The Ryder Cup begins on Friday morning with foursomes (alternate shot) at 1:30 a.m. ET.
Team USA captain Zach Johnson and Team Europe captain Luke Donald each have announced their four two-man teams for the first session (two-way moneyline odds via bet365):
- Match 1: Scottie Scheffler & Sam Burns (+100) vs. Jon Rahm & Tyrrell Hatton (-125)
- Match 2: Max Homa & Brian Harman (+110) vs. Viktor Hovland & Ludvig Aberg (-138)
- Match 3: Rickie Fowler & Collin Morikawa (-125) vs. Shane Lowry & Sepp Straka (+100)
- Match 4: Xander Schauffele & Patrick Cantlay (+100) vs. Rory McIlroy & Tommy Fleetwood (-125)
Now that there are odds available, our Action Network golf betting experts have already made their best bets for Friday foursomes at the Ryder Cup. Find their betting picks and analysis along with best bets below.
Ryder Cup Best Bets: Friday Foursomes
Fowler & Morikawa +100 Over Lowry & Straka (Tie Loses | bet365)
Jason Sobel: I’ve got Rahm/Hatton winning the first match, Homa/Harman pulling an upset in the second match and McIlroy/Fleetwood by a hair in the final match, but my favorite bet of the four matches is on Fowler and Morikawa in the third match.
Fowler and Morikawa are a pair of players seemingly made for foursomes because of their ball-striking ability, and they are playing against what is theoretically a mismatched pair in Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka, the one partnership over which European captain Luke Donald undoubtedly fretted for the longest.
Just as we view matchup bets in regular PGA Tour stroke-play events, these wagers are as much about whom we like as whom we don't like, and I believe the greatest differential between pairings is in this one.
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Schauffele & Cantlay +100 Over McIlroy & Fleetwood (Tie No Bet | bet365)
Chris Murphy: I have a lot of concerns over the way that these morning foursomes were put together for the American side, but the Schauffele/Cantlay tandem is not one of them.
I’ll happily take underdog odds on what I see as the best duo in this event. They will not back down or have any issues handling the pressure put on them in this match, and to me, they could just as easily be the favorite.
My fear is more for the team overall as they could be called on to stop the bleeding on what seems to set up as a tough opening session for the USA.
Fowler & Morikawa -125 Over Lowry & Straka (Tie No Bet | bet365)
Spencer Aguiar: Everyone is up in arms for one reason or another regarding pairings during the Friday alternate-shot session, but Europeans made the two biggest mistakes.
For starters, benching Matthew Fitzpatrick was the single-largest deviation error inside my sheet because of his top-eight projected total in the format. That was a number that surpassed all of his teammates not named Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland.
While I understand the intrigue in playing Aberg over Fitzpatrick since there wasn’t a better duo Friday morning than Hovland and Aberg when the Swedish sensation started on the tee, the more significant concern stemmed when this tandem of Lowry and Straka entered the mix.
My model thought Straka was an intriguing option to consider alongside one of the elite players on the Euro squad because of his ability to combine accuracy and proximity. However, you have to wonder if Donald made the mistake I thought the Americans would make by staying at the party too long with certain players like Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth.
I understand the feeling that Lowry's experience and accuracy would serve him well on Friday when Team Europe is in need of steady performers, but these two partners graded substantially lower than the other seven units in expected performance.
That situation is dangerous since mistakes add up quickly, and it provided a substantial divergence since pairings like Morikawa/Fowler, Aberg/Hovland and Schauffele/Cantlay all graded remarkably similar in anticipated production in that top-four range behind my favorite team of McIlroy/Fleetwood.
I'll take the high-end grades of Morikawa/Fowler over my weakest team on the slate and do so to win one unit.
