PREVIEW: The Ryder Cup

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t’s hardly surprising that Europe are odds-on to retain the Ryder Cup and with seven wins from the the last 10, plus home advantage there’s an argument for suggesting they should be even shorter in the outright market.

The 2014 edition gets underway on the first tee at Gleneagles at 7.35am on Friday morning with the first four-ball: Justin Rose & Henrik Stenson taking on the USA’s Bubba Watson & Webb Simpson.

Europe haven’t lost on home soil for 21 years and captain Paul McGinley has assembled a strong team which includes four of the top six golfers in the world based on current rankings.

Phil Mickelson has done his best to inject some fighting talk by taking a swipe at Rory McIlroy and Grame McDowell but it’s a very different shape to the USA team with Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson and Jason Dufner all absent and Europe are likely to do the talking on the fairways.

TEAM EUROPE
Captain: Paul McGinley

RORY McILROY (Northern Ireland)
HENRIK STENSON (Sweden)
VICTOR DUBUISSON (France)
JAMIE DONALDSON (Wales)
SERGIO GARCIA (Spain)
JUSTIN ROSE (England)
MARTIN KAYMER (Germany)
THOMAS BJORN (Denmark)
GRAEME McDOWELL (Northern Ireland)
STEPHEN GALLACHER (Scotland)
IAN POULTER (England)
LEE WESTWOOD (England)

TEAM USA
Captain: Tom Watson

BUBBA WATSON
RICKIE FOWLER
JIM FURYK
JIMMY WALKER
PHIL MICKELSON
MATT KUCHAR
JORDAN SPIETH
PATRICK REED
ZACH JOHNSON
KEEGAN BRADLEY
HUNTER MAHAN
WEBB SIMPSON

LAST 10 RYDER CUPS
2012 Medinah Country Club Medinah, IL 13 ½ 14 ½ EUROPE
2010 Celtic Manor Resort City of Newport, Wales 13 ½ 14 ½ EUROPE
2008 Valhalla Golf Club Louisville, Kentucky 16 ½ 11 ½ USA
2006 The K Club, Straffan Co. Kildare, Ireland 9 ½ 18 ½ EUROPE
2004 Oakland Hills CC Bloomfield Township, MI 9 ½ 18 ½ EUROPE
2002 The Belfry Sutton Coldfield, England 12 ½ 15 ½ EUROPE
1999 The Country Club Brookline, MA 14 ½ 13 ½ USA
1997 Valderrama GC Sotogrande Spain 13 ½ 14 ½ EUROPE
1995 Oak Hill CC Rochester, NY 13 ½ 14 ½ EUROPE
1993 The Belfry Sutton Coldfield, England 15 13 USA

As you would expect, there are a whole host of markets available with Star Sports and they will be bet in play right up to the winning putt.

My first bet is in the first four-ball and I’m keen on Rose/Stenson making the perfect start for Europe and seeing off the USA challenge of Watson/Simpson.

RECOMMENDED BETS (scale of 1-50 points)

BACK ROSE/STENSON to beat WATSON/SIMPSON at around evens for 8 points with Star Sports

RETURN SINCE START OF WORLD CUP: PROFIT 13.01 POINTS

What’s your view? CALL STAR SPORTS 08000 521 321