Betting Golf Tournaments at Online Sportsbooks
Anyone who has ever played golf competitively or even just for fun has probably also bet on the match just to spice things up. When it comes to betting on the pros, popular online sportsbooks such as Vice offer series of betting options for every weekly tournament.
Four times a year, the betting volume on a golf tournament might just top the list at the online books. The four Majors (Masters, PGA Championship, US Open and British Open) draw quite a bit of action from a much larger group of bettors.
Just about every betting option for a professional golf tournament would fall into one of three general categories:
- Player Position
- Player Matchups
- Player Props
Finishing Position Bets
The easiest way to bet on any golf tournament is picking the outright winner. This is also the hardest bet to win. Any player in the field can get hot over four rounds of golf to post the lowest total score. That is why the return on the moneyline odds is so high.
Rory McIlroy is one of the best players in the world and his odds to win a tournament might be as high as +1000 as the favorite depending on the actual event.
Position bets with a higher percentage to cash are for a Top 5, Top 10 and Top 20 finish. This is far easier to predict than the outright win.
You can also find a YES/NO bet on odds for certain players making the 36-hole cut in a 72-hole tournament.
Head-to-Head Matchup Bets
Bettors looking for the best value in the moneyline odds betting golf turn to head-to-head matchups. One player is pitted against another. The odds could cover just 18 holes in a specific round or the tournament as a whole.
The player you bet on only has to post a lower total score than the other player in that pairing. If they finish with the same score, the bet is a PUSH or tie.
Matchup bets can be extended in a couple of different ways. Some online books will post round by round betting odds for that day’s pairing. Most times, these include a threesome playing together that day. The player you bet on has to post the lowest score of the three to win.
Another matchup bet covers a foursome of specific players. You are betting on which of the four posts the lowest overall score against the other three. An example of this type of bet would look like:
Rory McIlroy -115
Dustin Johnson -105
Jason Day +105
Rickie Fowler +115
McIlroy is the favorite in this grouping and you would have to bet $115 to win $100 betting he posts the lowest score of the four.
Another common matchup bet is a set group of players against the rest of the field. Using the example above, the odds that one of those four players wins the tournament might be +175 with -250 odds that a player from the rest of the field wins.
Prop Bets
The best way to add even more excitement to the action on the course is through all the various prop bet options posted for a golf tournament. The bigger the event, the bigger the list of props.
These types of bets can run the gambit with almost every aspect of a golf tournament covered. You can bet on the OVER/UNDER for the lowest and highest score posted for each individual round as well as the tournament as a whole.
Prop bet options cover things such as the winning margin in strokes, lowest total score by nationality, a hole-in-one and anything else that takes place in a typical 72-hole golf tournament.