A Simple Guide to Golf Tournament Betting

Understanding the Odds

First thing’s first, understanding the odds in golf tournament betting is important, if you want to master golf betting strategies. In this golf betting guide, we’ll take a look at some of those odds.

Different parts of the world display and write golf betting odds differently.

For example, in Britain, golf tournament betting uses fractional odds. Australia uses decimal odds. And in America, you’ll find American odds.

Fractional odds: These odds are displayed in a format like 7/3 or 5/3. To calculate profits, you need to take the fraction and multiply your betting amount by it. $100 multiplied by 7/3 becomes $233.33, and so on. 

Decimal odds: In decimal odds, the odds are expressed as numbers and decimals. For example, 2.40, or 15.00. You’ll need to multiply your stake with the odds number, like $200 x 2.40, which becomes $480. 

American odds: American odds boards can seem a bit hard to read at first. In American odds, plus and minus signs will be shown before a number. So, the numbers are displayed as +120 or -120.

American odds usually assume bets are $100. This doesn’t mean you NEED to bet $100, but that’s how they calculate the odds. 

In American odds, minus bets are usually placed on the favourite player in a matchup, and are more likely to succeed. Plus bets give you better payouts, but are usually on the weaker player.

For example, winning a $100 bet at +130 odds means you’ll win $130. When combined with the return from the initial stake, you get a total of $230!

At minus odds, to win $100 you need to bet the amount in odds. For example, at -130 odds,  $130 should be your stake to profit $100 and win the same $230 return.

If you’ve understood how to read the golf betting odds, it’s time to move on to learning about the different types of golf bets.

Golf Bet Types

Outright winner

This is a kind of bet you can find in every other type of sports betting as well, as it’s the most straightforward type if you’re still learning how to bet on golf. 

In short, you just need to predict the tournament winner, or moneyline. 

Outright winner bets usually open early, before the tournament begins, and you can find them at many bookmakers including the bookmaker LegaBet. Simple doesn’t mean ‘easy’ though. Some PGA events have up to 156 players! But at the same time, the odds and payouts for this type of bet are generally good. Sometimes, even favorite players can have high odds, like +1000 or higher! Golf tournament betting is unpredictable, but fun!

Place finisher: 

This bet type involves predicting which spot a player will finish in, whether top 5, 10, 20, 30 or 40 on leaderboards.

Golf tournaments have lots of players, so bets like these are generally much safer, even if they pay out less. If you’re not confident in your betting, or are unfamiliar with the golf betting odds, you might want to aim for something like this.

Matchups

Golf tournaments are usually individual contests, but bookmakers can still pit players against each other in terms of their odds or points scored. Bets like these tend to involve two players against each other, whether it’s for the entire tournament or just one round. Bettors have to choose which player will score better.

Round finishing position

Round finishing position bets involve predicting the tournament leader after a certain round. 

Nationality props

Professional golf hosts a wide range of players from all round the world. In nationality props, players from the same nation or region go up against each other in the bets. For example, which player will be the best Indian player? Or who will be at the top of the Australian ladder?

Hole-in-one 

Hole-in-ones aren’t common for amateur golfers, but at professional tournaments where everyone is the best in the field, they are a fair bit more common. This bet allows you to predict things like aces in the tournament, aces in specific rounds, or even a particular player scoring an ace.

Over/under props

Like with many other sports bets, golf betting also has an over/under bet system. The bookmaker decides on a value, like 68.5 on a par-72 course for example, and then bettors have to predict the golf betting odds of whether specific players will score above or below that value. In some versions, each player has a different over/under value. A world champion may have 71.5, while weaker players may be set at 68.5 or 65.5. 

Over/under bets can also involve score lines like the cut line, eventual winning score, or even lowest single round of the week by specific players.

Make/miss cuts

Some PGA events have a 36-hole cutoff, where the top 65 players proceed to the next stage, while others drop out of the tournament. This type of bet lets you predict whether a specific player will pass this stage or fail.

Live bets

If none of those bets excite you, and you want something more thrilling, then maybe live betting is for you. Live golf betting is only open during the tournament, and you’ll have to predict the golf betting odds on the fly. 

Is a player going to hit the fairway? Who gets the longest drive in a group? Who ends up closest to the pin? Live golf betting offers a huge variety of bets, especially on LegaBet, and the categories are only growing larger and larger. Lots of players love these bets!

Bet Now!

Now that you’ve learned how to bet on golf using our short golf betting guide, why not give it a try? It may seem daunting, but there’s never a better time to start. Just hop on over to LegaBet, and start your golf tournament betting. Maybe you’ll even win big! No risk, no gain, as they say.