Ryder Cup betting tips: Experience key for Team Europe

Odds and preview for the clash of the golfing continents

The 43rd Ryder Cup takes place at Whistling Straits, Wisconsin, this weekend and we have looked at the odds to find some Ryder Cup betting tips.

The event was postponed last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Team Europe are the holders of the Ryder Cup after a 17½-10½ victory over Team USA in 2018 at Le Golf National.

Twelve players represent each side and 28 matches are contested over the course of the weekend, starting with the foursomes and four-balls on Friday and Saturday and concluding with a full round of singles on the Sunday.

Every match is worth one point. In the result of a drawn match, half a point is awarded to both teams.

It means 14½ points are enough for an outright win, but the defending champions need 14 points to retain the trophy.

Team USA v Team Europe match odds

Team USA have six rookies and three players making their second Ryder Cup appearance and they have an average age of just 29 years old.

What they lack in experience, they certainly make up for in length as captain Steve Stricker has opted for several bombers off the tee, which is understandable as Whistling Straights is a long course.

It is an advantage that the Americans can set this course up to play to their team’s strength.

Team USA boasts four FedExCup champions (including the current one in Patrick Cantlay) and The Open champion. Its 12-man roster has 13 major wins combined but just three USA players have experienced winning the Ryder Cup.

Team USA have outscored Team Europe 47-37 in the past three Ryder Cups on home soil and they are 8/15 to win the Ryder Cup.

Team Europe have a more experienced side who will come up against a hostile, partisan gallery that will lack European support because of travel restrictions.

Captain Padraig Harrington has plumped for old stagers Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia, who won two points between them from six matches at Hazeltine five years ago.

The Europeans boast two FedExCups (both won by Rory McIlroy) and seven major wins in comparison and have collected the Cup in 12 of the last 17 Ryder Cups, including seven of the last nine and four of the last five.

Team Europe are 2/1 to win the Ryder Cup, with the tie – which has happened on just two occasions – a 12/1 chance.

In the last six Ryder Cup wins for Team USA, the winning score has been 14½-13½ on three occasions. It is 10/1 for that to be the case this time.

Top points scorer

For Team USA, this is a wide-open market. There are a couple of fitness questions relating to Brooks Keopka (wrist) and Collin Morikawa (back), yet Bryson DeChambeau, who has bulked up to successfully gain clubhead speed and ball speed, and added power to his game, is fit after a few problems with his hands, owing to intense long-drive training.

Cantlay, the FedExCup champion and PGA Tour Player of the Year, arrives in good form, including holding off Europe’s top man Jon Rahm at East Lake. He is 15/2 to be the top points scorer for the USA.

Scottie Scheffler is making his Ryder Cup debut and the rookie has performed on the big stages all year, with three straight top-10 finishes in majors. He has the power game for Whistling Straight, combined with the attitude to be a great match-play specialist and he is a 12/1 chance to be top Team USA points scorer, and 5/1 to be the top USA rookie.

Rahm is an obvious choice at 3/1 to be the top Team Europe points scorer having been far and away Europe’s best player this year.

Yet Ian Poulter (pictured above, right, with Sergio Garcia), who plays in his seventh Ryder Cup, has a magnificent 14-6-2 record. That includes a 4-4-1 record in four ball, a 5-2-0 record in foursomes and an amazing 5-0-1 record in singles.

Poulter is an 11/1 chance to be Team Europe’s top scorer in Ryder Cup betting tips and 15/8 to be the top captain’s pick in a three-man field comprising Garcia and Shane Lowry.

View the latest Ryder Cup odds

All odds and markets correct at the time of publication