Viktor Hovland missing Ryder Cup Day 2 afternoon session with injury

Team Europe’s Viktor Hovland is dealing with a neck injury and won’t pair with Matt Fitzpatrick in the afternoon session, Ryder Cup officials announced Saturday afternoon.

Tyrrell Hatton was tapped to take Hovland’s place. 

The issue had been bothering him during the final few holes of his morning session, Cara Banks reported on the NBC broadcast.

“He spoke to captain Luke Donald about it on the 18th green when they won their point this morning,” she reported. “They decided he would get treatment, and if it was OK, he would go, and if not, Tyrrell Hatton knew there was a good chance he would go out.

“Tyrrell was prepared, warming up on the driving range.”

The Europeans could make the change thanks to item 3.c of the Captains Agreement: “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.”

Hatton had played in the morning foursome session with Jon Rahm and helped topple Team USA’s Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay at Bethpage Black.

Hovland helped Robert MacIntyre beat Russell Hanley and Scottie Scheffler in the morning session.

Hovland had called the moment “so good.” 

“Especially after Rome, it kind of went as good as it could have gone for our team,” he said after the match. “But we were very motivated to do the same over here. So far, we’re doing the job, but there’s still a long ways to go and we’ve just got to keep our foot down and keep playing well.”