The week after a thrilling end to the PGA Tour season we move to team golf as the Presidents Cup takes place in New York. Once again the USA take on the Internationals in the Ryder Cup style event.
USA historically have dominated this competition but most judges would suggest this is the strongest side the Internationals have ever put together so officials are hoping this will be a close match.
Recent Winners
2015 – USA
2013 – USA
2011 – USA
2009 – USA
2007 – USA
2005 – USA
2003 – Tied
2000 – USA
1998 – Internationals
1996 – USA
The Format
As with the Ryder Cup each side have 12 players on their team but unlike the Ryder Cup this event is played over four days. The opening day consists of five fourball matches while the second day sees five foursomes matches played. Saturday will see morning fourballs before afternoon foursomes with four matches in each session and then the Cup will be decided on Sunday when the traditional 12 singles are played. Each match is over 18 holes and the first team to 15.5 wins the Presidents Cup.
The Course
Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey is the venue for this renewal. The course has previously hosted The Barclays, now The Northern Trust, on the PGA Tour. It is a par 71 which measures 7,328 yards and is very quirky in that the first nine plays to a par of 38 with just 33 for the inward nine.
The course is famed for the water on 12 of the holes. The fairways are narrow but the greens are large and undulating and very well protected so iron play will be important this week. Length is also likely to be a factor but this is match play and pairings only have to beat their opponents not the course or the field.
USA
Steve Stricker skippers the USA this year and his team looks very strong. It has the new FedEx Cup champion Justin Thomas in it as well as The Open champion Jordan Spieth and US Open winner Brooks Koepka. World number one Dustin Johnson strengthens them too. Daniel Berger, Kevin Kisner, Kevin Chappell and Charley Hoffman will be debuting for the Americans. Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar, Rickie Fowler and Patrick Reed make up their team.
Internationals
Although he lost as captain two years ago Nick Price has retained the captaincy for the Internationals. Hideki Matsuyama and Jason Day give their side a real strong look to it. Recent BMW Championship winner Marc Leishman is on their side too while Adam Scott, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace are all experienced players in this tournament. The Internationals side includes debutants Adam Hadwin, Jhonattan Vegas, Emiliano Grillo and Si-Woo Kim. The team is rounded off by Anirban Lahiri.
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Betting
If this tournament was anywhere other than New York I might make a case for the Internationals to be competitive but they have only been closer than three points in America once and there is no doubt in my mind that USA will be inspired by the crowds this week.
To be fair this looks like one of the strongest American sides ever assembled and it is unfortunate for the Internationals, who are probably as strong as they have ever been, that they are the ones to run into it. I don’t think the visitors will be disgraced but I can see them losing each session by a point on average and that covers a 3.5pt handicap.
I’ll have a little dabble at the correct score where 18-12 feels about right and at 14/1 is a nice price. I would imagine the foursomes and singles will be quite close but the Americans will dominate the fourballs. A 4-1 win and a 3-1 win in that discipline means they only need to shade the rest of the week which seems fair to me.
Tips
WON – Back USA (-3.5pts) to beat Internationals for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Paddy Power
Back them here:
Back USA to win 18-12 for a 1/10 stake at 15.00 with BetVictor
Back them here:
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