The 2021 Ryder Cup gets underway in Wisconsin on Friday and we are a few hours away from the captains selecting their pairings for the first session of foursomes in the competition, which gives us just enough time to take a look at the various markets for the point scorers.
We’ll begin with the home side USA who have a raft of talent in their squad with a current major champion, the FedExCup winner and no fewer than six major champions in their 12 man team. This is a very competitive team.
Automatic Qualifiers
The Open champion Collin Morikawa was the leading qualifier for Team USA courtesy of that win at Royal St Georges. The FedExCup winner of last season, Dustin Johnson, was second in the standings even though he has had anything but a decent year by his standards. Former US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau was the third highest scorer in the USA standings with his total boosted by his win at Winged Foot as well as a couple of other tournaments along the way.
Brooks Koepka didn’t win a major in 2021 which was a bit of a surprise by his standards but he did enough earlier in the qualifying process to finish fourth on the point list and have his place in this side sewn up fairly early on. Justin Thomas is a pillar of consistency and after he landed The Players Championship back in March there was no way he wasn’t on this team. The last man in was the FedExCup champion Patrick Cantlay who edged out one or two others when winning the BMW Championship.
Captains Picks
Steve Stricker went down the bold route of having six captains picks for this tournament. That was frowned upon when the announcement was made but it might have been a blessing in disguise given the talent who didn’t make the top six in this team. Tony Finau was edged out in the qualification list but the winner of The Northern Trust and leading point scorer for USA in Paris in 2018 was never not going to be on this team, neither were numbers eight and nine on the list – the Olympic champion Xander Schauffele and multi-major winner Jordan Spieth.
Stricker saved his final three picks for the men who finished 10, 12 and 14 in the qualifying list even though the likes of Patrick Reed, Kevin Na and Billy Horschel all held strong credentials for being in this side. They were edged out though with Harris English’s consistency over the year getting him the nod. Daniel Berger doesn’t have the tournament wins to his name that he would have liked but he has made the team while the one player who hasn’t won anything on the USA team is Scottie Scheffler. He did finish second to Horschel at the WGC Matchplay though which might be significant.
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Profile
So who are we looking for this week? Clearly in order to get the most points we’re looking at someone who will play as many of the five sessions as is possible. Anyone carrying an injury or who isn’t suited to both pairs formats should be forgotten this week, especially if as expected USA dominate this competition. If they do that we’re looking for 4+ points to be the winning total so anyone who might only play three sessions aren’t worth considering.
The positive with this American side is Stricker has captained before in the Presidents Cup and so we can get a feel for how he thinks from that. We can also see an idea of potential pairings which should help us when it comes to picking. Remember if you pick a player who is likely to partner the same player all week you need the player in the partnership with the better chance of a singles point as they will obviously go into singles tied.
Betting
For me, the USA point markets are between four men because I see Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth pairing up for all four sessions and the same goes for Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele. You could offer up cases for the likes of Dustin Johnson, Tony Finau and Bryson DeChambeau being course fits but I don’t see any of them playing all five sessions while the likes of Brooks Koepka and Collin Morikawa have injury issues which will stop them playing all five.
I fail to see the leading USA scorer coming from outside the first quartet I named and nobody in the golfing world is in better form than Patrick Cantlay right now. Cantlay and Schauffele went 2-2 as a pair in the Presidents Cup but their game blends so well I don’t see them being split up all week unless they have an absolute mare on Friday. Cantlay won his singles in 2019 to finish the week with three points and I expect him to be the leading man for USA here. He is putting like a dream at the minute. He drives the ball brilliantly and his short game is so much improved since he last represented USA. I have my doubts over Spieth and the length of this course and Thomas’ putter has been far too cold in the last couple of months. The winner comes from Cantlay or Schauffele for me and I’ll pick the FedEx champion at a massive 15/2.
Tips
Back P.Cantlay Top USA Point Scorer (e/w) for a 2/10 stake at 8.50 with Betfair (1/4 1-3)
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