Golf Preview: The 36th Ryder Cup

The 36th Ryder Cup gets under way on Friday of this week at the beautiful 'K Club' in County Kildare, Ireland. Team Europe will be vying for a record breaking third straight victory, a feat which has never been achieved in this competition. Europe have had the best of the Americans since the format of the competition was changed in 1979 and in the past ten matches from 1985 to 2004, Europe have won six times, tied once and lost just three times. Previously it was only players from GB & Ireland that were allowed to compete against the Americans but this was altered 27 years ago to permit players from all of Europe to play against the assembled team from the USA and since then Team Europe have hardly looked back.

Europe will have the backing of the partisan Irish home crowd and are justifiably hot 4/5 favourites with bluesq and Ladbrokes. This is understandable due to their incredibly strong team and great history, not to mention their record breaking 18 ½ - 9 ½ win at Oakland Hills back in 2004 and their 15 ½ - 12 ½ win at The Belfry in 2002. If you fancy a repeat of any of these score lines then 18 ½ - 9 ½ is available at 50/1 with bet365 and 15 ½ - 12 ½ is the 10/1 joint favourite with VC Bet. Recent poor Ryder Cup form coupled with the fact that the USA team is quite inexperienced means that they are at their longest price for many a year to win this prestigious trophy – they can be backed at 11/8 with bet365. The draw is an unlikely scenario but can be backed at 11/1 with UK Betting and sporting odds.

There will be some interesting in-running match bet markets available with all firms and these will constantly change as the action gets under way between the 22nd & 24th of this month. The selections for the opening day pairings have not yet been made but all bookmakers will immediately be on the case once they are announced. Europe have the strength in depth so should be safe bets further down the pairings. The USA don't have great strength in depth but they do have the world's top three ranked golfers in their side in Tiger Woods, Phil Mickleson and Jim Furyk. It's possible that Woods and Furyk will be paired together to open the order for the Americans after they emerged unbeaten together in the last President's Cup. Whoever faces them from Europe's elite will have a tough job on their hands and may find themselves odds against to defeat two of the best golfers the world currently has to offer.

The odds for the top points scorer offer some good value. Tiger Woods is the predictable favourite at 11/2 with UK Betting and Betfred but he doesn't have a good record in this competition. Woods is a very focused, disciplined and individual player that has been criticised for his lack of team ethic in the past and has shown that although he is the greatest strokeplay golfer to have ever lived he is not unbeatable at Matchplay golf, so it may well be worth a look further down the field in this particular market. Europe's Paul Casey is 20/1 with Betfred, which is a remarkable price as he is highly likely to be picked by Ian Woosnam for most games and he has just recently beaten a field of the world's top 16 golfers to take home the $1m first prize in the HSBC World Matchplay – a competition, which incidentally Tiger Woods was knocked out of in the first round. The only thing going against Casey is that he may be placed high up the order for Europe and could be facing the best of the American's but should he be slipped into the middle order it could be a points feast for the world number 17. Jim Furyk of USA is the second favourite at 8/1 with Paddy Power and Sky Bet but again he was sent home early in the recent World Matchplay so probably doesn't provide enough value for the punter.

As a cheeky interest bet Paddy Power are offering 9/2 against a hole-in-one this week and I think that is quite long odds. There are 4 par 3's at The K Club and only one of them is over 200 yards. The final par 3 on the card is the 14th, so it's more than likely that every game will go as far as this hole so you can bet that at least on player from each group will be peppering the pin on most short holes this week, which means plenty of chances for that rarest of eagles to be sighted on the Straffan estate at Co. Kildare – lets just hope the weather holds up as it has been incredibly windy in practice making playing good golf very difficult in deed.

This is going to be a really exciting weekend of high quality golf with a whole multitude of betting opportunities available, and with every shot being shown live on Sky Sports, there's no excuse for not being involved in the action.

Good Luck!

Ed note: Make your Ryder Cup bets at Mansion Sportsbook Exchange and pay 0% commission

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