Best bets
5pts USA @ 2/5 to win
1pt each-way @ 11/2 Patrick Cantlay top US
1pt each-way @ 7/1 Corey Conners top International
1pt win Patrick Cantlay @ 9/1 top overall points
Place FIVE pre-tournament bets and get an in-play matched FREE BET! T&Cs apply.
The Americans love the Presidents Cup because they always win it. Well, not always, but in 14 shootouts with the Internationals – in other words, the Rest of the World minus Europe – they’ve won 12 and dead-heated in one of the other two.
No nation on earth loves winning more than the USA but they’ve been pretty bad at it in the men’s game for quite a while, at least when it comes to taking on Europe, so they can confidently be expected to take out their frustrations on Mike Weir’s multi-national squad – three Canadians, three Australians, four South Koreans, a South African and a Japanese – when they defend their trophy at Royal Montreal this week.
‘The Americans have the first and second and five of the top nine on the world ranking…’
Fitzdares say it’s 2/5 they chalk up No. 13 while it’s 5/2 against the Internationals repeatin their lone success 26 years ago in Melbourne and 14/1 the tie, the result in South Africa in 2003 when the light ran out on the Tiger Woods-Ernie Els playoff and US captain Jack Nicklaus‘s suggestion of sharing the trophy rather than having to come back the following morning was heartily endorsed by Gary Player on behalf of his boys.
The odds are very similar to the odds offered about Joshua and Dubois before Saturday’s big fight and look what happened there! That same day the lowest-rated team in the LIV competition in Dallas not only knocked out the champions but they whitewashed them 3-0, just as outsider Dubois won every round at Wembley.
So anything can happen, particularly when it comes to short-haul 18-hole matchplay.
Remember the Solheim Cup? World No. 1 Nelly Korda got annihilated 6 & 4 by world No. 12 Charley Hull. It’s what happens in sport, isn’t it? That’s why we love it so much.
There SHOULD be no doubt about the outcome here. After all, the Americans have the first and second and five of the top nine on the world rankings, the Internationals just one, Hideki Matsuyama. The former Masters champion is world No. 7.
Backers of the underdogs have to ignore the fact that the combined rankings of the favourites make up to 146 … or 265 spots superior to the “home” side. They have to convince themselves those rankings come via 72-hole strokeplay tournaments, a very different animal. This is eyeball-to-eyeball matchplay, differing from the Ryder Cup only in that it is being played over four days (Thursday start) rather than three and with 30 points at stake rather than 28. One extra pairs match-up on each of the first two days accounts for the points discrepancy.
As for the course, Royal Montreal, which celebrated its 150th anniversary last year, is the oldest in North America. At 7319 yards par 70 it has been extended and tightened up since last hosting the Cup in 2007 when the USA won by five. Weir, this year’s non-playing captain, top-scored for the losers after beating Tiger Woods in the singles.
He was the shortest hitter in his team while the two who did the most damage for the winners, David Toms and Scott Verplank, were also nudgers known for their positional play and course management.
Verplank and Tim Clark, both short off the tee, won Canadian Opens at this week’s track so punters know what type of golfer to look for when betting on Top USA and Top International.
I see Xander Schauffele, his pal and usual playing partner Patrick Cantlay and Collin Morikawa having the best credentials among the Americans and Corey Conners the most suited among the Internationals in terms of driving accuracy. However, he lacks fire and Weir needs someone with flair and aggression to stun the Americans. If the exciting Aussie Min Woo Lee gets enough outings, he could be the week’s surprise package even though he hits a few wides. Fourballs look his forte.
Weir must use his big guns Matsuyama and Scott, both in striking recent form in the States, but with the Japanese’s injury record and Scott’s age, 44, they surely won’t go to post five times, leaving top scorer honours to go elsewhere. Best to keep your powder dry until we see the first-day pairings. Both captains will want to make an early statement so will be piling their best men straight into the fray.
US captain Jim Furyk will be taking no prisoners after it was suggested by an American reporter that it might “energise” the match if the Internationals, losers nine times in a row, actually won one for a change as “it would really help the event”.
Furyk flew back at him, telling him to eff off and calling it “a pretty shitty thing to say”, adding “I know what you’re saying but do you know how offended I am?”.
Clearly, Canadian Open runner-up at Royal Montreal in 2014, is not using the visit to Canada as a goodwill tour to grow the game – he means business and is taking nothing for granted. And he has the great Scheffler on his team. That 2/5 must look tempting to the high rollers. They could win by five, just like last time.
After a rainy start and a mixed Friday, a sunny weekend is expected with temperatures in the 20-22C bracket.
Presidents Cup Teams and Rankings
INTERNATIONAL: Hideki Matsuyama (7), Adam Scott (17), Sungjae Im (20), Tom Kim (23), Jason Day (33), Ben An (35), Corey Conners (37), Min Woo Lee (40), Taylor Pendrith (44), Christiaan Bezuidenhuit (45), Si Woo Kim (50), Mackenzie Hughes (60). Non-playing captain: Mike Weir
USA: Scottie Scheffler (1), Xander Schauffele (2), Collin Morikawa (4), Wyndham Clark (6), Patrick Cantlay (9), Sahith Theegala (11), Russell Henley (14), Keegan Bradley (16), Sam Burns (18), Brian Harman (19), Tony Finau (21), Max Homa (25). Non-playing captain: Jim Furyk
Best bets
2pts each-way Tyrrell Hatton @ 15/2
1pt each-way Matthieu Pavon @ 25/1
1pt each-way Matt Wallace @ 20/1
1pt each-way Aaron Rai @ 12/1
0.5pt each-way Eddie Pepperell @ 100/1
Top-Ten finish
0.5pt each-way Ugo Coussaud @ 11/1
0.5pt each-way Alfredo Garcia-Heredia @ 10/1
First-round leader
0.5pt each-way Garcia-Heredia @ 80/1
0.5pt each-way Wallace @ 33/1
For 99.9 percent of the field, finishing runner-up in two of Europe’s highest-profile tournaments, the Irish Open and BMW PGA, they’d be over the moon. Only Rory McIlroy gets a bollocking – such is the price of fame – and for Wentworth at least he didn’t deserve it.
