As PGA Tour stars continue to accept stratosheric offers to take their games to the LIV Golf tour, betting lines for the Presidents Cup remain in flux.
What To Know: The Presidents Cup is a four-day match play PGA Tour event that takes place once every two years. The event features a total of 30 matches between a 12-person U.S. team and a 12-person International team.
The 2022 Presidents Cup will be the first playing of the event since 2019 after it was postponed along with the Ryder Cup last year due to lingering COVID-19 concerns.
For the first time, the Presidents Cup will be held at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. Players will tee up Sept. 20-25 for the 14th playing of the event.
The Presidents Cup is a unique golf event because there isn't any purse or prize money involved. Players are not paid for their individual participation. Instead, each competitor allocates an equal portion of the funds generated from the event to a charity of choice. The financial structure is much different than regular PGA Tour events and is a complete contrast to the new LIV Golf tour, which is poaching PGA players with big checks.
Several players who were slated to fill spots on their respective Presidents Cup teams have left the PGA Tour and accepted offers from the new and upcoming Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour.
Cam Smith, who is ranked second in the world behind Scottie Scheffler, recently made the decision to make the move to the LIV Golf tour, and betting lines are moving with him.
2022 Presidents Cup betting lines opened up with odds of -400 in favor of the U.S. team. The underdog International team was given +400 odds, and a potential tie was listed at +1,400.
According to DraftKings Inc DKNG sportsbook odds, the U.S. team is even more likely to win the Cup following the departure of several key players from the International team.
With three weeks left until the event, DraftKings has the U.S. team listed at -500 and the International team at +450. The potential tie between the two sides is still listed at +1,400.
Recent Changes: More and more players continue to take the check and run to LIV, which renders them ineligible to play in the Presidents Cup — a PGA Tour event.
Just this week, the LIV Golf tour announced that it added five more players to its tour, signing Smith, Joaquin Niemann, Marc Leishman, Harold Varner III and Anirban Lahiri.
Related Link: Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy Unite On New Golf League: Can It Compete With PGA Golf And LIV Golf?
Smith and Niemann had already qualified for the International team as two of the top players and Leishman and Lahiri were both being considered for captain’s picks. The recent departures come after the Saudi-backed tour already signed several top players from the International side.
The remaining qualifiers for the International team include Hideki Matsuyama, Adam Scott, Sungjae Im, Tom Kim, Corey Conners, and Mito Pereira. Following the departures of Smith and Niemann, the International team will have to be rounded out with a total of six captain's picks.
The U.S. team is also left with six captain's picks, which are expected to be made next week. The top six U.S. players who officially qualified at season's end include world No. 1 Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Sam Burns and Tony Finau.
All six U.S. qualifiers are ranked inside the top 15 in the official golf world rankings, with Scheffler, Cantlay and Schauffele all ranked in the top five. If any of the top U.S. players were to accept offers from the LIV Golf tour and become ineligible for the Presidents Cup, the odds could swing again. All three players who are in in the top five internationally are unlikely to make the switch.
Scheffler backed the PGA Tour when former players filed lawsuits against the PGA tour after joining LIV. Cantlay recently said he didn't have any plans to leave the PGA Tour for LIV. He had the best odds to join LIV among the top U.S. players as of last week, according to Bookies.com.
The odds of Cantlay joining LIV were listed at +350 last week, representing more than a 20% chance of Cantlay making the switch. He's listed at +450 alongside Schauffele, who recently reaffirmed his commitment to play on the PGA tour.
Even if one of the U.S. players were to leave the PGA tour ahead of the Presidents Cup, the U.S. team is likely to remain heavily favored.
The U.S. has come out on top in eight straight Presidents Cup appearances. 1998 is the only year the International team has hoisted the Presidents Cup trophy since its inception in 1994. The two sides also tied in 2003.
If you want to bet on the draw, PENN Entertainment Inc's PENN Barstool Sportsbook has a potential tie listed at +1,600 odds. Flutter Entertainment PLC's PDYPF FanDuel Sportsbook offers the best odds for those betting on the International team. FanDuel has the International team listed at +600 odds and the U.S. team listed as -550 favorites.
If you are hoping to attend the event in the Southeastern part of the U.S., tickets are available here via Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation Entertainment Inc LYV.
Photo: Pexels from Pixabay.
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