maybe win a point, we don’t know.“

Molinari is 100 per cent correct. The rule has been in place for pretty much the entire history of the competition and now the United States want it changed?

No, that’s simply not on. As mentioned earlier, any grievances they had should have been aired before the Ryder Cup began.

And behind closed doors, English, Bradley and the rest of the US Ryder Cup team will probably admit that complaining about the envelope rule was nothing more than a case of sour grapes.