Golf Betting Offers

Golf is one of those sports in which there always seems to be two or three tournaments running at any one time. And with the PGA and European tours both bringing top class tournament after top class tournament, bookies are falling over themselves to attract the many golf punters with a host of regular and one-off golf betting offers.

The majority of offers appear in conjunction with the four majors – the Open Championship, the US Open, the Masters and the USPGA Championship – but with other major events such as the Ryder Cup, the World Match Play Championship, the Race to Dubai and FedEx Cup, amongst many others, there is almost always a golf promo for one or two of the bookies we feature.

Jump to: Latest Offers

Latest Golf Betting Offers & Promotions

Stats Articles

• How Many Birdies Are There at the Masters?
• Which Golfer Has Scored the Most Birdies at the Masters?
• Has an Amateur Ever Won the Masters?
• How Often is there a Hole-in-One on the PGA Tour?
• The Longest & Shortest Courses on the PGA Tour
• The Players Who Have Won the Most Majors in Golf - Can Jack Nicklaus' Record Ever be Beaten?
• Who Has the Longest Drive on the PGA Tour?
• Which Country Has Won the Most Majors in Golf?
• Which Player Has Scored the Most Points in the Ryder Cup?
• How Often Does a British Player Win the Open Championship?
• How Often Does The Favourite Win One Of Golf’s Majors?
• What is the Most Difficult Hole at The Masters?
• Which Golfers Are the Longest Odds Winners at the Open?
• How Often Does the Third Round Leader Win a Golf Major?
• How Often Do The First Round Leaders Win a Golf Major?
• How Often Do The Hosts Win The Ryder Cup?
• How Often is There a Hole In One at the Masters?
• Golf Grand Slam Winners: Who Has Won All Four Majors?

How to Bet on Golf

Golf is a very popular betting medium, both before the start of tournaments and during play. Here we have a explanation of the main golf markets that you will find.

Tournament Winner

The tournament winner is the most popular betting market when it comes to betting on golf. The concept is simple in that you bet on the player that you think will win.

With golf it’s worth remembering that players are often tied on the same score. If at the end of a tournament two or more players are tied for 1st place, then there will be a play-off between those players to decide a winner. There are no ties in golf when it comes to the tournament winner market.

Golf is unique in that it offers some of the biggest odds for a single team/player to win a single event. The fields in golf are pretty huge though, with most tournaments across both the PGA Tour and the European Tour having up to 160 players. It’s a sport where the favourite of any given tournament can be priced at around 10/1 or even higher, so it’s definitely one of the more lucrative out there.

Strategy

The key to being successful in this market is assessing the course as much as anything. You need to work out which courses are going to suit which players. This could include things like length, layout, conditions (windy/raining/hot), speed of greens, size of greens and so many more.

Once you’ve got this you are then able to work out which players will suit that course type. This allows you to narrow the field down considerably and also find value in longer priced bets.

Each Way & Place Betting

The each way and place markets are very popular, mainly down to the fact that you can bet on golfers as long as 100/1 who’ve actually still got a relatively good chance of winning the tournament.

The key thing to remember is that each way betting and place betting are two very different things. The place bet is the easiest to grasp and for this you need to choose a golfer to finish within a certain number of places. For example, the majority of bookies will offer you a top 5 finish and ties for this market for most regular-season events, but when it comes to the larger events (majors/Fed Ex Cup etc.) the number of places might increase to around 8.

When betting each way you are essentially placing two separate bets; for the player to win and the player to place. Your stake is halved for this, with half going on the win and half on the place. The win bet works just as if you backed them outright and is paid at full odds. The place bet is adjusted, usually to 1/4 or 1/5 the original odds within a certain number of places.

Golf is actually one of the best sports to utilise these bet types given the large starting prices that you can get. As mentioned previously, 100/1 bets can definitely have a chance of placing in events and there are usually one or two that are there or thereabouts come the end of the tournament.

