The USA will tee-off in the bi-annual Presidents Cup on Thursday, December 12, without Brooks Koepka.
A knee injury has forced the reigning World No 1 and stand-out major winner during the past two years, to opt out. US Captain-player Tiger Woods has replaced him with Rickie Fowler.
If this was the Ryder Cup and Europe the opponents, the loss of Koepka would have been a major blow. The US in recent years has lost more Ryder Cup matches than they have won.
It is not, however. It’s the Presidents Cup and the USA is playing the ‘Internationals’, a team they have dominated for more than a decade. In 11 editions the Internationals have only won once – in 1998 in Melbourne, Australia.
They also tied the US in South Africa in 2003 when bad light prevented Woods and Els from completing a two-man playoff, but that’s it. The US has won all of its other nine matches.
That is a frightening record and it’s no wonder the TopGolf New Jersey bookmakers have established the USA as the firm favorites again.
The odds on offer
On Monday the odds being offered by NJ sports betting market leader FanDuel were -280 on the USA, +280 on the Internationals and +1200 on a draw.
I can’t see too many backing anything else but the USA, and in short this means that to win $100, punters are going to have to wager $280 or even more. Yes it’s going to take a lot of money to win a lot, but the risk is pretty low.
But let’s take a look at the factors influencing the final result on Sunday December 15, when the Cup’s 12 singles matches following the fourballs and foursomes play of previous days will bring it to a close.
South African Ernie Els is the 2019 Internationals non-playing captain. Unlike US skipper Tiger Woods, he did not use any of his four captain’s picks to include himself in the playing line-up. But then he is not the current World No 7 and he is a good few years older than Woods.
Els will be assisted by Korea’s KJ Choi, Australia’s Geoff Ogilvy, South Africa’s Trevor Immelman and Canada’s Mike Weir. And the world team he will lead has been chosen from the US’s highest ranked opponents outside of Europe.
Australia and South Africa have produced some phenomenal players down the years, but never enough to count in Presidents Cup play it seems. And this is once more the case.
Scott, Oosthuizen are Els’ only major winners
Els’ team includes a Green Jacket winner in Aussie Adam Scott and a British Open champion in SA’s Louis Oosthuizen. But that’s about it.
Along with Scott and Oosthuizen, the team includes Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith, Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, Joaquin Niemann, Adam Hadwin, Haotong Li, Abraham Ancer, CT Pan and Byeong Hun An.
Like Scott and Oosthuizen, Leishman and Matsuyama are solid players well known to top golfing fans. But the majority of the Internationals are youngsters with great potential and not too much else right now. Some have yet to win on the PGA Tour.
Against this the Americans will be fielding a team stacked with major champions and higher ranked players.
Indeed of their 12 players, eleven are ranked higher than Scott, who at No 17 is the highest ranked of the Internationals.
Woods who will be assisted by Fred Couples, Zach Johnson and Steve Stricker, leads the US power pack with15 major titles. Other major champions in his team are Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Gary Woodlands and Web Simpson.
US packed with major and PGA winners
The rest of the team is packed with players who jointly own a fistful of PGA Tour titles. They are Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Bryson DeChambeau, Tony Finau, Matt Kuchar and Fowler.
If there is any chance of them being beaten, I can’t see it. They won’t have home turf advantage, but that is more than countered by their rankings, experience and trophies. It also helps Tiger that the team he’ll be motivating has single national identity as against the Big Easy’s half-dozen.
The players’ world rankings in their order are
The USA
Dustin Johnson 3, Justin Thomas 4, Patrick Cantlay 6, Tiger Woods 7, Xander Schauffele 9, Bryson DeChambeau 10, Webb Simpson 11, Tony Finau 14, Patrick Reed 15, Gary Woodland 16, Matt Kuchar 22.
The Internationals
Adam Scott 17, Hideki Matsuyama 20, Louis Oosthuizen, 23, Marc Leishman 27, Sungjae Im 34, Abraham Ancer 35, Byeong Hun An 43, Adam Hadwin 44, Cameron Smith 49, Joaquin Niemann 54, Haotong Li 61, C.T. Pan 62.
NOTE: Kuchar at No 22 is the only American not ranked higher than any of the International players.