Course Guide · 2026 Presidents Cup
MedinahNo. 3.
Medinah, Illinois · Par 72 · 7,564 tournament yards · Host: 2026 Presidents Cup (Sep 24-27)
Medinah's Course No. 3 has hosted three U.S. Opens, two PGA Championships, and the 2012 Ryder Cup, but the version teeing off this week is barely the same golf course. OCM (Ogilvy, Cocking, Mead) tore up the layout between 2022 and 2024, and the firm's co-founder, Geoff Ogilvy, is now captaining the International Team that has to play it. Treat any "course history favors X" narrative here with real skepticism. There's history at this venue, but almost none of it happened on this version of the course.
2024
OCM Redesign
Completed
+40%
Avg. Green Size
Increase
01 — Course Fingerprint
What the rebuild changed.
OCM's redesign reshaped nearly every hole at Medinah No. 3: fairway acreage doubled from 29 to 58 acres, bunker count grew from 70 to 117, average green size increased more than 40%, and rough was cut to roughly a third of its former width. The routing changes too: Presidents Cup play begins on what members know as hole 5 and finishes on the traditional holes 1-4, a sequencing choice built to end matches on dramatic closing holes near Lake Kadijah in front of an expected 35,000 daily spectators.
Wider fairways and bigger greens generally reward aggressive ball-strikers who can miss in more places and still have a scoring look, which is a different demand profile than the tighter, smaller-green Medinah that hosted the 2012 Ryder Cup and three U.S. Opens. The model treats this as an off-the-tee and approach course first, with historical Medinah results carrying limited weight given how much of the physical golf course has changed since those events were played.
The captain who redesigned the course
Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 U.S. Open champion now captaining the International Team, co-founded OCM, the design firm behind this rebuild. He knows every green contour and bunker angle on this golf course better than anyone else involved this week. It is a real storyline. It is not, on its own, a quantifiable betting edge, since Ogilvy sets the lineup card but doesn't hit a shot.
02 — Format This Week
Team match play, not stroke play.
The 2026 Presidents Cup runs 30 total points across four days: five four-ball matches Thursday, five foursomes matches Friday, a split day Saturday (four foursomes in the morning, four four-ball in the afternoon), and 12 singles matches Sunday. First team to 15.5 points wins outright; a 15-15 tie lets Team USA retain the Cup as defending champion. Sunday singles alone accounts for 12 of the 30 points, more than Thursday and Friday combined.
Four-Ball
Best ball
Each player plays their own ball; low score on the hole counts. Rewards aggressive birdie-making over conservative play.
Foursomes
Alternate shot
Partners alternate hitting the same ball. Rewards chemistry and consistent ball-striking over individual firepower.
Singles
Head to head
One-on-one match play, no partner to lean on. Worth 40% of the Cup's total points on Sunday alone.
Why there's no DFS card this week
A stroke-play salary-cap DFS slate assumes every player is trying to shoot the lowest individual score across 72 holes. That's not how match play works, a player can lose a hole-by-hole battle while posting a fine gross score, so StrokesEdge isn't publishing a DFS article for Presidents Cup week. Picks and props only.
03 — Notable Holes
Where matches get decided.
06
Par-5, 646 yards — reachable in two
A downhill landing zone makes this the longest hole on the card genuinely reachable for elite players, and an early source of separation between the sides in four-ball sessions.
12
Par-4, 402 yards — the new "cape hole"
A new hole cutting across Lake Kadijah with real tee-shot strategy options. Short enough to tempt aggression, exposed enough to punish a poor decision.
13
Par-3, 217 yards — a full iron under pressure
A new hole replacing the old routing, demanding an accurate mid-to-long iron. Exactly the kind of hole that decides a nervy Sunday singles match.
04 — Betting Angles
How to bet a rebuilt Ryder Cup venue.
01
Discount "Medinah history" claims
Anyone leaning on the 2012 Ryder Cup or Medinah's U.S. Open history to fit players to this week's course is fitting them to a golf course that no longer exists in that form. Fairways doubled, greens grew, bunkers nearly doubled, rough shrank.
02
Roster depth matters more than course fit
With 24 players and only four session types, who's in the lineup and how many sessions they play moves the needle more than any single course-fit read. Check session pairings as they're announced, not just outright odds.
03
Sunday singles props hold value even in a blowout
Because singles is worth 40% of the Cup on its own, individual top-scorer and debutant props stay live even if the outright winner is effectively decided by Saturday night.
04
Wide fairways favor four-ball aggression
The doubled fairway acreage and bigger greens should produce more birdies and fewer big numbers, a format that rewards the more aggressive team in four-ball sessions specifically.
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