Strategy

When betting each way on golf bets it’s essential to look at how consistent the player is or has been in previous events. Form plays a huge role in golf and rarely do players have a really good run at winning without having at least some prior form, be it at the course or in general play.

Match Coupons

The match coupon is where you are able to bet on the winners of certain match ups. In golf, all players will be paired throughout the first two days, usually in 2 or 3 balls. This market allows you to bet on the winner of these match ups either over the course of 1 round or 2 rounds. The match ups will be amended come the weekend rounds as players are entered into new groups.

It’s worth noting that the standing of the players for the tournament overall is irrelevant for this market. All you are betting on is how they compete between these specific match ups.

An extension to this market is that of mythical groups. This is basically where the bookie takes 3 players within the tournament, that aren’t necessarily playing together. They take their scores over the number of rounds stated, with the same rules being applied to that of the match coupon, in that they go head to head.

Variations of the both of the bets above can include a 72 hole format where it lasts over the course of the tournament, six shooters where 6 players are included in the match and 18 hole match ups, where players go head to head with another player, again not necessarily who they are playing with.

Strategy

The key to finding success in these markets is being able to find lopsided match ups. For example, you want to be looking at recent form for players and instead of pitting them against the rest of the field, simply plot them against the one opponent.

Also, these bets work well with accumulator bets. Prices for players tend be around 4/7 to 6/4 in the two player match ups and often odds against in the three player match ups, so 3 or 4 picks from a huge range of players can make for some interesting accumulator bets to be formed.

Golf Betting Basics

At first the scoring system and tournament formats can seem complicated so here we have a guide providing you with what you need to know in order to follow golf and the bets that you have placed.

Scoring in Golf

To the outsider golf can seem a tricky game to know the rules of scoring, let alone actually hitting the ball. But, the process is actually fairly simple.

The first thing to take note of is the par score that each course has. This is the total number of shots that you would go around in if you shot level par. This generally varies between 68 and 72 depending on the course. It has been known for par scores to be higher than this, but it’s fairly rare.

The number shots that you should take on each hole becomes your par score. So, if a hole was a par 4, then this would be your par for the hole. You can shoot less or more than this score, which all get adjusted at the end of the round.

For example, a birdie is a score where you shoot 1 less than par on that hole. So, a birdie on a par 4 would be a 3. This is represented as -1 (1 under). You can of course shoot less than this, with an eagle accounting for -2 and an albatross for -3. Of course, you can score over a par, which is said to be a bogey (+1). Two over par is a double bogey, three over a triple bogey and so on.

At the end of the round you add your total scores up from each hole. This gives you your gross score for the round. You then compare it to par to see what your overall score is. For example, if you took 68 strokes on a par 72 course, then your score would be -4 (4 under). If you took 85 strokes on a 72 par course then your score would be +13 (13 over).

With professional golf the scores will be added up over the course of the 4 rounds for that tournament. The player with the lowest aggregate score from the whole field will be declared the winner.

With amateur golf it works a little different as handicaps are applied. Each player has a handicap, which is essentially a certain amount of shots that gets taken off your score at the end of each round. It’s designed to offer a more even playing field for golfers of all ability. The better the player, the less shots they will be able to take off.

So, if your gross score was 85 on a par 72 course and you had a handicap of 15, then your nett score would then become 70 (85 score – 15 handicap), giving you a score of -2 (2 under).

Major Golf Tours

There are professional golf tournaments held each week all over the world and you may be wondering how these are organised. The associations that arrange the tournaments are called golf tours and here we give you some detail on the major tours who’s events you will be able to bet on. It’s worth noting that the four golf majors are held jointly by a number of professional tours.

PGA Tour

The PGA Tour is the largest and richest tour in golf. It’s plays host to the men’s game and with combines some of the biggest tournaments in the world The tour have been running since 1929 and primarily consists of golf tournaments situated across North America, although does include an increasing number overseas these days.

