A Beginner’s Guide To Golf Betting
Introduction
Like any popular sport, golf also has a healthy betting crowd that tries to make money off of the international golfing events that are happening all year round. Because of the nature of golf, it is played in many different countries by many different people, presenting ample opportunity to make some cash if you make the right bet.
Here’s a beginner’s guide to golf betting. These are things every beginner golfer should keep in mind when placing their first wagers. It’ll become a habit after you place your first bets but for now, check out the below information to help your wagers. If you want to see some golf betting odds, click here.
The Events
Before we get started, it helps to know the big events that sportsbooks take bets on. These are the golf tournaments that take place on national and international stages. If you prefer to bet on American golfers, the PGA Tour is the most popular event while Europeans have the European Tour. Along with those two largest golfing events, there are many other events like:
- The US Open
- The Open
- The Masters
- Ryder Cup
- US PGA Championship
- BMW PGA Championship
- DP World Tour Championship
- Tour Championship
- The Players Championship
- World Golf Championship
The Odds
Before you make any bets, you should understand the odds that dictate whether your wagers pay off or not. There are many different types of wagers, the simplest and most common being a prediction of which player will win the entire event.
When betting on players to win, you get a figure next to their name along with a plus or a minus sign. The figures typically range from three to five digits, though they can get higher. They can also be presented as fractions.
The plus and minus figures communicate how much you’ll win against a $100 bet. Minus figures detail how much you need to bet to win $100. Plus figures show you how much you’d win if you bet $100.
As for fractions, multiply how much you bet by the fraction and you’ll get your profit if you win. Conversion from the minus-plus system to fractions is as easy as moving the decimal two places to the left. +2000 odds is 20/1, for example. If the numbers aren’t as round, just go for the nearest whole number.
The Player’s Form
You’ll want any golfers you bet on to be in top form. This means you should study that golfer, from their previous games, played to their personal lives to see if anything is troubling them. If a golfer is on a losing streak, they may have an uphill climb to win the current game of golf about to be played. If a golfer hasn’t played in any of the last five big tours, be careful and save your money.
The Course Form
Tournaments make use of the same courses over and over again, so you can check how players have historically performed at those venues. Some players will consistently dominate certain courses while others will be their Achilles heel, so try to identify these strong and weak areas where it’s possible and adjust your bets accordingly.
Historical data is no guarantee that the current event will play out the same but it’s better than throwing a dart at the roster and betting on the golfer it lands on. Look at the physical buildup of the course, like flats, hills, trees, and bodies of water, as they can inform your wagers.
The Weather
Golf is a sport that gets played outside, so the weather becomes important when betting on a game. Keep weather forecasts on hand and make sure you know the expected weather when going into the game. Check if those forecasts seem to be accurate, too, since they may be false or exaggerated.
Weather is especially important if you’re taking prop bets for the lowest tournament score and their over/under since players may be disrupted by the bad weather, particularly the wind. Good weather doesn’t affect the player’s performance much, if at all, but bad weather can ruin somebody’s game. Bookmakers may not factor in weather too, allowing you to scoop up some favorable bets.
The Mindset
Last but not least, you need to have the right mindset when you’re betting on sports. First, you need to embrace losses because they are inevitable. If you can’t take a loss or, even worse, you’ll be tempted to make reckless bets to make your money back, then you can fall into bad financial behaviors.
Avoid addictive behaviors and stop betting when it stops being fun and profitable. Keep a budget and hold yourself accountable for it. You should also have a loss limit, so you stop betting if you lose a certain percentage of your budget on consecutive wagers.