Without quite bringing his A game to the course on any day, he shot 22 under for 74 holes in losing out to a Billy Horschel extra-time eagle in a totally riveting West Course showdown. The only hole he might need to reproach himself for was the messy five he made from the middle of the 72nd fairway when a birdie four would, as it transpired, would have won our finest golfer a second PGA.
Golf isn’t a game of perfect, sometimes an impatient public expects too much, and finishing eagle three, par five, birdie four, birdie four from holes 71 to 74 does not in any way come under the disaster label. Sixteen shots for those four holes is great golf in anyone’s language. But Horschel’s 15 was greater. That’s golf and it was the most mature golf we’ve seen from the flawed genius that is Rory McIlroy in quite a while. Sure, a three-win year might well have been a six-win year or even more but it’s not finished. There’s the Dunhill Links next and isn‘t it a joy to have him, not only the best golfer but the best talker, over in the UK for a while? And as he’s having a house built at Wentworth, maybe we’ll see more of this legend. Watch this space!
‘Rahm and fellow LIV travellers have set their sights on DP World Tour plunder…’
Right behind Horschel, winning at Wentworth for the second time in four years much to the delight of Fitzdares’ punters who hopefully were on at the recommended 14/1, came Aaron Rai and Matteo Manassero in a share of fourth. Both were massively impressive, Manassero with a 63 on day three that outshone playing partners McIlroy and Horschel and earned him a three-shot lead going into Sunday, Rai with incredibly precise golf until he hit the water and ran up a six at the last when, as it turned out, a birdie four would have got him into the playoff.
After two heavy weeks in contention, Manassero could be in need of a rest but turns out with Rai for the Spanish Open – or Acciona Open de Espana presented by Madrid, to give the tournament its full title – at Club de Camp Villa in Madrid this week. Both are good enough for Ryder Cup duty. Rai’s accuracy was off the scale and a repetition of that will make him a threat to all in Madrid, even course specialists Jon Rahm and Matthieu Pavon, winners here the past two years.
With the LIV year finished, Rahm and fellow LIV travellers Tyrrell Hatton, Patrick Reed, David Puig and Eugenio Chacarra have set their sights on DP World Tour plunder and will be allowed to earn world ranking points until appeals against sanctions are heard.
Having been a last-minute LIV Team Championship withdrawal in Dallas last Friday, citing severe flu-like symptoms, it would be ironic but entirely possible to see Rahm perform out of his skin so quickly after ruling himself out of the opportunity of a huge LIV payday.
His two wins at Club de Campo’s 7154-yard par 71, a course he knows like the back of his hand, were by massive margins but he lost there last year (T9) and in 2021 (T17) so there’s enough there to take him on, at least until we see for ourselves what state he’s in. This is not a tournament he plays for the money, if he’s there it’s because he loves Spain and doesn’t want to let anybody down.
In Rahm’s absence, Hatton took over the captaincy of the Legion XIII squad, playing so responsibly that he got them to Dallas final. If Rahm’s stand-in John Catlin could have matched Tyrrell’s Sunday 68 they would still nearly have won but Catlin is no Rahm.
This was a continuation of Hatton’s stellar autumn form with LIV and if he can transfer that to Madrid he is a big chance. He may not know the course as well as some but he’s pure class and one of the world’s best when he doesn’t beat himself.
Club de Campo was the scene of Frenchman Pavon’s European breakthrough last year and he did it in style, by four shots, in an admittedly weaker field than this, as Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry and recent Crans winner Matt Wallace are also on parade this week.
It’s a pity late-bloomer Pavon didn’t do better than T40 at Wentworth as he was going to be my No. 1 pick as a course winner last year and runner-up to Rahm in 2022. Like Wallace, he is a champion on both main tours – at Torrey Pines and Madrid – and was fifth in the US Open. He still looks value at 25/1.
Although never getting into the firing line, Fleetwood and Lowry played well enough at Wentworth to encourage supporters but I have run out of enthusiasm for short-priced players whose wins-to-runs ratios don’t match their reputations. They shared 12th spot with Wallace, a winner already this month and almost three times Fleetwood’s odds.
Ryder Cup man Sepp Straka is another for the short list but I would be against Reed as the controversial American does not seem to hole out as well as he used to.
Of the real outsiders Alejandro Del Rey is talented and will pop up one day, Ugo Coussaud played a blinder for his T7 at Wentworth, not for the first time (runner-up in Qatar too), and Eddie Pepperell who tied 12th with some big names at Wentworth has course form, T13 to Rahm two years ago.
Local star Alfredo Garcia-Heredia has even more compelling credentials for a Top-Ten or Top-20 interest. Pipped by Wallace in a European Masters playoff only a few weeks ago, he’s not the most consistent golfer on the planet but raises his game when he’s at home, having finished fifth on the Challenge de Espana in April and T4 to Rahm in Madrid two years ago. As Garcia-Heredia co-led at Crans with a first-day 63, he’s attractively priced at 80/1 for first-round leader, along with Wallace who is 33/1 on this market and often shows up early.
There will probably be some rain for round one but the rest of the week looks set fair, with Saturday particularly sunny and temperatures in the mid-20s. But until we know more about Rahm’s state of health, this is a hard one to be confident about.
For all your bets on the golf, visit our dedicated golf betting page.
