Golf Betting Strategy
While some people may find golf boring, it’s one of the world’s most popular individual spectator sports. Tournaments are held nearly every week, with the final rounds traditionally being played on Sunday, making it the perfect relaxing sporting even to watch on a lazy weekend. Of course, like any other game, it’s a little more fun if you can watch it with some money on the line.
Betting on golf can be profitable under the right circumstances, if you know what you’re doing and understand the kinds of bets being offered. Here are a few tips to get you started with golf betting.
Types of Golf Bets
In general, there are only two types of bets offered for golf: the win bet and the matchup bet. Many sportsbooks also offer a variety of prop bets on the side, but these can vary from site to site.
The win bet is quite simple – you’re betting on which golfer will win the tournament. Usually, there will be a number of golfers you can bet on, along with a field bet that covers everyone else competing (as there are often over 100 golfers in a tournament, the field might cover 60-70 golfers or more). For instance, you might see Tiger Woods at +400, Phil Mickelson at +500, and the field at +1000.
The other major bet that’s usually offered is the matchup bet. In this bet, two golfers are paired head-to-head, and the golfer who finishes better in the tournament wins. You might see these bets offered on an individual round (often, with two golfers who are directly paired with each other on that day), or over the course of an entire tournament. The odds on a matchup bet will usually look something like this:
Tiger Woods -120
Phil Michelson -100
The matchup bet can push, should the two golfer shoot the same score.
Golf Betting Tips
Probably the most important thing to keep in mind when betting golf is that betting on the golfer who is most likely to win the tournament isn’t usually a good idea. This may sound counterintuitive; don’t we want to pick the winner?
The problem is that the odds offered rarely justify betting on the favorite. This is especially true when one golfer is seen as dominant, as was the case for many years with Tiger Woods. This can result in some very low odds being offered on them winning a tournament, sometimes as low as +200 or +300. No matter how good a golfer is, they’ll rarely be so strong as to win one out of three or four tournaments against fields of 100 or more professional golfers.
On the other hand, there are often some golfers with a fairly realistic chance of winning a tournament who are getting good odds. You can find major winners or players ranked in the top 10 in the world at odds of 15-1 or 20-1 at times, making them excellent values in the right circumstances. This is especially true if these golfers have been playing well lately, or if they’re at a course that they’ve had success at historically. Paying attention to these factors will give you an excellent chance at sniffing out some profitable golf betting opportunities.
