World Cup of Golf Betting Preview: Australia Favorite over Japan, United States

Golf gets a bit patriotic this week as the World Cup of Golf heads to Melbourne's sandbelt, where the Australian pair of Adam Scott and Marc Leishman enter as the betting favorites to defend their title at Kingston Heath.

Three years ago, no more than five kilometers down the road at Royal Melbourne, Jason Day led the way and Scott played consistently all week to win Australia's first World Cup in 24 years.

There's no Day this time around, with the world No. 1 resting his troublesome back in the United States, but world No. 7 Scott has been joined by Leishman, a player with considerable local knowledge given he was raised in Victoria.

According to the website AustralianGambling, the Aussie pair is at $5.50 to win a tournament, which is split between foursomes and four-ball contests. Days 1 and 3 will be foursomes, which involves players playing alternate shots, while the second and fourth days will be four-ball, with both players playing their own ball and the best score counting.

While the United States, who won this tournament in 2011, have two players inside the top five, neither Dustin Johnson nor Jordan Spieth will be in Melbourne this week. 2016 PGA Championship winner Jimmy Walker and the consistent Rickie Fowler will fly the stars and stripes and are ranked third to win it all at $9, equal favorites with the Spanish pair of Rafael Cabrera-Bello and former world-leading amateur Jon Rehm.

The second favorites are the Japanese pair of Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Ishikawa. Both are prodigious young talents, with Matsuyama currently ranked No. 6 in the world after recently winning the HSBC Champions event in China by seven shots.

Golf fans will be keen to catch Matsuyama, who has emerged as a global superstar after his two wins on the U.S. PGA Tour this year, but the top golfer in the world this year is arguably Sweden's Alexander Noren.

Noren's extraordinary run since July has seen him collect four tournament victories on the European Tour and shoot to ninth on the world rankings. Had he been partnered with world No. 4 compatriot Henrik Stenson, then the Swedes, the 2008 champions, would be favorites. But Stenson, who played in that 2008 success, isn't here, meaning world No. 66 David Lingmerth is Noren's partner for the week.

As a result, Sweden are listed at $13, the same price as Ireland, who are represented by 2010 U.S. Open winner Graeme McDowall and 2016 U.S. Open runner-up Shane Lowry. England, with Chris Wood and Andy Sullivan, are $12 and fifth favorites to regain the title they last won with Paul Casey and Luke Donald in 2004.