Team USA has been named the 4/5 favourite to secure victory at the 43rd Ryder Cup when the world’s finest golfers descend upon Wisconsin next year. Team Europe is the reigning champion after beating USA by a convincing 17½-10½ scoreline at Le Golf National in 2018. However, Team USA won by a similarly emphatic margin when the cup was last held on American soil and it will be desperate to regain global bragging rights.
The 2020 Ryder Cup takes place at Whistling Straits from 25-27 September next year. There will be four foursome and four fourball matches on the Friday and on the Saturday, before it wraps up with 12 single matches on Sunday. The leading eight players from the USA will qualify based on results at 2019 and 2020 Majors, World Golf Championship events and the Players Championship and the 2020 PGA Tour events. Captain Steve Stricker then has four wildcard picks to bring his squad up to 12. The nine leading Europeans based on Race to Dubai points and total world points will make the team, while captain Padraig Harrington has three wildcard picks.
It promises to be the highlight of the year for golf fans and the top-rated sportsbooks are all offering odds on the outcome already. The majority of them make Team USA the 4/5 favorite, while Team Europe is out at 6/4 and the draw is priced at 14/1. The Europeans have now won the Ryder Cup four of the last five times it has been held. Going a little further back, they have secured seven victories in the last nine Ryder Cups, so they should head to Wisconsin full of confidence.
However, Team USA was superb when it was held in Minnesota in 2016. The home fans really helped to roar their team on, and Stricker will hope for similar levels of passion in 2020. He played in three Ryder Cups and he was victorious in 2008, although he was on the losing side in 2010 and 2012. His record was 3-7-1. He was vice-captain in 2014, 2016 and 2018, and he will bid to recapture the spirit of 2016 when he leads his troops into battle next year.
The sportsbooks are confident that Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Gary Woodland, Patrick Reed, Rickie Fowler and Tiger Woods will make the team. The likes of Tony Finau, Bryson DeChambeau, Webb Simpson, Matt Kuchar and, of course, Jordan Spieth will fight for the remaining places, and that looks like an outrageously formidable collection of players.
Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose and Jon Rahm are sure to make the European team, while 2018 heroes Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari will be back in business. Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia should all be on the plane to Wisconsin, while Matthew Fitzpatrick, Shane Lowry and Matt Wallace will all fancy their chances of muscling their way into contention. Team Europe does not look as strong overall as the American collection of stars, but we have seen that they have great chemistry and they play well together.
Harrington has a 9-13-3 record at the Ryder Cup and his finest performance came in 2004, when he won four of five matches to help his team romp to an 18½-9½ victory. He struggled two years later, but Europe still won, and he has tasted plenty of success at the Ryder Cup. He was vice-captain for the past three tournaments, and in that time Europe won twice on home soil but lost at Hazeltine in 2016. He will need to display fine leadership skills if his team is to topple an impressive American contingent in Wisconsin, and it promises to be an exhilarating contest.
