Presidents Cup Golf Betting: Unique conditions favour the Internationals

General / Paul Krishnamurty / 14 November 2011 /

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Jason Day will be enjoying familiar conditions whilst on Presidents Cup duty

"One might think an extra week's preparation would go some way towards ironing out any American weaknesses and levelling the playing field, but the Australian Open evidence merely confirmed my fears. As the week went on, The Lakes predictably became firmer and faster and the American challenge faded."

In normal circumstances the star-studded team USA would be the call but the Australian conditions mean we should side with the 'home' team, says Paul Krishnamurty.

What a week! I always say the Australian Swing is the best time of the golfing year for punters, and so it spectacularly proved at their national Open. Of my six bets advised, five won, yielding over 94 units profit. My principal reasoning is that these Aussie championship courses are among the toughest in the world, taking no prisoners and requiring specific expertise. If any part of a player's long game is off, or they struggle to cope with the firm,fast greens, they may as well forget it. In a strokeplay event, those characteristics massively reduce the number of plausible contenders, and if history is the guide, conditions will again be pivotal at this week's Presidents Cup.

This team matchplay competition has been dominated by the Americans since it's creation during the 1990s, apart from one notable exception. On the one occasion when the event was played in Australia, at the same Royal Melbourne venue as this week, the Internationals pulled off a stunning upset, winning by a massive nine point margin. Despite holding an overwhelming advantage in terms of worldwide pedigree and rankings status, the Americans simply failed to adapt to the conditions on this famous sand-belt layout. Superstars Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and David Duval were completely upstaged by home-based journeymen like Craig Parry, Greg Turner and Japan's Shigeki Maruyama.

One might think an extra week's preparation would go some way towards ironing out any American weaknesses and levelling the playing field, but the Australian Open evidence merely confirmed my fears. As the week went on, The Lakes predictably became firmer and faster and the American challenge faded. The likes of Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson were well positioned from the first morning, yet never got in a blow on Sunday. Only Tiger Woods and Nick Watney really emerged with any credit, yet still had to play second fiddle to Greg Chalmers and John Senden - two Aussies whose claims barely ever rate a mention on the PGA Tour.

This year's Internationals line-up contains five Aussies who know these conditions inside out. Jason Day and Adam Scott are two of the world's best right now, while Geoff Ogilvy and Aaron Baddeley saved their best golf for the tougher weekend conditions, finishing strongly for a top-five and top-ten finish respectively. Robert Allenby had a rare bad week on Aussie soil, but has a long matchplay pedigree. Along with former Royal Melbourne winner Ernie Els, this home contingent rates a formidable nucleus to the Internationals line-up, so I'm taking them to compound US misery at odds of [1.95].

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