As it does every second year, the Presidents Cup takes centre stage in the golfing world this week, pitting the United States against the rest of the world (excluding Europe) in an exciting three day fixture.
To add an extra level of excitement this year, the tournament will be held in Melvourne for the first time since 2011! We have a full preview and betting tips for the event, which gets underway on Friday, below.
2019 Presidents Cup Betting Tips
The United States have won 10 of the 12 Presidents Cups in history, with the International team winning one back in 1998 and a tie in 2003. Coincidentally, the only time the international team won, the event was held at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club, the same venue that will host this weeks event.
Australian Peter Thomson captained the winning International side which was headlined by the likes of Greg Norman, Steve Elkington, Vijay Singh and South African Ernie Els.
Els will be making another appearance at the Presidents Cup this week, this time as captain. It will be Els’ debut event as captain, and he will become the first South African since Gary Player to captain the international side.
On the other side of the fence, captaining the United States side will be arguably the greatest player of all time, Tiger Woods. Woods will not only be captaining the side, but he rightly selected himself as one of the US teams captain’s selections so he will be playing in the event too.
International Team
The 2019 International Team is without doubt one of the most talented teams they have ever assembled and have to fancy themselves on ‘home soil’. Headlined by seven players ranked inside the top 40 in the world, most notable the likes of Adam Scott, Hideki Matsuyama, Louis Oosthuizen and Abraham Ancer, who all bring strong form into the tournament.
United States
Unfortunately for the International team, their opponents have also brought over one of their strongest ever sides. With the exception of a few standout European players like Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy, the majority of the top 10 players in the world are American, and most of them will be making the trip to Melbourne.
Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Tiger Woods and Patrick Cantley are all top 10 players who will anchor the team.
Predictions
The United States start as commanding $1.40 favourites to win the tournament and they are hard to look past given the sheer talent on their roster. If there is one thing working in the international sides favour, however, it’s the amount of Australian’s they have in their line-up and the familiarity they will have with Royal Melbourne Golf Course.
Adam Scott, Marc Leismann and Cameron Smith give the international team an advantage on home soil, one that shouldn’t be underrated. When the internationals won the tournament back in 1998 at Royal Melbourne, they had four Australians on the team who combined for an 11-3-4 record over the course of the tournament.
If you want some value here, definitely look towards the international side, they are easily capable of winning this tournament and should be at lower odds than the $3.75 currently on offer.
If you don’t fancy getting on the outright winner this week, then there are plenty of interesting betting markets revolving the tournament. We have a quick round-up of some of the prop bets that caught our eye.
Other Tips:
Abraham Ancer top international debut point scorer - $6.00 at Sportsbet
Justin Thomas top US points scorer - $5.50 at Sportsbet
Sungjae Im top Asian points scorer - $3.56 at Sportsbet
