By Ben Husband,Oisin Doherty

Copyright irishmirror

Viktor Hovland has been withdrawn from the singles at the Ryder Cup, with the envelope rule coming into effect at Bethpage Black. The Norwegian sustained a neck injury on Saturday, though remained optimistic he would be available for the final day’s action. Nevertheless, confirmation came before play commenced that Hovland had been sidelined. This triggered the seldom-used envelope rule, with Harris English being the player designated by USA captain Keegan Bradley. Prior to the tournament’s commencement, both captains must nominate one player to be withdrawn should their opponents suffer an injury. That player is then paired with the injured opponent, with the match instantly chalked down as a half for both teams. The half means Europe move a little closer to retaining the Ryder Cup, moving to 12 points, just two away from the magic number. The Europeans have enjoyed a dominant opening two days, winning all four sessions in front of a hostile American crowd. But captain Luke Donald insisted that his team wouldn’t let up and their full focus was winning a fifth and final session. He said: “Our goal is always to win every session, you know, no matter where we are, and that will be our goal tomorrow. “You know, we love to do things that haven’t been done before, and we’ve achieved quite a few things this week already. But the goal for me is still, we’re close to the finish line, but we still have a long way to go. “These guys are very aware of what the difficult environment is going to be like tomorrow. So we’re excited for the challenge, but our goal will be to win the session tomorrow.”