Scottie Scheffler practices on the 14th hole during a practice round prior to the start of the Presidents Cup golf tournament. AP Photo/Matt Slocum See more of our coverage in your search results.
Add The New York Post on Google Golf’s most one-sided rivalry returns this week at Medinah Country Club, just outside of Chicago.
Team USA, captained by Brandt Snedeker and headlined by Scottie Scheffler, is a decided -450 favorite over the International Team, captained by Geoff Ogilvy and headlined by Si Woo Kim, at FanDuel Sportsbook.
The Americans are 13-1-1 in this biennial event, and have won 11 Presidents Cups on the spin. The last time the United States didn’t win was in 2003 in South Africa when the two sides tied.
And the last (and only) time Team International won was in 1998, just over a year after Tiger Woods won his first major and a few weeks before Bill Clinton’s impeachment hearings. It’s been a long time.
As the odds suggest, it seems unlikely to expect the International Team to get off the schneid this weekend in Illinois. Team USA will trot out a powerhouse team anchored by Scheffler, Cameron Young, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Russell Henley, and Wyndham Clark. The Americans are so confident that they should cruise in this event that Snedeker was happy to hand a roster spot to 21-year-old phenom Jackson Koivun.
The International Team will counter with Si Woo Kim, Adam Scott, Hideki Matsuyama, Tom Kim, and a host of solid-but-unspectacular PGA Tour veterans like Nick Taylor, Corey Conners, and Min Woo Lee.
It may be tricky to find betting value in what looks to be a well-priced mismatch, but there are some really tempting numbers in the prop markets:
Patrick Cantlay has dominated at team events. Getty Images 2026 Presidents Cup best bets Top overall scorer: Patrick Cantlay (11/1, FanDuel) It’s no surprise that Scheffler is the favorite in this market, but the World No. 1 has never really stood out in these team events. So instead, we’ll focus on Patrick Cantlay to be the leading man in Medinah.
He’s flown under the radar on the PGA Tour lately because he hasn’t won since the 2022 BMW Championship, but Cantlay had himself a really strong 2026 campaign. The 34-year-old posted five top-5 finishes and 11 top-10s in 20 starts, and he was runner-up at the BMW Championship, the penultimate tournament of the season.
More encouraging than that is Cantlay’s prowess in team competitions. Normally paired with Schauffele, Cantlay is 15-6-1 in international events, and 10-4-0 in his Presidents Cup career.
Ryo Hisatsune of Japan. Getty Images Top International scorer: Ryo Hisatsune (12/1, FanDuel) We’re going with form over experience for this one.
Much like his more famous countryman, Matsuyama, Ryo Hisatsune is becoming a force on the PGA Tour thanks to his precise ball-striking. That skill is massively important in team competitions, as the captains want to turn to players they can trust to stay on the straight and narrow during high-pressure moments.
The 24-year-old native of Okayama had himself a standout 2026 campaign with a runner-up, five top-10 finishes, and eight top-20s in 26 starts.
Opportunity matters a lot in this market, but I’d suspect that Ogilvy will pair Hisatsune with Matsuyama when he can, which means that he will be getting plenty of chances to rack up points.
Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.
