Ryder Cup Preview
By Sportsbook.ag
Are You Willing to Lay the Juice on the USA in the Ryder Cup?
We are now just a few weeks away from the 2016 Ryder Cup and with US Captain Davis Love III naming three of his four 'captain's picks' earlier today, the teams are almost entirely set.
Only one more pick from Love III has to be made, and it will come at the conclusion of the Fedex Cup Playoffs on Sept 25. So now that Rickie Fowler, Matt Kuchar, and J.B. Holmes have been added to the US side, can they help the rest of this US team break this Ryder Cup funk they are in? Are you willing to lay -175 for that to happen?
Sportsbook.ag Ryder Cup Odds: To win Ryder Cup (Tie no bet) – USA (-175), Europe (+150)
Those three names mentioned above all have previous Ryder Cup experience and that appears to be an early strength for the US. Only one US player – Brooks Koepka – has never experienced what it feels like to play in a Ryder Cup atmosphere and with it being on home soil for the Americans this year, they are banking heavily on talent and experience.
Conversely, Team Europe has six Ryder Cup rookies on their squad (Danny Willett, Chris Wood, Rafael Cabrera-Bello, Andy Sullivan, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Thomas Pieters) and that's part of the reason why the “visitors” are getting +150 odds even as the defending champs.
But no matter what kind of advantage on paper the US team has had in the past they haven't had much success in winning this event. They've lost three straight Ryder Cups to Europe, and eight of the past 10 overall. So is the -175 price on the US warranted?
When the entire US team is ranked 26th or better in the world, it's going to look on paper that the US deserve the heavy favorite price tag.
Dustin Johnson has had a spectacular year in winning the US Open and appears to be soon adding the Fedex Cup Playoffs to that list. He will definitely be counted on to earn the lion's share of the points in his matches, but he's also been known as someone who will pack it in quickly when things aren't going well. That's not exactly the best type of player to have in a short event like the Ryder Cup.
Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed, and Brooks Koepka have been quite consistent all season as well, but none of them have played in more than a single Ryder Cup in their careers with Koepka being a rookie.
Experience might be a motto for the US team in 2016, but when five of the players only have one Ryder Cup event under their belts, how much can a bettor really value said experience?
Even with six rookies on Team Europe, the remaining six players have all been in at least three different Ryder Cups and were part of winning teams at least twice.
The most experienced US player is Phil Mickelson with 10 previous Ryder Cup events under his belt, but he's got an overall losing record in this event at 16 wins, 19 losses, and 6 halves. That's not a record that speaks to dominance, or even some sense of coming through in the clutch, so let me ask again, are you willing to lay -175 on this US squad?
Obviously some Ryder Cup experience is better than nothing and with so many rookies on Team Europe getting their first crack at it on foreign soil, you can understand why odds makers had to price this line the way that they did.
But being a rookie in an event like this isn't always a negative as the sheer obliviousness to the large scale of the situation can be a huge plus for young talented golfers. Team Europe has gone down a similar road before with young players in this event and with eight victories in the last 10, it's tough to argue against their methods.
So even with one remaining player yet to be named for the US side, it's very hard to see how laying this steep price of -175 is a good bet at this stage. USA historically always gets off to a slow start in this event – as some criticize them as simply a team of individuals who struggle in team rounds – and puts on a strong charge late when the singles matches take place.
Typically the goal for the USA in that scenario is to stay close enough in points so that they can either catch up or run away with it in singles. Either way, if this tournament plays out to a similar script, bettors looking to back the USA will definitely get a better price during the event. So, NO I am not willing to lay the -175 with the USA right now.