Which team has the edge in the Ryder Cup? Our gambling expert weighs in

Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling-tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com’s expert prognosticator, Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network devoted to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow Brady on Twitter at @LasVegasGolfer, and you can read his picks below for the 2025 Ryder Cup, which gets underway Friday at Bethpage Black in New York.

Everybody’s working for the weekend. How about this? Come Sunday, we’ll have the final and decisive day of the 45th Ryder Cup taking place at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y. We will have Week 4 of the NFL season unfolding, including a game taking place on Team Europe’s side of the globe, in Dublin, Ireland. And we have the final day of the 2025 MLB regular season happening, determining division winners and wildcards for the postseason. That is one heck of a Sunday Funday.

I can share with you that I have tickets to win the pennant on the Mariners, Yankees, Phillies, and Mets. I can say that I believe the 49ers will beat the Jaguars on Sunday afternoon. But we are back here, as always, to focus on golf, and I do indeed have a few predictions on just what might happen at the highly anticipated biennial competition known as the Ryder Cup.

U.S. Team — Captain: Keegan Bradley

Sam Burns
Patrick Cantlay
Bryson DeChambeau
Harris English
Ben Griffin
Russell Henley
Collin Morikawa
Xander Schauffele
Scottie Scheffler
J.J. Spaun
Justin Thomas
Cameron Young

Team Europe — Captain: Luke Donald

Ludvig Aberg
Matt Fitzpatrick
Tommy Fleetwood
Tyrrell Hatton
Rasmus Hojgaard
Viktor Hovland
Shane Lowry
Robert MacIntyre
Rory McIlroy
Jon Rahm
Justin Rose
Sepp Straka

The Ryder Cup begins on Friday. Two-person teams from the U.S. will be matched against two-person teams from Europe. Both foursomes (alternate shot) and four-balls (best ball) formats will be played for the first two days with both morning and afternoon sessions. Sunday is reserved for one-on-one singles matches only. A full point is earned for a match won. Half a point is earned for each side in a match that ends in a tie. As the defending champion, Europe retains the trophy is the entire event ends in a tie. You can bet on this being the end result at roughly 12-1.

The Ryder Cup has been dominated by the home team in recent years. The United States won 19-9 at Whistling Straits in 2021 and Europe won two years ago in Rome 16.5-11.5. The last time the visiting side triumphed was at Medinah Country Club, not far outside of Chicago, in 2012. Team Europe staged a massive comeback that Sunday to win 14.5 to 13.5.  

I’m not sure it will be that close this time around, but I don’t believe it will be a blowout either. Every member of the European side has prior Ryder Cup experience. Seven of the 12 players representing Team Europe played in the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black — that is more than the five that were there for the U.S. side. There are four Ryder Cup rookies on the U.S. team: Griffin, Henley, Spaun, and Young. Being from the area however, Cameron Young has played this course several times, probably more than anyone on either team.

The general plan in recent Ryder Cups played on American soil has been to set up the courses to cater to the bombers. Bethpage Black is absolutely a beast of a golf course that favors the bigger hitters but here in 2025, I believe you can argue that the European side is longer off the tee overall. Given the experience and current form, I believe the European roster is better overall. Going back to the FedExCup Playoffs, both Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood are recent winners on Tour and Rory McIlroy just won the Irish Open. Two weeks ago at the BMW Championship at Wentworth, Tyrrell Hatton, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Viktor Hovland all finished top 5. Of course, Scottie Scheffler, Ben Griffin, and J.J. Spaun just finished first, second, and sixth, respectively, at the Procore Championship in Napa. The New York crowd will be a factor for sure and I do believe the United States is justified in being the favorite to win, but I do feel the price is a bit high.

I mentioned that I feel this competition will be close. Taking a possible tie out of the equation, I would make the U.S. around -140 or -145 to win the Ryder Cup with Europe being around a +120 or +125 underdog. Seeing a current offering of Europe around +170 to win, looks like good value to me.

Las Vegas native and Hall of Fame bookmaker, Nick Bogdanovich, who is now the Director of Trading at Boomer’s Sportsbooks in Nevada, is seeing this play out similarly to the way I do. 

“This one figures to be a thriller. The European squad is definitely better but USA wants this one bad. They’re triple-focused,” said Bogdanovich.

He went on to add this interesting note. “Keegan Bradley stepping aside and not playing is really good karma. I think they (United States) win somehow, someway.”

The consensus seems to be that this will be close. Yes, +170 is probably good value on Europe to win — but will they?

I am going to treat it this way and make a bet on each side.

Team Europe to Win by 1-3 Points (+400)

Team USA to Win by 1-3 Points (+350)

If we are correct in figuring this to be a closely fought battle, then we turn a profit. If we do get a thriller and one of our tickets cashes, that would be my ideal scenario. Then I can rejoice and start worrying about the 49ers, Mets, Phillies, Mariners, and Yankees.