Can Team USA win a fifth Presidents Cup title in a row?

Normally when the new, raw kid joins the team nobody wants to play with him. Not so when it comes to Jordan Spieth. In fact every player in the USA squad limbering up to take on the Internationals in the Presidents Cup at Muirfield Village this weekend is queuing up to pair off with a 20-year-old generally considered to be the best golfer to emerge on the other side of the Atlantic since Tiger Woods.

Spieth’s rise up the ranks from top amateur to world number 21 has happened so quickly that casual followers of the sport might not yet have even heard of him. They soon will. He will be big news over the next few days, win or lose – and from what we have seen of him it will probably be win.

Last July the Texan rookie became the youngest player to win on the US tour for 82 years when winning the John Deere Classic and subsequent top class displays in the FedEx Cup series (in which he finished seventh overall) showed that historic victory to be no flash in the pan.

Coral rate Spieth a 12/1 shot to top score for the USA in this Ryder Cup-style matchplay event and 18/1 to amass the most points on either side. It looks like Steve Stricker has won the battle to partner him and this popular veteran – back to his best since cutting down his schedule – also catches the eye in these markets (7/1 and 10/1).

As for the match itself, well, the Internationals have managed only one win and one tie in the ten matches played since the competition’s inception in 1994 and so it’s no surprise that they are the 5/2 outsiders (USA 2/7).

Tiger Woods sank the winning putt (for the second time) in the Americans’ 19-15 victory in Australia two years ago and the world number one does seem to rise to this occasion more often than he does for the Ryder Cup. Inevitably he’s favourite in both the total points markets (5/1 and 15/2).

But the player who really stands out to do best over the weekend is Keegan Bradley (9/1 top USA, 16/1 top overall), whose intensity and skill under pressure in the last Ryder Cup was almost on a par with Ian Poulter – you get the impression with this guy that he wants it so much it hurts.

Adam Scott feels that it is crucial for the Internationals to break the American stranglehold for the competition to maintain its credibility and the US Masters champion, along with talents such as Jason Day and Ernie Els, will be all out to cause an upset.