How To Bet On Golf Tournament Odds & Lines

Forbes

30 May 2023

With the legalization of sports betting expanding across the U.S., new bettors are looking to get in on the action. One of the sports gaining popularity amongst bettors in the U.S. market is golf.

Golf provides a wide variety of betting options every week of the year. While popular North American sports like football, baseball and basketball have seasons that span only a few months, golf is played year-round. There isn’t a single week during any calendar year without a golf tournament somewhere in the world.

Let’s take a look at how to bet on golf. We’ll cover some basic terminology, explore the various golf betting markets and take a crash course in golf betting strategy.

How to Read Golf Odds

Before placing your bets, it’s essential to understand how to read golf odds.

Since golf tournaments feature upwards of 150 golfers competing each week, odds vary drastically between favorites and long shots. A pre-tournament betting favorite like Rory McIlroy will have odds in the +600 to +1200 range or 6/1 to 12/1.

A golfer ranked well outside the top 100 in the world may come with a price tag as high as 500/1, though those are usually reserved for the four major tournaments: the Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, and Open Championship.

In the weekly PGA Tour events—think the Charles Schwab Challenge or the RBC Heritage—odds will usually end around the 300/1 range, depending on the strength of the field.

Odds expressed as +600, known as American odds, indicate how much a bettor would win on a $100 wager. If you bet $100 on Rory McIlroy to win at +600, you’d profit $600, while a $50 wager at +600 would net $300, and so on.

Sportsbooks may use fractional odds in betting markets, such as the 500/1 long shot above. This is straightforward, as you multiply your wager by the odds to calculate your payout.

How to Bet on Golf: Popular Markets

Tournament Winner

The most basic golf wager is the tournament winner. Place a bet on the player to lift the trophy and hope they stand in the winner’s circle.

Due to simplicity, this is the most popular type of golf bet. It’s straightforward, but the odds on certain golfers can be astronomical. You won’t get 500/1 odds on a Scottie Scheffler or a Collin Morikawa, but plenty of long shots win each year on the PGA Tour.

It’s common to see golfers with odds of 50/1 or higher enter the winner’s circle on Sunday.

Of all the major North American sports, golf provides bettors with the most playable long-shot value. The difference in skill between the No. 1 golfer in the world and the player ranked 50th is narrower than in any other sport. The No. 1 ranked UFC heavyweight fighter would destroy the fighter ranked 50th.

Since golfers compete against the golf course, the difference between the best in the world and dead last on tour is not much more than a few yards. Not to mention, anything can happen if a player gets hot with their putter.

Sports bettors who are serious about their craft use multiple sportsbooks to shop for the best line. This is particularly true for golf bettors, as the outright odds for a tournament winner will vary between sportsbooks.

You might see a golfer you like priced at 60/1 on DraftKings Sportsbook but find them available at 80/1 on FanDuel Sportsbook. For a $100 bettor, that’s a $2,000 difference in the payout.

By doing nothing more than placing your bet at a different sportsbook, you’ve increased your potential profit.

Finishing Position Markets

The next type of bet is the finishing position wager. These are bets on a golfer to finish inside the top 5, top 10 or top 20 of a given tournament.

While the odds aren’t as long as an outright winner bet, the likelihood of cashing is stronger.

If Tony Finau has odds of +2000 to win the tournament, his odds to finish top 5 would be about 1/5th the price tag, or +400. Top 10 tickets pay 1/10th, while top 20s pay about 1/20th of a golfer’s outright odds to win the event.

This is a recommended option if you are more risk-averse.

Within these markets, it’s important to note the relevance of dead-heat rules. Different books have different rules when it comes to dead-heat situations, but this occurs when a tie sees more players occupy the allotted number of finishing positions.

Example: let’s say you bet a player to finish in the top 10. He finished in a tie for eighth with four other players.

That would trigger a dead-heat situation as the player, in effect, finished in the top 12. Depending on the sportsbook, you would either see your odds or bet chopped by a proportional rate.

It is always better to bet at a book with an odds chop. Why? Because in that instance, you’ll still come out with a profit.

Some books, like BetMGM Sportsbook, offer finishing position markets that pay out all ties, though you’ll see a worse price. While it may seem a bad decision, avoiding dead heats altogether is oftentimes worth taking a slightly worse price.

Each-Way Betting

In golf, “each-way” betting refers to a bet that’s been split. Half of your wager is placed on a golfer to win the tournament, while the other half is placed on a top-5 ticket, for example. You can get exposure on a golfer you like without needing him or her to win the tournament.

