Understanding How To Bet Golf
Sports gambling is fun, exciting and thrilling. It can turn any regular game or match into one filled with action, where every play matters and big wins are on the line. What's not to love about that! When people think about sports gambling they typically think about betting on football, basketball, baseball and the other major sports. But that's what makes sports gambling so great - you can place bets on any kind of sport! And one of those sports that some players may not think about betting on is golf. Golf is a fun sport to play, there's nothing like heading out to the course on a bright sunny day and enjoying the outdoors while playing a little golf with friends or family.
But did you know that golf can be pretty fun to bet on as well! Well, it can be and today we're going to take a closer look at the bets players can place and how they can turn any golf match into an exciting one - and hopefully win some money!
Types of Golf bets
You'd be surprised to know that golf offers a nice list of bets players can choose from, each one offering a little different piece of action. So let's take a look at what golf offers players…
Tournament Winner
Betting on a tournament winner is probably the most popular bet for golf. A golf tournament consists of 4 rounds of 18 holes each. Whichever golfer has the lowest combined score after those 4 rounds wins the tournament. This bet is the equivalent of a 'money line' bet in football or basketball. In other words, you're betting on the outright winner of the tournament.
What makes this bet so potentially lucrative is that even the favorites come with positive odds. That's because a typical tournament consists of over 100 players. So you'll see some of the better players with odds like +350, +400 or even higher. That means that a $100 bet would win you $350 or $400, respectively.
It takes a lot to win a golf tournament, but if you can correctly pick the winner you'll be in line for a nice pay day!
Top 5/10/20/30/40 finisher
This type of bet gives you a little more flexibility - but also comes with shorter odds - because you're not betting on an outright winner of a tournament. In this bet, you're betting that a certain player will finish within the top 5, top 10, top 20, top 30 or top 40 in the final tournament leaderboard. But because golf can have players tie for the same place with the same score, there's some rules you should be aware of.
If two or more players are tied for the final position of the specified cutoff, your stake is proportionally cut by how many players are tied for that spot. For example, let's say you place a bet on a player to finish in the top 5. After the tournament ends, your player ties for 5th place with two other golfers. That means that technically there are 7 golfers within the top 5. That will result in your return being proportionally lower than what was originally projected. This is called a dead heat reduction. However, only bets placed on any of the golfers tied for 5th will have their bets reduced. Any golfer that finishes in spots 1-4 will result in a full payout (so if your golfer finishes 2nd, you'll win your full payout). This is the same for any cutoff as well (ie top 10, top 20, etc)
Round finishing
As we mentioned earlier, a professional golf tournament - usually a PGA Tour tournament - consists of 4 rounds of 18 holes. Betting on a round finish is a bet where you can bet on a specific player being the outright leader after each round ends. This is great if you thing a long shot has a better chance of starting out hot and being the leader after the first round but don't think that long shot has enough to win the entire tournament. If you REALLY like a golfer you technically could place 5 bets on him - to be the leader after round 1, round 2, round 3, round 4 and the entire tournament. That would be a wire to wire win - and would pay out nicely!
Tournament matchups
If choosing one player to win a tournament out of a field of over 100 golfers seems a little daunting, fear not because you can condense your bet into a tournament matchup. This bet is betting on two golfers head-to-head or a group of players of 3-5. This makes picking a winner a little more manageable, as your player only needs to place higher than 1-4 other players.
Parlays and Props
Golf even has some fun props and parlays that players can put some action on to change up their tickets.
- Parlays
A parlay bet in golf is pairing up to two golfers and betting that BOTH players will finish within a cutoff (ie top 5, top 10, etc)
- Props
Prop bets in golf are considered "fun" bets. Bets like "will Golfer A score a hole in one", predicting a golfer's score on a certain hole, predicting the cut off line after 36 holes and more. You can even place a 'nationality prop'. That is when you pick two or more golfers from he same country/region and betting on which golfer will finish higher at the end of the tournament.
Conclusion
So there we have it! As we can see, golf offers plenty of fun and exciting bets for players to take advantage of. And because winning golf tournaments is difficult to do, even the 'favorites' will come with higher odds and bigger payouts. So the next you want to start a sportsbook session but want to try a little something different, take a look at the golf bets offered by your favorite sportsbook and swing your way into big wins!