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Golf Betting
Online golf betting has been growing in popularity in recent years due to the seemingly unending action it offers. Naturally some events have a bigger drawing than others, but nevertheless there’s almost some tournament event around the corner to look forward to. So what are the bigger events that golf betting fans should look forward to? And how should one go about betting on golf online at top sportsbook? Let’s take a look at the answers down below. The World of Online Golf BettingThe PGA TourThe world of online golf betting revolves primarily around the PGA Tour. The PGA Tour is the primary organizer of the main professional golf tours in North America. They are in charge of the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champions, the Korn Ferry Tour, as well as the PGA Tour Canada, Latin America and China. So if you’re looking to bet on golf online, your primary focus will be on PGA Tour events. Let’s take a look at what the season looks like so bettors can prepare for any upcoming action. The Golf Betting SeasonThe one thing that might irk bettors about the golf betting season is that 4 majors are held through the 8 weeks between June and August. Naturally this likely has something to do with the weather but it nevertheless squeezes the rest of the season. Particularly the last 2 ½ months of the season which is pegged as anti-climactic since the cream of the crop in the PGA Rankings tend to sit these events out. From the start of the season until mid-August players will compete in the regular season. Here they compete in events to earn FedEx Cup points in addition to prize money. After the regular season concludes, the top 125 FedEx Cup points winners will be eligible to compete in the postseason, or the playoffs. The playoffs are 4 events taking place during the aforementioned timespan. Subsequently the field for these events keeps diminishing from 125, to 100, to 70 and lastly 30 for the Tour Championship. In the fall the PGA Tour will continue. However, the events shift towards the lesser known players who are looking to make a big enough of a splash to retain their tour cards. The Fall Series is held during this time. PGA Tour EventsThe most important events in the PGA Tour are undoubtedly the Majors. There are four of these each year and are the US Open, The British Open, the PGA Championship and of course the Masters Tournament. Additionally there are the World Golf Championships (WGC). These are events co-sanctioned by the International Federation of PGA Tours and generally draw the leading golfers from all around the globe – even some that aren’t official members of the PGA Tour itself. The following events consist of the playoff events, team events, regular events and Invitational. The playoffs are the aforementioned three final events of the season. The team events are teams from individual countries that compete in the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup. The regular events are weekly tour events. These may be consistent in appearance but are inconsistent in their status. That means some events have more top players than others. Invitational are similar to regular events but do not follow the PGA Tour exemption categories. Betting on Golf OnlineWhen you’re going to bet on golf, you’re either going to bet on golf futures or tournament matchups. When betting on golf futures, you are simply making a prediction as to who will win the tournament. Normally these golf betting lines will look like the following. Adam Scott +2500 Dustin Johnson +1400 Brooks Koepka +800 Jon Rahm +1000 This is a small picture of what a golf betting field will look like at any given event. These odds are what are called money line odds because you are betting on a player to win an event outright. Generally these odds begin pretty high, say +5000, and will fall depending on a player’s talent. As can be seen above, Brooks Koepka is facing the best odd out of the pack. This means that online sportsbooks suspect Koepka is the best player competing in the event and is the subsequently the most likely to come out on top. On the other hand, Adam Scott is facing the worst odds out of the bunch, which tells us that sportsbooks suspect he is the least likely to win the event. If a player doesn’t have a big chance of winning an event, sportsbooks have no option but to sweeten the pot. The odds on Scott are quite lucrative if he manages to pull of the tournament. In fact, a $100 winning wager on Scott would net you $2600 (the original wager plus the $2500 in winnings). Because this is such a massive payoff, online golf betting fans are willing to take the risk in favor of such eye-catching winnings. Betting on Golf MatchupsWhen you bet on golf matchups, you aren’t betting on a player to win the event outright. Instead, you are betting on one player to beat, or finish higher than, an opponent. These lines will look like the following. Collin Morikawa -1½ (-105) -125 Gary Woodland +1½ (-125) +105 Here Morikawa is a slight favorite over Gary Woodland, which means that sportsbooks expect he will finish above Woodland. All Morikawa needs to do to win here is finish above Woodland and the same goes for Woodland. The payout on Morikawa isn’t as lucrative since he is a favorite. With -125 odds, you will need to wager $125 in order to be able to win $100. A $125 winning bet on Morikawa would net you $225 in total. Additionally, you can choose to bet the spread. Like with other sports, when you bet the spread you are betting on the amount a player will win or lose to his opponent by. Morikawa is the favorite and is favored to beat Woodland by 1 ½ points. What this means is that when the tournament or day is over, if Morikawa has more than 1 ½ points than Woodland, he will in fact have covered the spread. Alternatively, if Woodland beats Morikawa or if he is within 1 ½ points of his total, then Woodland would in fact have covered the spread.
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