As you'd expect in an event dominated by the Americans, Team USA is an overwhelming favorite to win their fifth straight Presidents Cup. The American side is loaded, and it's perhaps their best team top-to-bottom that they have ever fielded in this event. The International team cannot come close to matching the depth of Fred Couples' group, and all the stats back it up: the average ranking of the American team player is three times better than the average world ranking of the International team player. The season stats also indicated that the Americans have been significantly better tee-to-green all year, and up on the putting surface as well.
So all the indicators -- statistics, trends, history, home course setting -- are an advantage to the U.S. side, which has lost only once in nine iterations of this event. According to Jeff Sherman, the Americans are at -360 to clinch the cup while the Internationals are +300. Bovada lists the USA side as a -400 favorite.
While those odds all overwhelmingly favor the team USA, the individual match odds for the opening session of Four-ball are a bit more surprising. All six American two-man teams are favored, including Bill Haas and Webb Simpson over Masters champ Adam Scott and Japanese phenom Hideki Matsuyama. That's the closest match, according to Sherman and the oddsmakers. Here are the latest odds for all six opening day Four-ball matches:
Match Tee Time | International Pairing | USA Pairing |
11:45 a.m. | Jason Day & Graham DeLaet +135 | Hunter Mahan & Brandt Snedeker -155 |
11:59 a.m. | Adam Scott & Hideki Matsuyama -105 | Bill Haas & Webb Simpson -115 |
12:13 p.m. | Louis Oosthuizen & Charl Schwartzel +140 | Phil Mickelson & Keegan Bradley -160 |
12:27 p.m. | Ernie Els & Brendon de Jonge +130 | Steve Stricker & Jordan Spieth -150 |
12:41 p.m. | Angel Cabrera & Marc Leishman +165 | Matt Kuchar & Tiger Woods -185 |
12:55 p.m. | Branden Grace & Richard Sterne +130 | Zach Johnson & Jason Dufner -150 |
More from SB Nation Golf:
• Profiling all 24 players competing at the 2013 Presidents Cup
• Unlike Ryder Cup, Tiger Woods dominates in Presidents Cup
• Tiger paired with Matt Kuchar for Day 1
• Phil to continue mentoring role on Team USA
• Adam Scott: International side needs win to keep Cup relevant
• Complete coverage for the 2013 Presidents Cup