The first day of the Presidents Cup played out nearly as expected as all but one match went to the Americans and only two made it to the 18th hole. The big shocker was certainly the loss by Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns, who seemed to be in control of their match before a birdie putt by Si Woo Kim on the par-5 16th turned the tide. His partner, Cam Davis, would follow it up on the 17th with another birdie to take the lead. Kim and Davis then closed out the American pair that combined for seven wins last season and scored the only points of the day for the Internationals.
It's a 4-1 advantage for the United States heading into the new format of Four Ball for Day 2. We will see a full shake up of teams on the International side, while three of the American teams will hold steady with Kevin Kisner and Billy Horschel sliding in for Collin Morikawa and Tony Finau on Friday.
There were certainly individuals who played better than others on Thursday and I'll look to dial in on some of that as we head to Day 2. These guys will get the chance to play their own ball, but it's hard to say if that does much to help the Internationals as they look to cut into the lead.
Best Bets
Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele -165 vs Hideki Matsuyama/Tom Kim (DK, tie is a push)
Cantlay and Schauffele have become an absolute force to be reckoned with as they carried their play from the team win at the Zurich Classic over to the Presidents Cup. They blitzed Matsuyama and Adam Scott 6&5 in the alternate shot format and now get to match up with Matsuyama once again. Young star Tom Kim will be alongside the International veteran, but it is likely to simply be a learning experience for the 20-year-old as there is no reason to expect this American pair to slow their roll. I'm actually a bit surprised by these odds as I think the books could have stretched this out quite a bit further and still garnered plenty of action on the Americans. I'll take what I see as some value and ride the hot team, especially since I don't think this is the most imposing opposition.
USA Day 2 Winner -195 (FanDuel, tie loses)
I do think the Internationals will have a better showing on Friday as the lack of cohesiveness is less apparent in Four Ball versus Foursomes. Each player will be out there on their own merit, but that is also the case for the team sending out four of the top 10 players in the world. I do give the Internationals a good chance to earn 1 1/2 points, but I don't see a realistic path for them to get another full point.
In my eyes, there is just no way the Internationals can beat Scheffler and Burns again. I clearly don't see them beating Schauffele and Cantlay and then you've got possibly the weakest pair the Internationals could form in Mito Pereira and Christiaan Bezuidenhout. This looks like another way to get some solid value backing the Americans now that the overall tournament odds have ballooned to -2500.
