Ian JohnGolf betting is one of the more popular sports to bet on that is played all year round. While the main tours may run officially until around October or November-time, the game does not stop.
There are so many players that play on wraparound tours, or the Florida swing in the winter months in the Northern Hemisphere, that there is usually one or two tournaments a week to enjoy.
Especially when you consider that we now have the LIV Golf Tour to consider alongside the other top tours such as the European PGA Tour and the US PGA Tour.
However, in a game where the fields can often run to over 150+ players when a tournament begins, how easy is it to land bets made on the game?
Tough Running For Golf Punters?
Just take a look at any golf tournament betting at bet365 Sport and you will see a myriad of markets and options on the Thursday and Friday. These are halved when the cut in the tournament is made after the first two rounds.
There are so many markets to consider and so many golfers to run the rule over. It can appear particularly daunting. Even if you are using the excellent bet365 Live Golf Tracker option to keep up with the action on course.
So, it does appear to be considerably tougher to land winners when betting on golf. Especially when compared to predicting the result of a football game, or maybe bagging a winner in a horse race.
There is a degree of truth to that. Sure, there are top golfers in the world who win tournaments regularly and who will finish in the top 10 or 20 in a tournament often.
Small Differences Mean Big Variation In Winners
However, the fact is that in golf, the differences between the players ranked 1st in the WGR World Golf Rankings (Scottie Scheffler at the time of writing) and 150th (currently Nick Hardy) are relatively speaking miniscule.
Especially when compared to the difference between, for example, the 1st ranked boxer in the heavyweight division and the 150th. Or the 1st ranked team in the FIFA World Rankings compared to the 150th (Argentina compared to the Dominican Republic).
Even the 150th ranked golfer in the world can win on their day. Whether they are big hitters, great iron players, superb putters or average in all departments, there can be tournament when a surprise name finds all aspects of their game come together and they finish top of the leaderboard on Sunday.
It is this blanket quality across the field in most top events that makes golf betting so tricky. However, it is also these very reasons that also make golf betting so appealing.
As someone who has bet on golf regularly and landed (and tipped) more than my fair share of winners over the years – is there any advice I can give you to help you tee up golf betting predictions with greater success?
I believe that there is and I have summarised them in these five tips for you below:
Rarely Bet on The Outright Winner for A Golf Tournament
When I first started golf betting, I was drawn in by the odds that were regularly available for players to win a golf tournament. Seeing the very best players in the world at odds of 7/1, 10/1, 16/1 or even 20/1 to win a tournament seemed like incredible value for money.
And it is. If they win. But, and this is the absolute salient point, that is a very, very big if.
Even during a fantastically successful season, the very top players in the world may play around 18-26 events. Of those events, if they win four or five, they are doing incredibly well.
Even the top players tend to win fewer than that number of tournaments in a season.
For most golfers, winning one tournament and landing a few top 5 or 6 finishes, and a handful of top ten finishes and making the cut for most of the time would represent a great year.
But that doesn’t promise you much return on your bets on them to win events!
As a result of this, I tend to rarely make bets on the outright winner market now. Even with the odds available, it is such a volatile market that landing a winner is a bit like pulling a name out of a hat.
If You Are Betting In-Play Use The Bet365 Live Golf Tracker – It Is A Massively Useful Resource
In Play golf betting is a very under-rated area for some good value bets, especially if you can keep up to date with what is happening on the course at any one time.
That used to be a problem with TV coverage sketchy of top events, but now there is a much more useful alternative, the bet365 Live Golf Tracker.
With this massively useful resource you can keep close tabs on any group out on the course, on any hole and on any shot. You can scroll through the current leaderboard, view any holes both from an overview perspective or from a 3D perspective.
Most importantly it gives you real time data on how a player is playing showing where the ball lies, as well as details on the shot that they have played.
By using the Live Golf Tracker, you can identify which players are on a hot streak, or on a cold run, and bet accordingly on the In Play markets that are readily refreshed on the site.
Focus More of Your Bets on The Each Way Markets for Outright Winner Bets
Outside of live betting, and with me stating I am not a fan of the outright winner bet that often, the vast majority of my golf bets are each way options and there are a number of reasons for this.
Firstly, bet365 Sport pays out on a large number of places on certain golf tournaments. On others, they will offer you a range of options to bet with as you can see in the screenshot to the right.
Of course, each way betting makes a bet more expensive for the same unit stake, but I would rather bet £5 each way on a golfer at odds of 50/1, than back them to win with a £10 at the same odds.
Take Lower Odds and More Places for Each Way Bets, Rather Than Higher Odds for Fewer Places
You can see in the screenshot from the Outrights market the odds decrease as you increase the number of places on an each way bet with bet365. I always take as many places as possible as having those extra places paid (remember tied places will also pay out, even if more golfers than the stated number finish in those places) offers far better value to me than a couple of additional points on the odds.
If you have one chance to win £500, but 8 chances to win a potential £350 (at best) or £100 (at worst), most people will opt for the latter and that is the way that I view this type of betting.
Always Look At The Higher Odds Selections – There Can Be Plenty of Good Value Bets Available
My final piece of advice is to always have a look carefully through the odds for an each way bet, and that goes especially for the higher odds selections.
Sure, the most likely winners are going to be the shortest prices and even at 8/1 of 14/1, they can still be an appealing bet.
But look beyond those players at the lowest odds up to around 30/1 or 40/1 as you can find some outstanding options.
Picking one tournament at random, currently you can back the following golfers at odds of 40/1 or greater to win the tournament outright (these odds are taken as the tournament is in progress).
- Wyndham Clark – 45/1
- Brian Harman – 90/1
- Gary Woodland – 110/1
- Justin Thomas – 110/1
- Keegan Bradley – 125/1
- Lucas Glover – 200/1
And if you are wondering why I have picked these players, it is because they have all won one of golf’s four Major tournaments in the past. In fact, Clark and Harman won their Major tournaments just last year.
I hope these golf betting tips help you enjoy a few more returns betting on one of the most enjoyable, but frustrating games to play, in the world today!
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