How To Bet On PGA Tour Golf

While the PGA Tour has many different tournaments throughout the year, most of the main bet types for each one are the same.

That said, betting on golf is a bit different than betting on other sports because you’re betting on the individual performance of a player rather than a team playing another team. Accordingly, you generally won’t find standard wagers like moneyline, spread and Over/Under for PGA Tour events.

With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the main golf betting markets.

Futures

Before a golf tournament begins (and throughout the event), bettors can place futures wagers on which player will win.

This is usually the best time to wager on players to win the tournament, as most of them start with significant plus odds. However, these odds will shorten as the tournament progresses and frontrunners emerge, reducing your potential payout.

These odds typically don’t come out until the week before a tournament when it’s known which golfers will be participating. Sportsbooks will often adjust odds based on a golfer’s performance during the previous week’s tournament as well.

That said, it’s still possible to place futures wagers on events several months in the future. These markets will be limited, but they’ll often include odds for the previous champion of the event to defend their title.

Futures wagers won’t pay out until the tournament ends, so bettors may need to wait a bit to find out whether they won or not. Accordingly, we don’t recommend tying up a large chunk of your betting funds in futures, especially since they are difficult to predict.

Tournament Winner

The winner market is the most straightforward type of bet on a PGA Tour event. It’s simply a wager on which golfer will win the tournament, regardless of his final score or margin of victory.

This market is essentially golf’s version of a moneyline.

Since dozens of golfers compete in every tournament, correctly picking the one who will finish with the lowest score is incredibly difficult. Accordingly, even the best golfers have significant plus odds to win an event before the tournament starts.

Bettors should treat winner markets like parlays. They come with high odds and large payouts if you win, but they’re very risky and hard to win consistently. Accordingly, bettors should limit themselves to smaller bets on these markets or wager on multiple golfers to give themselves a better chance of winning.

Finishing Position Markets

Alternatively, bettors can wager on where golfers will finish in the field. These markets are usually top 5, top 10, top 20, top 30 and top 40.

These markets are also easy to understand. If you bet on a golfer to finish top 10, he just needs to finish with one of the 10 best scores in the tournament to cash your bet.

These bets are less risky than winner markets because bettors have more margin for error, but they also come with lower odds and payouts.

The odds for these markets usually correspond to the outright winner odds. For example, if a golfer is +2500 to win a tournament, his top 5 odds will probably be around +500, his top 10 odds around +250, etc.

If you frequently bet on golf, wagering on these types of markets (especially larger bands like top 20, 30 or 40) will help preserve your bankroll, as you’ll win more frequently.

Each-Way Betting

A unique type of golf bet that bettors may not be familiar with is each-way betting.

This refers to a bet that’s been split. Half of your wager is placed on a golfer to win the tournament, while the other half is placed on a finishing position market (typically top 5 or top 10 depending on the outright odds). This gives you more protection than a standard winner wager and a higher payout than a traditional finishing position market.

For example, say Rory McIlroy is available at 10/1 to win a tournament. You place a $10 each-way bet on McIlroy. In this wager, $5 is placed on him to win the tournament at 10/1 and $5 is placed on him to finish top 5 at 2/1.

If McIlroy wins the tournament, your wager will pay $60. You net $50 from his outright win ($5 x 10/1 = $50), and you’ll win another $10 because he finished top 5 ($5 x 2/1 = $10)

In this scenario, you’d have won more money if you bet $10 on McIlroy to win outright ($10 x 10/1 = $100) but wouldn’t get anything if he finished second through fifth. By placing an each-way bet, a third-place finish would still profit $5.

Deduct your outright wager from your top-5 winnings ($5 x 2/1 = $10) – ($5 Tournament Winner) = $5 profit.

Not all online sportsbooks offer each-way bets, but they’re simple to recreate on your own. Place two separate bets—one on an outright winner ticket and the other on a finishing position market.

For longer outright picks, each-way picks often include an outright ticket and a top-10 selection, rather than a top-5 market for the favorites.

Head-to-Head Matchups

Most golf tournaments don’t have head-to-head matchups, as golfers are simply competing against the field. Sportsbooks often compensate by creating head-to-head matchups between golfers of similar skill levels, giving bettors the chance to wager on which one will finish with a better score.

Head-to-head matchups are offered in two categories. You can place bets on either full tournament matchups or single-round matchups.

