Golf Pick: Europe to Win the Ryder Cup (+120) at Bet365 (check our Bet365 Review)
OddsTrader analyzes who will win this year’s bi-annual contest, the Ryder Cup between the United States and Europe. Last week, we established who we believed would be the best players in the contest.
Now we look at whether Europe can wrestle away the iconic Ryder Cup from the United States’ clutches.
Ryder Cup 2023
September 29 – October 01, 2023 at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club
What Do We Know About Marco Simone GC?
The Marco Simone Golf and Country Club is an extremely testing walk through undulating terrain and we need to consider the weather forecast for next weekend.
The weather is set fair for the contest with hot 28 degrees Celsius throughout and at this time of year, Rome can be very humid.
- Par 71, 7181 yards
European Team – (W-L-D)
| Rory McIlroy | (12-12-4) |
| Jon Rahm | (4-3-1) |
| Viktor Hovland | (0-3-2) |
| Matt Fitzpatrick | (0-5-0) |
| Tommy Fleetwood | (4-4-2) |
| Shane Lowry | (1-2-0) |
| Sepp Straka | (rookie) |
| Tyrrell Hatton | (2-4-1) |
| Robert MacIntyre | (rookie) |
| Nicolai Hojgaard | (rookie) |
| Ludvig Aberg | (rookie) |
| Justin Rose | (13-8-2) |
United States Team – (W-L-D)
| Scottie Scheffler | (2-0-1) |
| Xander Schauffele | (3-1-0) |
| Patrick Cantlay | (3-1-0) |
| Collin Morikawa | (3-1-0) |
| Justin Thomas | (6-2-1) |
| Jordan Spieth | (8-7-3) |
| Rickie Fowler | (3-7-5) |
| Max Homa | (rookie) |
| Wyndham Clark | (rookie) |
| Brian Harman | (rookie) |
| Sam Burns | (rookie) |
| Brooks Koepka | (6-5-1) |
What Makes Europe a Good Bet for the 2023 Ryder Cup?
Home Advantage
Home Advantage has been key in the last four Ryder Cup renewals with each occasion the contest being rather one-sided.
That tells us that in the current climate, the home advantage of playing on a course that you’re familiar with is one worth having. Certainly, the last time Europe hosted the event as the Le Golf National in Paris, the American side was pummelled from day 1.
The United States team dished out similar treatment as the home team last time at Whistling Straits.
European Dominance
The American team had a reconnaissance mission a couple of weeks ago to Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, but their players do not have the experience that the Europeans have gained on the DP World Tour in the last three Italian Opens.
Those three renewals have seen Nicolai Hojgaard beat Tommy Fleetwood in 2021, Robert MacIntyre beat Matt Fitzpatrick in 2022 and Adrian Meronk win this year. In those results, we have four members of the European team finishing in the top 2 while even Rory McIlroy put the Italian Open on his 2022 schedule, incidentally, Tyrrell Hatton was a top-10 finisher that year with the Irishman.
The controversial omission of three-time DP Tour winner Adrian Meronk must have been difficult for Luke Donald, but one cannot help but think he believes Ludvig Aberg’s long game at the course will be a huge plus for his team this week.
Player Sharpness
There is a distinct difference this week in the sharpness of players on the respective teams.
Two weeks ago, all the European team competed at the BMW PGA Championship and as a team looked in prime form and rude health. That is the opposite of the American players in the United States team except for Brooks Koepka (who played LIV Chicago last week), Max Homa, and Justin Thomas who both played in the Fortinet Championship two weeks ago.
The rest of the team has not been competitive since August 27th when the Tour Championship at East Lake completed the FedEx Standings. Interestingly, many of the players spoke to the media about being tired and needing rest after an elongated PGA Tour season saw elevated events added for them to counteract the LIV Golf Tour.
Golf Pros Crave Rest
At the end of the event, Rickie Fowler told reporters about the grueling schedule.
“These last couple of months I’ve been beat from the year and how much we’ve been on the road,” Fowler said. “Had a stretch starting at the PGA Championship through the Open Championship … it was 10 weeks, and I was home for eight days. I’m ready to relax a little bit, get recharged and ready for the next year.”
While wildcard pick, Sam Burns who was hoping for the nod from Captain, Zach Johnson, was ready to put his clubs down for a few weeks saying,
“I will take a pretty long break and then ease my way back into it. Totally reset. Guys want to get their bodies healthy and just take a break mentally. I think it’d be really good for a lot of guys.”
Camaraderie
The final nail in the coffin of the American chances is the camaraderie which will have only been helped by those events or lack of them in recent weeks that was discussed above.
There have been so many images of European team players hanging around supporting their European peers in recent times, from the disappointment of Tommy Fleetwood’s play-off loss for the Canadian Open to the shared elation for Viktor Hovland’s win in the FedEx Cup.
That is the icing on the cake for Europe’s chances of regaining the Ryder Cup so take the (+120) at one of the top sportsbooks.
Golf Pick: Europe to Win the Ryder Cup (+120) at Bet365
