Moral victories amount to little as International Team faces longshot comeback bid

MONTREAL – In the Presidents Cup, and indeed in sports betting, there are no moral victories.

Sure … the International Team:

• Opened the competition with a long birdie statement.
• Had three of the five matches make it to the 18th green.
• Led in three of the five matches throughout the day.
• Saw no match with more than a one-hole lead/deficit at the turn.

But despite playing reasonably well across the board, not even smelling salts can get International Team Captain Mike Weir’s men off the canvas after a 5-0 U.S. rout at The Royal Montreal Golf Club.

The key moments all went to Jim Furyk’s U.S. Team, who either made their own putts or watched Internationals miss theirs.

As “good” as the home team was at times, they weren’t good enough. Now the U.S. has moved from -250 favorites at BetMGM Sportsbook to win to a nearly unbackable -1667 price. In other words, you need to risk $1,667 to profit $100.

Actually, maybe that is backable. It might be the easiest $100 you make, given the U.S. Team already holds a 12-1-1 record in this competition and gets to play their historically better Foursomes format on Friday.

Perhaps the handicap market, where the International Team is now a 6.5-point underdog, is your new point of focus. You can get -189 for the red, white and blue to cover the touchdown spread in that case. Or you can bank on some sort of mini fightback from the Internationals during the chase for the next 25 points at +145.

“It obviously didn't go our way at all today. We're now in a really tough spot, but thankfully there's tomorrow,” said International veteran Adam Scott. “We've fought our whole careers to get into this team. We've faced many challenges as pro golfers. This is another one coming. They'll be ready. It’s obvious what we have to do.”

If they are to make a move back in the right direction, it starts by winning Friday’s Foursomes session. The matches are as follows (U.S. vs. Internationals):

• Match 6: Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele vs. Hideki Matsuyama/Sungjae Im
• Match 7: Sahith Theegala/Collin Morikawa vs. Adam Scott/Taylor Pendrith
• Match 8: Max Homa/Brian Harman vs. Christiaan Bezuidenhout/Jason Day
• Match 9: Wyndham Clark/Tony Finau vs. Corey Conners/Mackenzie Hughes
• Match 10: Scottie Scheffler/Russell Henley vs. Si Woo Kim/Byeong Hun An

The U.S. Team is -167 to win the session with Scott hoping to help cash tickets for bettors at +240.

You can also predict the exact score of the day, with the U.S. at +1600 to put up a second straight 5-0 whitewash. It might be worth a shot, given the start to the competition. The Internationals are +10000 to turn things around completely and win all five matches, something that would be a bigger surprise than if the Canadian crowds actually became hostile.

The favorite for correct score is U.S. 3-2 on Friday at +320, while U.S. 3-5-1.5 and U.S. 4-1 sit at +450. Internationals to win 3-2 is +550, as is a 2.5-2.5 tie.

If I am to give any International duos a chance, it would be the Canadian pair of Conners and Hughes riding the wave of crowd support, and perhaps Day and Bezuidenhout besting an out of sorts Homa, who needs to hit half the shots with Harman.

Captain Weir will be reminding his team there are still 25 points to earn out there. After all, it’s not over ‘til the fat lady sings – but I think I just saw her in the parking lot warming up her vocals.

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