The Presidents Cup concludes on Sunday and it does so with all 12 players from each team in action on the same day for the only time in the tournament when a session of singles play determines the outcome of the competition.
USA have dominated proceedings to date and will take an 11-7 lead into the Sunday singles. That means they need 4.5pts from the 12 available to win the cup while the Internationals need an unlikely 8.5pts to get their hands on the trophy.
First Six Matches
The fightback that the International team showed on Saturday afternoon at least ensures that the first six matches of the singles will carry some significance and meaning so we should see some decent golf within them. USA are opening with the unbeaten Justin Thomas who will take on Si Woo Kim before Jordan Spieth goes out looking for a five-point haul from the week when he meets one of the Saturday heroes in Cameron Davis. The third match of the day looks like a good one as Sam Burns plays the former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama before Patrick Cantlay takes on Adam Scott in the heavyweight battle of the day. The world number one Scottie Scheffler is unleashed on the course in game five when he plays Sebastian Munoz before we reach the halfway mark of the session when Tony Finau battles Taylor Pendrith in a repeat of the final round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic from earlier in the season.
Later Six Matches
It will all depend on how those opening six matches are going as to how important the second half of the session will prove to be. The logic would think that the cup will be won fairly early on in this second part of the singles and it could be that Xander Schauffele is the man to bring home the bacon when he meets Corey Conners who has been very poor so far this weekend. If Schauffele doesn’t win the cup then the USA side might have to wait a while as two rookies follow him out. Cameron Young is the first of those. He meets Sungjae Im while former WGC Match Play champion Billy Horschel takes on K-H Lee. Social media is looking forward to the third to last match of the day as Max Homa meets the new Internationals hero Tom Kim before the cup concludes with matches between Collin Morikawa and Mito Pereira while Kevin Kisner faces Christiaan Bezuidenhout for the final point of the week.
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Betting
There are a couple of International players I like to win their matches in the second half of the day but I’m reluctant to get involved in matches that might carry little significance so I’ll stick to a couple of bets in the earlier part of the day. The first one comes in match two where Jordan Spieth takes on Cameron Davis. In essence I don’t need to bet on this because a Spieth failure to win opens the door to Thomas being the top scorer and Davis being the leading International wildcard but I just can’t ignore the 6/4 quotes on the Aussie without the tie in play. There is this recognition or acceptance that Spieth is a great match play golfer but in seven singles matches in this or the Ryder Cup he has a solitary half point to his name with six losses. They have been to Graham DeLaet, Marc Leishman, Jhonattan Vegas, Graeme McDowell, Henrik Stenson and Thorbjorn Olesen so in at least three of those he would have been a heavy favourite. Even this week while he has delivered some show reel stuff he has had to rely on Justin Thomas a fair bit and I think the erratic nature of Spieth will open the door to a Davis who should be buzzing after his finish on Saturday. Davis has actually played well this weekend and if his putter can remain hot for the first nine holes and he get out in front the back nine plays to his strengths. I’ll pay to see if the Australian can keep Spieth winless in singles.
The other bet I like comes in the third match of the day where Sam Burns will be extremely motivated to win against a Hideki Matsuyama who himself probably knows he needs to turn up here. Burns has played all four sessions and only has a half point to show for his efforts but he has played so much better than that but hasn’t been assisted by his partners. Scottie Scheffler has had a quiet week by his standards and Billy Horschel was so average on Saturday afternoon that Burns might as well have played Scott and Davis on his own. The one thing Burns has done all week is putt well and I think that will be the difference here. Matsuyama probably hasn’t played terribly he just hasn’t played as well as the Internationals needed him to and he has putted really badly. With Hideki giving Burns distance off the tee if he doesn’t find his form with the putter this will be a point that goes to the USA fairly early. I’ll back Burns in this one.
Tips
Back C.Davis to beat J.Spieth (no tie) for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back S.Burns to beat H.Matsuyama (no tie) for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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