These bets are similar to moneyline wagers, as you’re betting on a golfer to win the matchup (even if he doesn’t win the tournament). The odds will typically be close to even, as a sportsbook usually won’t offer a matchup where one golfer is heavily favored.

Prop Bets

With so many holes and rounds, golf tournaments are loaded with prop bets. These can be divided into two categories: game props and player props.

Game props are golfer-agnostic. These include the nationality of the winning golfer, whether there will be a hole-in-one and whether the winning score will be below a certain number.

Player props are wagers on specific outcomes involving individual golfers and are much more plentiful. For example, you can wager on a golfer’s outcome for each hole (birdie, bogey, par, etc.) or whether he’ll get a birdie in a specific range of holes. You can also wager on a player’s score in a specific round, whether he’ll hit the fairway with his first shot and more.

Prop bets are more complex than the more traditional markets listed above, making them better options for serious bettors and diehard golf fans.

Parlays

Parlays involve combining multiple bets into a single bet. Every component of the bet, called a leg, must come true for the bet to win. These bets are riskier than straight bets like moneylines and spreads, but they come with increased odds and higher potential payouts if they win.

Golf bettors can easily build parlays using the markets above. Popular parlays involve combining the finishing positions of several golfers who you think will perform well.

Since parlays are all-or-nothing bets, they’re harder to hit consistently than straight wagers and are difficult to profit from. Accordingly, bettors should primarily stick to standard markets, which have a better chance of winning.

While the betting examples above are pre-match wagers, it’s also possible to place most of those bet types once a match has started.

Betting on an event already in progress is called live betting, and it’s become increasingly popular thanks to the rise of online betting. Now that bettors can wager on the go with sportsbook apps on their mobile devices, it’s easier than ever to bet after a tournament has started.

Live betting is especially popular in golf thanks to its structure. Most tournaments take place over the course of four days, giving bettors plenty of time to bet once an event has started.

Odds fluctuate constantly throughout a tournament as golfers move up and down the leaderboard, giving bettors chances to adjust their betting strategies in-flight depending on which golfers are playing well and which ones are struggling.

Bettors can also use live betting to hedge a pre-tournament bet that isn’t going well. If you bet on a player who immediately gets off to a bad start or misses the cut, you can pivot and bet on other golfers who are playing well to offset your losses.

Golf tournaments are unpredictable and are often decided by slim margins on the final day, so live bets can still backfire. It’s also possible that the odds won’t be as favorable during a match if one player jumps out to a big early lead.

Given the long odds of pre-tournament wagers, many bettors wait until the tournament has started so they can target the top of the leaderboard rather than wasting too much money on golfers with no chance of winning. Live betting can thus be a valuable and potentially profitable strategy for golf bettors if they time their bets well.

There are a number of ways to improve your chances of success when it comes to betting on the PGA Tour.

The first thing you should do is do your research. Look at how a golfer has performed recently and pay attention to how he’s fared on the course in the past. There’s plenty of publicly available data that can help inform your wagers, starting with statistics on the PGA Tour site.

All courses on the PGA Tour are unique, and some are better suited to certain players’ skill sets. Some favor golfers with better short games while others require longer drives, so you’ll want to target golfers who have either been playing well lately or have a good track record at a course.

It’s also important to study the field for a tournament. Pro golfers don’t compete in every event, often taking weeks off to rest or heal from injury. Accordingly, some fields may be lighter than others with less formidable competition, which can make it easier for golfers to stand out. An underdog is far less likely to win in a stacked field than in an event where several top golfers are missing.

Don’t forget to check the weather. The wind, temperature and precipitation can all have a significant impact on a golf tournament, as some golfers perform better in adverse conditions than others. Sloppy weather makes outcomes more unpredictable, so you may want to avoid betting on a tournament if the conditions look particularly nasty.

As mentioned above, you’re better off sticking to straight bets and avoiding parlays. It’s also good to bet on multiple golfers to give yourself more exposure to the field rather than putting all of your eggs in one basket.

Be patient. Many golf tournaments aren’t decided until the last few holes of the final round, so your bets are more likely to win if you wait until the leaderboard comes into focus and several golfers separate themselves from the pack.

Lastly, always bet responsibly. Stick to what you know, don’t wager more than you can afford to lose and don’t chase your losses. The next golf tournament is right around the corner, so there will always be more chances to recoup your funds if your bets don’t work out.