The wraparound 2016-17 US Golf season has come to an end following Xander Schauffele’s surprise win in the Tour Championship. That meant that Justin Thomas cemented his place as the form player in world golf by coming out on top in the FedEx Cup and scooping that staggering $10m cheque.
Thoughts now turn from individual glory to the team action of the Presidents Cup. The 12th edition of this event will be held at Liberty National in New Jersey and gets underway on the 28th September. For many Europeans this event is little more than a Ryder Cup rip-off, however, for many international stars it is an eagerly anticipated and much-loved fixture of the golf calendar.
Here we focus on the outright winner betting – in other words, who will win the 2017 Presidents Cup. We’ve got odds comparison for that key market to help you get the best value and biggest betting odds. Whether you fancy the hosts, the International side or an unlikely draw, our live odds comparison is the quickest way to the biggest prices.
At the time of writing the USA are priced at odds of 4/11 with Coral. The draw is out at predictably huge odds of 14/1 (Betfair) and you can back the International team at the chunky price of 10/3 (Bet365 and others).
Steve Stricker captains the favourites whilst Zimbabwean Nick Price does the honours for the Internationals. The USA team may be the strongest ever assembled for this event and it is no surprise to see them as odds-on favourites. We predict that betting big hitters will be viewing odds of 4/11 as a license to print money and it’s hard to disagree with that view.
The US side features the winners of the three most recent majors (Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka). Spain’s Sergio Garcia won the Masters and is of course ineligible to play.
The USA also boast the world number one, in Dustin Johnson. With Spieth ranked second, Thomas fourth and Rickie Fowler eighth, the home side have an embarrassment of riches. That is added to by Koepka and Matt Kuchar, ranked 11th and 12th, giving Team USA six of the top 12 ranked players in the world.
Their opponents have some genuine class in the shape of world number three Hideki Matsuyama and world number seven Jason Day. Aussie Marc Leishman (16) gives them a third player in the top 20 but overall the disparity in rankings is stark.
The USA also have a host of players with Ryder Cup experience and when you throw in the advantage of vocal home support, it’s really hard to see any way for the International group to cause an upset.
Whilst all of the US squad are accustomed to big pressure situations and the sort of conditions we’ll see at Liberty National, that is not the case for Price’s charges. Players such as Adam Hadwin (ranked 47th), Hideto Tanihara (56th), Yuta Ikeda (52nd) and Li Haotong (65th) are, quite simply, out of their depth here.
The team format allows for some inexperience to be hidden but ultimately, with so many second tier players, it’s impossible to see any way Price can shuffle his cards to produce a winning hand. With 30 matches, including 12 singles contests, in the end we predict the superior class of the US side to shine through.
Whilst it is true that the home side actually have a whopping six rookies in their group, compared to four for the Internationals, the experience still favours Team USA. Consider, for example, that two of those six rookies are Thomas and Koepka, and you see our point.
Our very simple betting tip and prediction here is for a US victory. Don’t let odds of 4/11 put you off. Those odds are short but they represent superb value. The Internationals last avoided defeat back in 2003 when we saw a 17-17 tie in South Africa. Their only win came in 1998 in Melbourne. Whilst the 2015 Presidents Cup, held in Seoul, was relatively close (the US won 15.5-14.5) on US soil results have frequently been far more emphatic.
Away from the outright betting we like the look of Thomas to be top American at 7/1, although Koepka, who loves the big occasion looks big at 11/1. In the corresponding market for the International side we predict Branden Grace (9/1 Sportingbet) could be a good bet given his strong record in the event.