Presidents Cup: Steve Palmer's day-two preview, best bet, free golf tip

When to watch

Sky Sports Golf, midnight Thursday

Best bet

Day two 2.5-2.5 tie
1pt 5-1 general

Day-two preview

The Internationals have never made a better start in the history of the Presidents Cup and a 4-1 advantage from the opening fourballs session at Royal Melbourne has seen the home side cut from 11-4 to 11-10.

The United States got the first point on the board, courtesy of Justin Thomas and Tiger Woods cruising to a 4&3 success, but the Internationals claimed the other four points, three by narrow margins and a 4&3 romp for Abraham Ancer and Louis Oosthuizen over Dustin Johnson and Gary Woodland.

The States have eased from 4-9 to 11-10 – both teams can be backed at odds-against as bookmakers disagree on who should be favourites – with the tie shortening from 14-1 to 12-1.

There are five foursomes contests on day two, then four fourballs and four foursomes on day three, before 12 singles matches on day four, so USA captain Woods will not be panicking. This is just the fourth time the Internationals have won the opening session, though, so the States are not used to playing catch-up in this competition.
The day-two foursomes line-up has given the Internationals a good chance of retaining their early advantage and the 5-1 about a 2.5-2.5 foursomes ties seems a fair price.

The action resumes at 12.02am tonight with a strong Internationals duo of Adam Scott and Louis Oosthuizen taking on Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar. This is as good a pairing as Ernie Els can muster. With Johnson rusty after an injury lay-off and Kuchar teeing up for the first time this week after sitting out the fourballs, the Internationals will expect to go 5-1 up.

Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay is a rock-solid foursomes pairing, who can win a point for the States against Adam Hadwin and Joaquin Niemann in the 12.15am match, then what will probably be the tightest contest of the session immediately follows.

Marc Leishman and Abraham Ancer take on Patrick Reed and Webb Simpson. The Melbourne crowd could play a part in this – an Aussie is against the unpopular Reed – but the Americans are good enough to battle to a half.

Thomas and Woods can be fancied to keep their 100 percent record by beating Byeong Hun An and Hideki Matsuyama in the 12.41pm contest, but Gary Woodland and Rickie Fowler look vulnerable against Sungjae Im and Cameron Smith in the final match of the night. The seemingly fearless Im made an excellent Presidents Cup debut in the fourballs and could be the key to the Internationals moving 6.5-3.5 up going into the weekend.

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