With day two of the Presidents Cup in the books, the United States have an overwhelming 8-2 lead over the International Team. Much like the United States play on Friday, we were dominant in cashing Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele over Hideki Matsuyama and Tom Kim. We paid a bit of a price at -150, but I didn’t feel there was value in the over lines from the other teams I liked. Betting the Presidents Cup is difficult because naturally as a handicapper you don’t want to play heavily juiced lines often, and you become weary of betting parlays when you don’t find a clear advantage.
Sam Burns and Scottie Scheffler (-175) over K.H. Lee and Tom Kim
With such a massive talent gap, it’s easy to pick any of the United States teams and make a solid case. Foursomes is the best format for the United States. I tried to see if I could find an International team with a possible overlay. Naturally I looked at Sungjae Im and Corey Conners. Im and Conners are the International Team’s best ball-strikers. However, they are going against an unfair alternate shot team in Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. Spieth hits the majority of the tee shots which gives the best iron approach golfer here the second shot. Then back to Spieth to get dialed in either with a wedge to give a good chance at an up and down or a putter in his hand to convert the birdie or eagle opportunity.
I’m not all that interested in the Cameron Young match. They aren’t the strongest putters but this course favors bombers and Young is precisely that. I feel that match ends in a draw. I am actually going back to Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns. They have blown leads in back-to-back rounds. However, I am a firm believer that they personally asked Davis Love III if they could get another go at it on Saturday. So, yes, I am backing the redemption tour of Scheffler and Burns.
Alternate shot tomorrow will be flexible between Scheffler and Burns. Burns is the better putter between the two and Scheffler was better this season on approach. They hit the ball about the same distance off the tee, giving Scheffler the slight advantage on accuracy. The similarity in their game becomes an advantage in match play. If someone isn’t dialed in or the other is scorching hot in one part of the game, they can switch, and it will be a like for like change.
Kim and Lee have been fun to watch this season. Neither are overly long off the tee, but both can get hot. This bet comes from backing skill. I was wrong in backing them before as such a heavy favorite, but it’s the world number one and number 12 up against the world number 22 and 43. They are better golfers and I’m backing them to not go three matches without a win.