Golf is one of the most popular sports to bet on in the world, as it offers punters a variety of golf tours to bet on and a great variety of betting opportunities. One of the other great things about golf betting is many golf bets give you four-days of entertainment for your money.
What Golf Tours Can I Bet On?
The two main golf tours in the world are the European Tour and the PGA Tour. The European Tour is played in many countries around the world and has recently evolved to promote golf in countries outside Europe such as in the Middle East, South Africa, and Asia. The European Tour traditionally runs from November to November and features around 47 events.
The European Tour has also recently introduced the Rolex Series, which are big money events that tend to attract all the best European players such as Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, and Tommy Fleetwood. The European Tour also concludes with the exciting Race to Dubai.
The PGA Tour season runs from October to October and most events are played in the United States of America. However, the USPGA has also spread its wings in recent years and now hosts events in countries such as Malaysia, South Korea, the Bahamas, and Mexico. The PGA Tour consists of over 50 events each year and culminates in a big-money shootout known as the FedEx Cup Play-offs.
There are also many other tours that act as stepping-stones to the bigger stages. The Challenge Tour normally acts as a stepping-stone to the European Tour, though PGA regular Brooks Koepka also honed his skills in the early stages of his professional career on this tour on his way to becoming world number one.
The Corn Ferry Tour is the feeder tour for the PGA Tour, and it tends to feature the next generation of American college graduates that are hungry to make an impression on their way to bigger and better things.
There are also lots of other tours around the world including the Japanese Tour and the Asian Tour, and many of the better players on these tours migrate to either the European Tour or PGA Tour at some point in their careers.
Women’s professional golf is becoming increasingly popular around the world and you can bet on many of the LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour events. Team golf matches have also become big box-office in recent seasons. The ladies have the Solheim Cup, whilst the USA take on a Rest of the World team in the Presidents Cup. However, nothing beats the rivalry of the Ryder Cup, when Europe takes on the USA.
But the most exciting events of all are the four major tournaments, which bring together the best of the professionals from around the world. These are the US Masters, the USPGA Championship, the US Open, and the Open Championship.
What Types of Golf Bets Are There?
Many golf tournaments feature over 150 players and that means big odds are available about many golfers. That’s why outright betting on golf tournaments is massively popular. Outright betting is when you bet on a player to win an event. You can either place a straight win bet, but each-way betting is more common as many bookmakers now offer each-way terms of up to eight places on normal golf tournaments, and up to 10 places on big golf tournaments.
Top-10 and top-20 markets are also very popular with punters who are good at spotting consistent types that may not be classy enough to beat the best golfers in the world but regularly feature towards the top of the leaderboard.
If you look at the golf betting section of any bookmaker, you’ll see loads of other ways to bet on golf. There is group betting, which is when you can pick the winner of five or more golfers that the bookmakers have grouped together. You can also pick the top player from a certain country such as England or America.
You can even bet on whether there is a hole in one in most golf tournaments. As mentioned earlier, many of these bets take place over 72 holes or four days, but there are golf bets that take place over just one day or one round. These include first round leader bets and match bets between players over 18 holes.
What Are the Difficulties of Golf Betting?
Making a profit from golf betting isn’t always easy as field sizes are so big and there is a constant flow of new players arriving from the Corn Ferry Tour and the Challenge Tour each year. You also need to work out when golfers are in decline or when they’re improving.
Another difficulty is weighing up current form and course form. Golf courses are so different in length and layout that not all golfers are suited to all courses. That’s because golfers tend to have different skill sets. Some hit it miles but not accurately, whilst others hit it shorter but straighter. Some also have excellent short games, whilst others make up for other deficiencies by being great putters.
How to Pick Winning Golf Bets
Looking at past form can be a great guide to which players might play well at certain courses, especially if they come into the event having shown good recent form in other events. All this can help you narrow down the field and give you a chance to profit from golf betting.
Motivation is another big consideration. Players in the world’s top-50 are guaranteed a spot in all the top events. Players also must finish in a predetermined number of spots at the end of the season to keep their full playing rights for next season.
You then need to consider which players can cope with pressure, as many great players have failed to win majors having wilted in the fiercest heat of battle that a golfer can face.
Even if you’re good at spotting golfing talent, you then need to come up with a good golf betting strategy. Golf betting can be fun but it’s also a hard sport to make a profit betting on golf if you don’t know what you’re doing or don’t have the time to study the form book.
