Golf Betting Match Ups Before an event, sportsbooks like bovada will normally publish a group of match ups between big name golfers. You’ll be betting on one of the players to finish higher than the other over the four days. Sportsbooks try and match up golfers who are considered a similar ability, so the odds on both will be close. A $2 Nassau sounds pretty harmless, but presses can increase the stakes in a hurry! Each press creates a new bet from that point forward, and in large groups with multiple tee times, auto presses increase the action automatically. For example, in 2 Down, anytime a player or team is down two points, a new bet is created automatically.

Nassau is generally scored as three separate bets: the front nine, the back nine and the entire eighteen. For example, a $2 Nassau would pay $2 to the team with the most points for each of the three bets. Like any typical Match Play, the winner of each hole earns a point with no points carried or awarded in the case of a tie.

A $2 Nassau sounds pretty harmless, but presses can increase the stakes in a hurry! Each press creates a new bet from that point forward, and in large groups with multiple tee times, auto presses increase the action automatically. For example, in 2 Down, anytime a player or team is down two points, a new bet is created automatically.

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Hole 1 – After the first hole, P1 takes a one up lead with a par over the bogey from P2. P1 would have a lead in the front 9 and full 18 bets.

Place betting allows individuals to bet on a golfer finishing within the Top 5, Top 10, or Top 20 of a given event. With place betting, the odds offered on a golfer are often lower which reflects the fact that it is a more likely outcome. Unlike outright betting, place betting can sometimes result in ties where 12 golfers finish Top 10 or better for example. Here it is important to understand whether the sportsbook provides dead heat rules. With dead heat rules, the stake is divided proportionately by the number of golfers that are tied. For example, if two golfers tied for a single bet type, the bet would return half of what it does otherwise.

PGA Matchups Betting

PGA matchups betting allows for sports bettors to bet on who will win an individual matchup between two different golfers. Sportsbooks typically offer these markets as either single round or full event bets. In single round betting, you are betting for a golfer to win the matchup during that round, while the full event is over the course of all 72-holes. In a 72-hole match the winner will be whoever shoots the best score relative to par and if both golfers miss the cut, whoever shot the lower score will still win. PGA matchups betting is typically done as a moneyline bet or with a stroke handicap as the spread.

Tournament Matchup Example

Single Round Matchup Example

In this example, Dustin Johnson is a favorite in both betting markets but in a single round matchup he will be a smaller favorite than he would be over the course of a tournament matchup.

PGA Three Ball Betting

PGA Three Ball betting allows a sports bettor to predict the winner of a matchup including three separate golfers, either at a single round or over the course of the event. If two golfers tie in the matchup than the sportsbook would split the payout based on dead heat rules.

Sports bettors should be attention to the odds offered in a 3 Ball matchup to ensure that they are getting a fair price. In this example, if three separate bettors each played a $100 wager on the three golfers, the sportsbook would collect $300 and pay out either $260 or $280. This would give the sportsbook a margin of anywhere from 6.6 percent to 13.3 percent. Bettors should always look to bet 3 Ball matchups that have lower sportsbook margins and return more to the bettors.

First Round Leader Betting

Many sportsbooks also offer bettors the ability to bet on first round leader markets. This bet type allows you to simply bet who will be winning after the opening day. A single round of golf has a lot more variance to it, so while first round leader markets usually price golfers in the same order as outright betting markets, they often will adjust the prices to offer slightly lower payouts for the worse golfers and slightly higher payouts for the better golfers. Because the prices mirror outright betting markets so closely there are some interesting research angles that bettors can explore:

Weather. The weather (in particular wind or extreme temperature) can create an advantage for golfers who tee off at different points in the day.

Course. Some tournaments feature a rotation of courses and there may be golfers who are playing an easier course during the first round that hasn’t been priced into the betting market.

Volatility. Some golfers may have similar odds to win an event but feature more volatility, making one more likely to shoot the lowest score during a single round of golf.

First-round leader betting creates the same exciting payouts as outright betting but is paid out after just one day of play.

Props and Group Betting

How Does Each Way Betting On Golf Work

Sportsbooks also offer some more exotic props and group betting, particularly for the majors. Some of these props could include winning score, margin of victory, lowest amateur or the odds of finishing first out of a golfer’s countrymen. Props typically have a high degree of “vig” or “juice” resulting in higher margins for the sportsbook but can still offer some edge for potential bettors.

Points Betting on Golf

With the increased coverage and legalization of sports betting, we also wanted to use this space to highlight some new and innovative concepts. One of these companies isPointsBet, an Australian bookmaker that has entered the New Jersey market.PointsBet offers a unique betting type called points betting, where a bettor is rewarded (or penalized) based on how right (or wrong) they are. With PointsBetting your sweat never stops and you are rewarded based on how much your selected bet varies from the posted totals. PointsBet offers a few unique market types: Finishing Position (FP), Wire to Wire (WTW), and Leaderboard (LB).

Wire-to-Wire Leaderboard: A prediction on how well this player will perform at the end of each round. Points are cumulative for the whole tournament. For example, if a player leads from start to finish the make-up would be (20+40+60+100)= 220pts. The points are awarded as follows: 1st Rd: 1st=20, 2nd=10, 3rd=5; 2nd Rd: 1st=40, 2nd=20, 3rd=10, 4th=5; 3rd Rd: 1st=60, 2nd=40, 3rd=20, 4th=10, 5th=5; 4th Rd: Winner=100, 2nd=60, 3rd=40, 4th=20, 5th= 10, 6th=5.

How Does Betting On Golf Works

Leaderboard: A prediction on how well this player will perform in the tournament. The points are awarded as follows. 1st = 60 points, 2nd = 40 points, 3rd = 30 points, 4th = 25 points, 5th = 20 points, 6th = 15 points, 7th = 10 points, 8th = 5 points, All others = 0 pts.

Finish Position: Bet OVER or UNDER on finishing positions. For example, you can bet that a golfer finishes better (UNDER) than 28th or worse (OVER) than 31st. In this bet type, a $1 bet on the OVER 31st could win up to $39 if he missed the cut and lose up to $30 if he were to win.

How Does Betting On Golf Work On Sunday

For more information on check out our article on how to bet on sports and learn about sportsbook vig, where to bet, how much to bet, line moves, shopping for the best line, and expected value (or EV).