With all the excitement surrounding the golf world, golf betting has gained much more exposure and interest in the past few years, and you’re probably thinking: “How do I bet on golf?” Well, whether it’s your first time with sports betting or you’re a seasoned pro, understanding how to bet on golf online and how to read golf odds can help you make smart bets. This is the reason I put together this guide to help you have fun betting on golf and make some money. Keep reading to find out golf betting rules, tips, and tricks.
What Are Major Golf Championships
If you want to be recognized as a pro golfer for the rest of your life, you should win one of the PGA(Professional Golfers’ Association) Major Golf Tournaments. The PGA has four Major Golf Tournament events that take place during the season — The Masters Tournament, The U.S. Open, The Open Championship, and The PGA Championship. Golfers should know that the majors can make or break a player’s career. Each event holds an enormous amount of prestige, history, and money that the other PGA Tour events don’t have.
- The Masters takes place in April. This exclusive tournament invites only the best on the circuit. It is played at Augusta National Golf Club and many consider it the top major tournament.
- The US Open tees off in June. Starting in 1895, this major is played at a different location each year with 156 players attempting to finish as the No. 1 golfer.
- The Open Championship or The British Open is played in July on a links course in the UK. This 72-hole competition sees 156 golfers battle it.
- The PGA Championship takes place in August and is typically played on the Eastern side of the USA.
Golf Betting Odds Explained
Let’s start with the basics and review reading golf odds. Most golf odds are listed in the fractional format. For example, 10/1 on Dustin Johnson, and in this particular case, you multiply the amount bet by that first number to calculate your winnings. In other words, a $100 bet on DJ to win that particular event would win you $1000. On the other hand, you may be more comfortable with the American version of odds listings – ie +1000 – that you typically see across the other major North American sports. The good news is that these numbers are easily convertible. Online and app-based bookies may already have that option built-in. But if you want to do it yourself, the easiest way to do it is to add two zeros to the first number in the fraction. So, a 10/1 price on DJ converts to +1000 in that format.
The most common type of golf betting is to wager on which golfer will win a tournament. For instance, consider Happy Gilmore as a real person and a favorite in every tournament he plays in – like Tiger Woods in his prime. So, a line for Gilmore looks something like this: +700. The number indicates that Happy is a 7-1 favorite to win the tournament and you need to bet $100 to win $700.
Golf Betting System And Betfair Tips
Although one of the biggest allures of PGA betting is that a win by a high underdog player can be like a lottery ticket, they are rare. For example, wins like Billy McRandom winning The Masters at 300-1 don’t occur very commonly. For this reason, the best strategy to predict PGA is to try and find a golfer who has shot well either recently or at the specific course. That doesn’t always mean winning, but the top 10 finishes where the golfer may just be a tweak or two away can be a future success sign.
Below are some betting strategies that you can readily apply to golf betting on Betfair.
First of all, intelligent bettors must be honest with themselves. Do you really have an opinion on the golf event? In other words, can you form your own view of price (probability) for the main contenders?
The fact is that most bettors can’t, and this is true across all sports not just golf. But don’t worry. If you can’t price up a full-field professional event, this doesn’t mean you are doomed. Quite the opposite, this means you need to apply strategies that don’t depend solely on the value identification, for instance, by taking on the role of the bookmaker.
- Don’t back one guy and hope. Instead, pick a stable of players. By this, I mean you should spread your stake across multiple runners. In my opinion, it’s a sensible approach to betting on any large field market, including golf. So, if you really want to back and cheer your selection on, it is a strategy you should consider. However, how you go about selecting your stable depends greatly on whether or not you have an opinion on the price. If you can form an opinion and price up the field, pool together the players you believe the market has underestimated. If you don’t have your own opinion of price, you can still pull together an intelligent stable of choices. Also, you should not spend hours researching the course set-up, the players, their travel schedules, etc.
