After emotional International Team rally, potential for letdown looms at Presidents Cup

MONTREAL – Emotion is a killer in sports betting. And as hard as it is to say it, it might be a killer at the Presidents Cup, too.

How often do we get swayed to back our beloved team, or favorite player, despite reasons to be cautious? How often do we let what we’ve just seen, or recency bias, overtake our keen research?

This is the trap we face after the incredible first two rounds of the Presidents Cup from The Royal Montreal Golf Club.

On Thursday the U.S. Team dominated to a 5-0 lead, seemingly headed to a crushing 13th victory from 15 Cups. The vibe on-site was that this thing was already over, with the U.S. priced as -1800 betting favorites – especially since the International Team hadn’t won a Foursomes session since 2005.

But in an astonishing turnaround, Mike Weir’s International Team won Friday 5-0 to tie the scores at 5-5 in the chase for the Cup. Entering the day, an International sweep was a 100-to-1 longshot on the betting boards.

“Incredible day for us. To come back and show everyone what this team is made of after a tough day out there yesterday is just incredible,” Adam Scott said. “We all came out here today playing for our own pride really, and I think that started it off the right way, and the crowd carried us through the day.”

From an International perspective, it would be easy to get carried away in the emotion of the day. After all, the home team surely now have the momentum heading to Saturday morning Four-balls – right?

The Internationals are +210 to win day three and +220 to win the Cup, which sounds amazing given the lows of Thursday. But if you think I’m advocating for backing the black and gold there, cool your jets.

Such an emphatic emotional experience like Weir’s team just had is often paired with an adrenaline dump the next day. How often does the low round of the day at a typical TOUR event get backed up with another?

And an embarrassingly large butt-whooping is almost always paired with a proud response. Like Scott said, that was exactly what the Internationals were doing on Friday.

“Right now we've got a bit of momentum going, for sure. If we can get off to a great start tomorrow and get the crowd on our side again with some good play, then hopefully we can keep it rolling,” he added. “But they're going to want to do what we did today. So we're going to have to be on it, be focused, and keep our levels high because that team's no joke. We're going to have to fight really hard if we want to be in there on Sunday afternoon.”

The U.S. will be ready to fight back, and the -228 odds to win the tournament suggest the oddsmakers are also expecting a positive reaction. There are eight points available Saturday, with two sessions on the card.

U.S. Captain Jim Furyk will send out the world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and world No. 4 Collin Morikawa in the first match of the day and back that up by sending world No. 2 Xander Schauffele (with Tony Finau) in the second match. They will look to quiet the Canadian crowd who went from polite and quiet on Thursday to loud and hostile on Friday.

The U.S. Team is priced at -162 to win Day Three.

“I said yesterday in some interviews, their backs against the wall. They're going to come out firing,” Furyk said. “Well, I'm sure my guys are a little pissed off right now back there in the team room. The idea is to come out firing tomorrow.”

That’s something you can bet on.

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