For example, say Jordan Speith is available at 20/1 to win the tournament. You place a $100 each-way bet on Speith. In this wager, $50 is placed on Speith to win the tournament at 20/1, and $50 is placed on Speith to finish top 5 at 4/1.

If Speith wins the tournament, your wager will pay $1,200. You net $1,000 from Speith’s outright win ($50 x 20/1 = $1,000), and you’ll win another $200 because he finished top 5 ($50 x 4/1 = $200)

In this scenario, you’d have won more money if you bet $100 on Speith to win outright ($100 x 20/1 = $2,000) but wouldn’t get anything if he finished second through fifth. By placing an each-way bet, a third-place finish would still profit $150.

Deduct your outright wager from your top 5 winnings ($50 x 4/1 = $200) – ($50 Tournament Winner) = $150 profit.

While not all sportsbooks offer each-way bets, they’re pretty simple to recreate. Place two separate bets – one on an outright winner ticket and the other on a top-5 finish.

For longer outright picks, each-way picks often include an outright ticket and a top-10 selection, rather than a top five for the favorites. Should you choose to recreate with a golfer in the 50-75/1 range, half your wager should go on an outright with the other half on a top 10.

Head-to-Head Matchups

Sportsbooks create head-to-head matchups using golfers of comparable skill levels. Because golf doesn’t feature a point spread as you’d see in football or basketball, sportsbooks need to keep these matchups as even as possible.

Thus, you’ll never see a Rory McIlroy vs. Davis Love III matchup during a major, for instance.

Head-to-head matchups are offered in two categories. You can place bets on either full tournament matchups or single-round matchups.

Live Betting Golf

With so many options on mobile betting apps, one of the fastest-growing segments in sports betting is live betting – the ability to bet on a sporting event as it’s happening.

Live betting is prevalent in golf. Tournament odds will shift during a tournament as golfers progress through their rounds. You might catch a better number on a pre-tournament favorite if they start slow, or you might find someone playing well who is still showing a decent price, if the top of the leader board is littered with pre-tournament favorites.

Golf bettors can also live-bet how a golfer will score on any individual hole. Sportsbooks offer this market as a three-way bet: Birdie-or-bettor, Par and Bogey-or-worse.

Shrewd bettors can identify struggling golfers and bet them to make bogeys or back a golfer on a heater to make a run of birdies.

How to Bet On Golf: Prop Bets

Much like betting on the NFL Super Bowl, you can make many goofy side bets during a tournament. Prop bets are markets that don’t rely on the tournament’s winner. These are particularly popular during golf’s four majors.

Top Nationality

Bettors can take which golfer will be the top finisher from their respective countries.

While the U.S. is well represented on the PGA Tour, you’ll only see a handful of golfers from Ireland, Chile, Canada, etc. You can often find good betting value targeting golfers with longer odds in the less-represented countries on the PGA Tour.

Hole-in-One

What could be more exciting than watching a star player score a hole-in-one? Sportsbooks usually offer this as a Yes/No prop for most tournaments. Odds vary depending on the course layout, the number of entrants and other factors.

At larger tournaments, golf bettors can also place a wager on a specific player to make a hole-in-one, or the round in which a hole-in-one occurs.

Albatross

What’s more exciting than a hole-in-one? An albatross!

Sportsbooks offer markets on the rarest feat in golf, scoring a 2 on a Par 5. While extremely rare, cashing a ticket at close to +2000 odds is an exciting feeling for a golf fan.

Winning Score & Cut Line

Sportsbooks will set an Over/Under on the winning score of the tournament. Bettors can wager on whether the winning score will be higher or lower than the set line.

This bet is also available for the halfway cut line in a tournament.

These bets are primarily available during golf’s four major tournaments, when scoring is much more difficult to predict. Astute bettors can sniff out potential value on these markets, mainly when the weather makes playing conditions more difficult.

Top Senior Golfer
Top Amateur Golfer
Top Left-handed Golfer
Top Golfer from Arizona State University
How many balls will be hit into the water on 17?
Will Bryson DeChambeau drive a ball more than 400 yards during the tournament?

Golf prop bets are nearly endless. Most of them are negative-expectation wagers, but you’ll catch a potentially profitable one every now and then.

Golf Betting Summary

It’s a fascinating time to be a golf fan. With the proliferation of legal sports betting, it’s an even better time to be a golf bettor. Please remember to enjoy golf betting responsibly.

Here are the most basic tips: