Ryder Cup Tips & Predictions

The 43rd Ryder Cup is here at last and the 2020 event delayed for a year due to the global pandemic is set to be as exciting as ever with golf’s biggest team event consistently creating great stories and from our point of view some excellent betting opportunities. 

The USA team go into this week’s event at Whistling Straits as very strong favourites and it’s easy to see why. Each team has 12 players who generally have to qualify over the previous season or be chosen as a wildcard by the captain for this biennial event . 

• The USA team includes 8 of the top 10 players in the world 
• European team includes the World Number 1 Jon Rahm in the Top 10 and no others

From the World Top 20 as follows :

• USA team has 11 players 
• European team has 4 players 

The average world rankings of the players in each team are as follows :

• USA team average 9th in world rankings 
• European team averages 30th in world rankings 

The fact that the Ryder Cup is played in the USA is also a hugely important factor here . In recent years the winner has tended to be the home team , in fact from the last 10 Ryder Cups the home team has won 8 of them. This year at Whistling Straits because of the general travelling ban to the United States from Europe there will be virtually no European fans and the atmosphere can be expected to be quite hostile at times. 

It is very difficult to predict a European win or draw in this Ryder Cup and the only logical choice is the USA to win. The bookmakers of course know this and the odds do reflect this expectation but even at best odds of 8/15 USA are a solid bet. 

Outright Ryder Cup Tip – USA at 8/15 – Boylesports, Unibet, 888Sport.

Ryder Cup Outright Winner
USA	8/15		Visit

The European captain Padraig Harrington will do a great job in preparing and motivating his players for this event but many of the European team have not been in great form for much of this season. Rory McIlroy continues to slide down the world rankings and many of the players have great experience of the Ryder Cup but maybe could struggle on a very long , tough course such as Whistling Straits. However the European team does boast the current World No 1 golfer in Jon Rahm and the Spaniard has been in superb form all season. 

It would be very surprising if Rahm did not feature in every session through the weekend and this cannot be said for many or any of the other European players. Rahm will almost certainly contest for 5 points and is the one player the US team will fear . At odds of 7/2 with 888Sport to be Top European Points Scorer Rahm is undoubtedly the bet of the week.

Top European Points Scorer – Jon Rahm – 7/2 – 888Sport

Top European Points Scorer
John Rahm	7/2		Visit

The betting for Top USA Points Scorer is wide open and deservedly so as there are multiple possible winners and the same is also true of the Top Combined Points Scorer where I am almost tempted to have a small each way bet on Rahm but i think 8/1 is just a little too low. 

I really hope the European team perform well in what hopefully will be a thrilling weekend of golf but the USA are rightly expected to win and very likely will do so. 

The teams to contest this 2020 Ryder Cup are as follows :

The 43rd Ryder Cup begins on Friday September 24th through to Sunday September 26th and all three days play are live on Sky Sports.