As sports betting became legalized, a new wave of bettors arose. One of these sports became golf. Unlike popular North American sports like football, basketball, and baseball, which all have limited seasons, golf provides a year-round calendar of events. Golf generates an annual wager of $5 billion, which is one of the most popular sports except for football, basketball, baseball, and hockey, known as the big four. If you are new to golf but passionate about it and wondering how to place a golf bet, this article is for you.
How Does Golf Betting Work?
Before we look into the types of golf and how to place the bet, let us begin the article by learning how golf betting works. To explain this, we can use an example so you will understand better. Let’s say you bet on Jon Rahm to win the 2024 US Open at 10/1 odds. If you bet on £5, you would win £50 if he won. But if you bet on Matt Fitzpatrick at 20/1 odds and he won, you would win even more money. A £5 bet would win £100, plus you will get your £5 back. If Rahm didn’t win, you would lose your bet. Golf betting, just like all other betting is about risking money for you to win more. The odds show how likely the player is to win.
Types of golf bets
- Place Bets
- Outright Winner
- Each Way Bets
- To make the cut
- Prop Bets
- Matchups
- Golf Parlay Bets
- Nationalities Bets
- Round Leaders
- Round Totals
- Futures
Place Bets
Place bets offer a more manageable way to bet on golf, which allows you to bet on a specific golfer to finish within a specific number of positions, typically in the top 5. This market provides more flexibility and value, as golfers often make a late rush to climb the leaderboard, so placing the place bet helps you with that. It is easier to predict with multiple positions.
Outright Winner
The most popular way to bet on golf is to predict the tournament champion; this is called the outright winner. This market features a vast field of over 160 players, which makes it interesting and challenging to pick the winner.
- Favorites mostly start at 1000+ or higher, making it attractive for the bettors to bet small across multiple players.
- It has high risk as your selected player should win the tournament, but if your selected player does end up winning, then you will receive a huge
Payout.
- All betting sites and online sportsbooks provide this betting, making it easy to access.
Each Way Bets
An each-way bet is a single bet that covers two outcomes, which are
Win: betting on a player to win the whole tournament
Place: betting on a player to finish in the place that is predicted by the bettor.
This is a combination of both place bets and outright bets. The outright winner odds determine the payout of the place bet, which is usually a fraction of the starting price. Typically, around 1/4th of the starting price.
To make the cut
The cut is a simple betting opportunity where you bet on individual players to cut or not. In a typical four-day tournament, in two days the cut is made by eliminating the bottom half of the field from the game. To succeed in the bet, your chosen player just has to make it to the weekend of the game.
Prop Bets
Prop bets contain a variety of golf betting options. Like:
- End-of-round leader: bet on who will lead at the end of a specific round.
- 18-hole matchups: bet on the head-to-head matchups over a single round.
- Player round score: multi-way bets on a player’s score in a specific round
- over/under winning score: bet on the total score of the tournament winner.
Matchups
Golf matchups are a comparatively new type of golf and an exciting way to bet on golf, where the sportsbook pits a few golfers against each other. You simply need to pick the golfer with the lowest score in that group to win the bet. Matchups can be for a single round or the entire tournament, offering flexible betting options. This market is well suited for parlay betting, allowing you to combine multiple matchups for increased payouts.
Golf Parlay Bets
Parlay bets allow you to combine multiple picks into a single bet, which increases the payout and the chances to win. You can combine selections from different golf tournaments or matches, such as picking the winner of the DP World Tour, PGA Tour, or LPGA Tour for a week. Parlay bets are less popular in golf due to the high odds of outright bets, but they are more accessible for head-to-head and matchup bets. By breaking down each game into two or three possible outcomes, you can create a parlay bet that suits your betting style.
Nationalities Bets
The nationality market means picking the highest-ranked player from a specific country or region and it allows you to choose from it. This market reduces the size of the field and makes it easier to select the winner. By focusing on players from specific nationalities, the odds are lower, and this increases the chance to win payouts.
Round Leaders
Before each round, sportsbooks set a market for the player leading the game at the round’s end. the selected player only needs to be ahead after the round, not necessarily win the tournament to win.
Round Totals
Round total bets allow you to bet on the score of a player who will shoot in a specific round. This market offers you two options: a 2-way bet where you choose over or under a set score, or a 3-way market with brackets. The 2-way bet involves predicting whether a player’s score is above or below a certain number, such as 74.5 strokes. The 3-way market provides more specific options, like over 75, exactly 73-75, or under 73 strokes.
Futures
Future bets are where you can bet on the game that is going to take place in the future. Often months or weeks in advance.
How to place a golf bet
Now you are aware of the types of golf bets and which bet you want to place. It’s time to know how to place a bet.
- To place a bet, you need a sportsbook account. If you already have an account, log into it, and if you don’t, open the sportsbook page and click the “join now” button to get started.
- To create an account, you need to fill in pieces of information like your name, date of birth, email address, and the country you reside in.
- After filling out the information and successfully creating the account, make the deposit and claim all the bonuses, like the welcome bonus, first deposit bonus, etc.
- From the sports betting option, click on the drop-down menu, where you can see a lot of sports options for betting. From this, look for ‘golf’. From there, you will be able to choose the top golf events that the sportsbook is hosting and the types of bets that are being offered.
- Add your chosen match and bet to your bet slip with the amount you want to bet on. Complete this process by confirming it.
Just like that, you have placed a golf bet. Now is the time to hope that you win.
Conclusion
Now you know the different types of golf betting and how to successfully place a bet on golf. There are many factors to keep in mind while placing a golf bet, like weather. As golf is an outdoor game and wind is an important factor in determining the course of the game, keep that in mind. Knowing the course history and course fit is also important in selecting the player to place the bet on.
Read More: Totals Betting Explained: What is a total bet?
