We head to Bethpage Black (par 70, 7,352 yards, POA/Bentgrass greens) in Farmingdale, New York for the 45th edition of the Ryder Cup. Team USA and Team Europe both feature 12 golfers, and each golfer will compete in 1-5 matches depending on how their captains decide to use them throughout the Ryder Cup.
Each match won is worth one point, and each match tied is worth half a point. The first team to reach 14.5 points wins. If Team USA and Team Europe finish in a 14-14 tie, Team Europe will retain the Ryder Cup as the defending champions. The Ryder Cup will begin Friday and for the first two days of this three-day match play event, there will be four foursome matches and four-ball matches. Then on Sunday, the Ryder Cup will conclude with 12 single matches.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, there are matchups posted for the Ryder Cup, with the player who scores the more points of the 1v1 matchup winning. Below, I have featured my two favorite matchup bets for the Ryder Cup on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Jon Rahm over Bryson DeChambeau (-110)
Of these two LIV Golf superstars, Rahm should outperform DeChambeau at the Ryder Cup. On the LIV Golf tour this past season, Rahm lead the circuit in points with no finishes worse than T11 in 13 starts, including four runner-up finishes.
DeChambeau won once on the LIV Golf tour this season, but he was far less consistent than Rahm. DeChambeau finished third in points, which was 81.42 points behind Rahm, as DeChambeau finished outside the top-12 in five of his 13 starts. To close out their LIV seasons, Rahm was on fire with three runner-up finishes in his final four starts, while DeChambeau didn’t finish better than T11th in his final four starts.
DeChambeau was better at major championships this season thanks to a runner-up finish at the PGA Championship, but it terms of OWGR points gained through the four majors, it was very close between DeChambeau and Rahm, with 77.8 and 75.5 points, respectively.
Both these players have only played at Bethpage Black once and that came at the 2019 PGA Championship, when both Rahm and DeChambeau missed the cut, so there is no edge in course history at the par 70 between these two players. However, Rahm has a clear edge in match play history, which is his main selling point over DeChambeau this week.
Rahm is 6-3-3 in Ryder Cup matches, 14-10-4 in singles matches and 5-2-2 in team matches for his career, whereas DeChambeau is just 2-3-1 in Ryder Cup matches, 3-7-2 in single matches and 1-3-1 in team matches. As you can see, Rahm has a much better record than DeChambeau in every format, and Rahm producing more points this week feels very likely.
Tommy Fleetwood over Xander Schaufelle (-135)
Schauffele and Fleetwood both competed at Bethpage Black for the 2019 Championship and that week, Schauffele finished T16th, while Fleetwood finished T48th. However, six years later, things are much different now, with Fleetwood playing far better golf than Schauffele heading into this Ryder Cup.
Outside of Scottie Scheffler, Fleetwood is in the best form of this entire field. The Englishman carded seven top-five finishes in 18 starts on the PGA TOUR this season. He closed his campaign finishing T3rd, T4th and first in his final three starts, with that victory coming at the TOUR Championship last month.
Fleetwood ranks second on the PGA TOUR in total strokes gained, while Schauffele ranks just 54th in the stat, after a very disappointing season for the 31-year-old. Schauffele didn’t miss any cuts in 15 starts, but he only recorded three top-10 finishes, and he never finished higher than T7th. Schauffele didn’t even qualify for the TOUR Championship, whereas Fleetwood won the playoff finale by three strokes.
As for match play records, Schauffele is 13-5-4 in singles matches and 10-7 in team matches, but when it comes to the Ryder Cup, he has been lackluster, with just a 4-4 record. Fleetwood on the other hand has been great at the Ryder Cup with a 7-3-2 record. The 34-year-old has shown some vulnerability in single matches, with a 12-12-4 record, but Fleetwood is excellent in team matches, with a 6-2-1 record.
Playing the best golf of his career and oozing with confidence after winning the TOUR Championship last month, Fleetwood is very likely to play 4-5 matches this week as one of the leaders for Team Europe, while Schauffele’s recent disappointing form could result in him only playing in just three matches for Team USA.
Fleetwood’s +950 odds to be the leading scorer for the Ryder Cup on DraftKings Sportsbook are far better than Schauffele at +1500, and Fleetwood is the clear choice in this matchup vs. Schauffele.