- Price up the entire field. According to Betfair: “Pricing up is where, before you look at what the Betfair market is offering, you assign your own odds to each potential outcome, based on the chance you think it has of happening. It is sometimes referred to as creating a “tissue” or a “fair-price book”. You should not form your unique opinion of price to run an exchange book on golf. The field size and event duration negate Any advantage that handicappers, experts, insiders, etc. claim to have. Unlike racing, where a horse may get backed in from, for example, $10 to $5 right at the off and leave you exposed, in golf pre-event moves are limited. In fact, even if you get stuck against one or two golfers, you have four days to adjust your position. Obviously, running a book on golf is not at all like running a book on racing. So, now the question is how to run a book without having your own opinion on price? The answer is to take market opinion, whether that’s bookmakers’, Betfair, or a combination of both. Then, apply a margin/over-round to it.
- Be a trader. In other words, buy and sell players throughout the event. Trading golf has advantages over other sports and they are the duration and sedate pace of this sport. This allows more time for considered trades and reduces the edge of the fast fingers traders that can dominate other sports. However, on the downside are the relative lack of liquidity (outside of the majors) and the fact that it can be very time-consuming. While trading in-play (through legal channels) you need to consider the timeliness of video and data. Also, you should consider the field size which results in many runners not being visible on-screen at one time.
Golf In-Play Bets
The leisurely pace of professional tournament golf makes the sport ideal for in-play betting. Because it allows spectators plenty of time to watch replays of key shots or grab a snack from the fridge.
Although you have the option of live betting in many sports, in most games the pace is so quick that you need to react with lightning speed to maximize potential value bets. But golf betting is so different. Players take several minutes to get to their ball and line up their next shot. This gives you much more time to consider your options on an in-play wager.
However, this is not so easy peasy! For a successful in-play bet in golf, you need some knowledge of the course and a player’s history on the layout. You should know when to wait, strike, and so on. For example, entering a stretch of the statistically most difficult holes on the course? It might be time to wait. Or, coming up on a hole where the player has gone under par in previous rounds? It might be time to strike. On top of that, weather conditions are always worth watching given the substantial impact they can have on every shot. Here are a couple of golf in-play tips:
Odds Do Matter
In-play betting allows you to take advantage of the natural ebbs and flows of a tournament, and back a player when odds are more favorable to a payoff.
Say Masters betting in 2014, which Adam Scott entered with 11/2 odds dropped to 9/4 after a strong opening round. A better value option would have been Matt Kuchar, whose early struggles saddled him with 30/1 odds before he rallied to finish fifth.
In fact, in many tournaments like the Masters, the early leader rarely wins. So, value can often be found further back in the field. Some players are known as strong closers and are worth considering even if their early rounds aren’t up there with the leaders.
For these reasons, homework and knowing individual player trends are always important. You should know the answer to all of the following questions because they matter, especially for PGA betting and betting on other major events.
- Does the course favor left-handers? Strong putters?
- Does it feature small greens that place a premium on an iron play?
Hole-by-Hole Betting
Knowing how holes are playing during tournaments can be very helpful in successful in-play betting. The statistics are readily available because many tournaments are played on the same courses year after year. This provides a treasure trove of data that you can examine before events even start. This way, you know what is historically a player’s strongest and weakest holes in a given tournament.
For instance, at the Masters, the par-5s on the back nine are always among the most birdied holes on the golf course. On the other hand, the three finishing holes are typically among the stingiest relative to par.
Player interviews in the days before a tournament gives you an insight into where they believe they’re strongest and weakest on the course. The tour’s biggest hitters like Bubba Watson and Rory McIlroy will always be strong bets on par-5s no matter where the event is taking place.
Golf Betting Tips FAQs
When Is The First Major Golf Tournament In 2022?
The first major golf tournament in 2022 is the Masters from April 7-10 at Augusta National Golf Club.
Where Can I Find Ben Coley Betting Tips?
To keep up with Ben Coley’s tips and betting advice, you can follow him on Twitter. Also, he writes multiple articles on different websites and you can find them easily through google search.
Where Can I Find Golf Oddschecker?
There are an infinite number of online oddschecker for golf tournaments. However, I suggest checking verified PGA platforms and trusted bookies like Betonline, FunDuel, and so on. You can find complete reviews of our recommended betting sites in the Casino Reviews section of the Playnowpros website.