2023 Ryder Cup: PGA Tour Golf Betting Odds
The Americans are -126 favourites on the golf odds, while the Europeans are +118 and a draw +1500.
A draw is far from out of the question as we just saw one Sunday in Spain in the ladies’ version of the Ryder Cup, the Solheim Cup. Team Europe rallied for a draw and in that scenario the previous Ryder/Solheim Cup winner retains the Cup. That would be Team USA in the Ryder Cup as the Americans routed the Europeans 19-9 two years ago in Wisconsin. The United States hasn’t repeated as Ryder Cup champion since 1993. These are rarely blowouts.
Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome is the host course for the first time with Zach Johnson as captain of Team USA and Luke Donald leading England. A major redesign was completed in 2021 – essentially to make it ideal for match play with some drivable par 4s and reachable (in 2) par 5s — and it’s a par 72 at about 7,200 yards, although par won’t matter this week.
There were six spots earned on each team through points qualification and six chosen by captains. Johnson made two surprise choices for the Americans in Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas. Koepka a surprise because he’s LIV player, but on his play alone Koepka deserved it. Thomas had a really rough year but is one of the most popular players on Tour not to mention one of the best when he’s right, and Thomas has plenty of Ryder Cup experience as does Koepka.
It’s fully a match play event with each match worth one point but able to be halved. Friday features four foursomes (alternate shot) in the morning and four four-ball (better ball) matches in the afternoon. Saturday is the same and then 12 singles matches on Sunday. There are 28 points available, so 14.5 would win the Cup for Europe and 14 would retain it for the USA.
The Americans have won the Ryder Cup 43 times and Team Europe 21 with two ties – 1969 and 1989.
Ryder Cup Golf Odds
There are many good players missing on both sides who didn’t qualify or weren’t chosen because of their LIV status but Europe is missing two Ryder Cup/match play legends in Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter.
Team Europe captain Luke Donald, who took over the captaincy from Henrik Stenson when the Swede joined LIV, named Tommy Fleetwood, Sepp Straka, Justin Rose, Shane Lowry, Nicolai Hojaard and Ludwig Aberg as his six captain’s picks, but it’s a very top-heavy group led by Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm (led Europe with 3.5 points in the 2021 Ryder Cup) and Viktor Hovland.
Zach Johnson’s captain’s picks for Team USA were Sam Burns, Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.
Burns is the only rookie of those choices, although fellow first-timers Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman and Max Homa automatically qualified. Koepka, who won this year’s PGA Championship, has never lost a singles match (2-0-1) in his Ryder Cup history. Ten of the world’s Top 20 players are on Team USA compared to six on Europe.
The home team has won seven of the past eight Ryder Cups and 10 of the past 12. The 1993 Ryder Cup at The Belfry in England was the last time the United States won in Europe.
Ryder Cup Golf Predictions
Team USA wins the Ryder Cup by a score of 16-12 (+1400) with Brooks Koepka (+665) as top American points scorer and Rory McIlroy (+475) tops for Europe.
