The United States will be looking to continue their Presidents Cup dominance this week, but the conditions in Australia could result in another rare loss.
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This team matchplay competition has been dominated by the Americans since its creation during the 1990s, apart from one notable exception. On the one occasion when the event was played in Australia, at the same Royal Melbourne venue as this week, the Internationals pulled off a stunning upset, winning by a massive nine point margin.
Despite holding an overwhelming advantage in terms of worldwide pedigree and rankings status, the Americans simply failed to adapt to the conditions on this famous sand-belt layout. Superstars Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and David Duval were completely upstaged by home-based journeymen like Craig Parry, Greg Turner and Japan's Shigeki Maruyama.
One might think an extra week's preparation would go some way towards ironing out any American weaknesses and levelling the playing field, but the Australian Open evidence merely confirmed my fears. As the week went on, The Lakes predictably became firmer and faster and the American challenge faded.
The likes of Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson were well positioned from the first morning, yet never got in a blow on Sunday. Only Tiger Woods and Nick Watney really emerged with any credit, yet still had to play second fiddle to Greg Chalmers and John Senden - two Aussies whose claims barely ever rate a mention on the PGA Tour.
This year's Internationals line-up contains five Aussies who know these conditions inside out. Jason Day and Adam Scott are two of the world's best right now, while Geoff Ogilvy and Aaron Baddeley saved their best golf for the tougher weekend conditions, finishing strongly for a top-five and top-ten finish respectively. Robert Allenby had a rare bad week on Aussie soil, but has a long matchplay pedigree.
Along with former Royal Melbourne winner Ernie Els, this home contingent rates a formidable nucleus to the Internationals line-up, so I'm taking them to compound US misery at odds of 1.95.
