PRESIDENTS CUP: While it may never escape the shadow of the Ryder Cup, the Presidents Cup has established itself as a premier event over the past 30 years and the 2024 edition will feature 16 of the world’s top 25 players. That being said, there’s one thing that has maybe kept a lid on some of the enthusiasm and passion that has come to define the Ryder Cup: this thing has simply been too one-sided. The International team has been victorious just once in 14 attempts, with the U.S. winning the last 9 stagings. And with all 12 of their players currently in the top 25 of the Official World Golf Rankings compared to just 4 on the International side, the U.S. team is a heavy favorite once again, currently trading at 1.45 on the BETDAQ exchange.
The venue, Royal Montreal Golf Club in Quebec, was the site of the 2007 Cup and has played host to the PGA Tour’s Canadian Open five times, most recently in 2014, so it will be familiar to many of the players. A tight layout featuring small greens and fairways lined with thick bentgrass rough, it’s the type of place where length off the tee can be neutralized somewhat, and I’m sure International captain Mike Weir will do everything he can to set up the course favorably for his guys. Is it going to make a difference, though? The U.S. team is stacked, with names like Scheffler, Schauffele, and Morikawa leading the way, while the bottom half of the International roster looks like the cutline at the Phoenix Open — Mackenzie Hughes, Taylor Pendrith, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, etc.
Of course, the American team is largely comprised of the same dudes who lose the Ryder Cup every other year, so they’re certainly not invincible, and top Internationals like Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, and Tom Kim are in good form and will be tough outs.
The format, which should be a familiar one to fans of team golf, is match play, with best ball (fourball) matches on Thursday morning and alternate shot (foursomes) Thursday afternoon, and the order reversed on Friday (foursomes followed by fourball). Saturday will feature a total of eight matches, with a 2 and 2 foursomes/fourball split in the morning and afternoon wave, and Sunday, as always, will consist of 12 singles matches.
At the time of this writing the five matchups for Thursday’s opening session have just been released: it’ll be Schauffele/Finau vs. Day/An in Match 1; Morikawa/Theegala vs. Scott/Lee in Match 2; Scheffler/Henley vs. Im/Kim in Match 3; Clark/Bradley vs. Pendrith/Bezuidenhout in Match 4; and Cantlay/Burns vs. Matsuyama/Conners in Match 5. There are lots of juicy subplots, but the match in this session that I may be most eager for is the final one, Match 5, which pits the talented but unlikable Patrick Cantlay and his partner Sam Burns against Corey Conners, who will be playing in his home country and trying to atone for an 0-4 record in his last Cup, and the red-hot Hideki Matsuyama.
If the Internationals are going to keep things competitive, a hot start on Thursday feels like a must. Here’s what I’m thinking:
Schauffele/Finau over Day/An at 1.56- Schauffele is currently the best player in the world this side of Scottie Scheffler, while Finau has found the top-25 in each of his last 4 starts and ranks second on the PGA Tour in strokes gained on approach. Day, meanwhile, has a miserable Presidents Cup record, and An doesn’t putt well enough to be feared in match play.
Matsuyama/Conners over Cantlay/Burns at 1.91- Though he has a reputation as an excellent match play player, Cantlay hasn’t been playing his best of late, failing to log a top-10 since June. The Internationals, on the other hand, are in great form — Conners is coming off a T7 last time out, while Matsuyama is just three starts removed from a victory at the FedEx St. Jude.
U.S. to win Cup at 1.45- When it comes down to it, the American side simply has better players, and they have not had the same mental block or competitive deficiencies in this event that has plagued them in recent Ryder Cups, so I see no reason to expect a surprising outcome here. The price is shorter than I would like but is within a reasonable range.