The first tour was set up to encourage club professionals to play in higher ranking tournaments. Eventually, as the tour continued to grow, the players who were taking part in the events were looking to gain an increased amount of money in terms of purse, but instead the PGA of America were wanting to reintroduce the money into grass roots level to grow the game of golf.

In 1968, a large number of disgruntled professionals weren’t keen on the number of club pro’s that were taking part in these events, diluting the quality of the tour. As a result, the PGA Tour was formed which put the power back with the players.

The tour has grown exponentially since then and now operate a number of other tours around the world, including PGA Tour Champions, Web.com Tour, PGA Tour Latinoamerica, PGA Tour Canada and PGA Tour China. Roots into these countries has meant that more full PGA Tour events have been hosted there as a result, reaching a larger global audience.

There are around 40 tournaments that are hosted each year by the PGA Tour. These are made play off events (Fed EX Cup), team events (Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup), regular season tournaments, invitational events and alternate tournaments (played at the same time as majors). They also jointly run up the four majors and the World Golf Championships.

The flagship event as hosted by the PGA Tour has to be that of the Players Championship. The Players is often referred to as the “5th Major” such is it’s standing in golf. It takes place each year at TPC Sawgrass which is also the headquarters for the PGA Tour.

European Tour

The European Tour is the leading tour held within Europe and one that runs rival to that of the PGA Tour. It’s been about since 1972 and was originally hosted by that of the Professional Golfers Association. In 1984, in order to grow the game and more importantly, the Tour, it shifted hands to a dedicated committee, known as the PGA European Tour and has since carried this name throughout its existence.

Whilst the name would suggest that all events are held within Europe, as the tour has grown the number of countries has since expanded. Even though the majority and the larger events are still in Europe, the tour visits countries such as South Africa, Hong Kong, Australia, UAE, Malaysia, Qatar, Mexico and Mauritius, to name just a few.

The tour was widely set up on the back of the success of the PGA Tour in America. In Europe the majority of events were set up on the back of cooperate sponsors or clubs hosting their own events with no real structure. The UK and Ireland held the majority of tournaments, but by the time the tour had been put in place, the likes of Holland, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Switzerland had all become integral stops for the tour.

The tour works through many ranking events throughout the year and culminates with the Race to Dubai, essentially a money list that players take their winnings from the year and are then ranked according to the highest earners. The Race to Dubai sees a final tournament with the leading 60 players in the order of merit battling it out for the $7.5million prize fund that’s on offer; by far the biggest of the season.

Other flagship events come from that of the Rolex Series that was introduced in 2017. These include the BMW PGA Championship, Open de France, Irish Open, Scottish Open, Italian Open, Turkish Airlines Open, Nedbank Golf Challenge and the DP World Tour Championship. Each of these has a minimum prize pool of $7million, a vast increase from that regular season tournaments.

PGA Tour Champions

The PGA Tour Champions or Champions Tour as it’s more affectionately known as was founded in 1980 and has been designed for players of the age of 50 and over. It allows players of a certain age to still compete at a high level, but without having to do so against younger, fitter and more athletic players, essentially providing a more level playing field for doing so.

The tour has been a massive success and almost breeds a new sense of life for players that would otherwise be retiring and moving away from professionally competing. The tour came about when in 1978 a “Legends of Golf” tournament that was run for players who were from an older generation, but still greats of the game. The matches saw that these players still had what it takes to compete and some two years later the tour was formed.

In total there are 29 events that are currently running, which includes 5 majors, 1 more than the main tour. Whilst prizemoney is lower than that of the PGA Tour, it’s very comparable to that of the European Tour for the most part, with purses ranging from $760,000 up to as much as $4,000,000 for some of the majors. Bernhard Langer, one of the most successful players on the Champions Tour has amassed over $20million in career earnings, more than he did from his professional playing days on the main PGA Tour.

Asian Tour

The Asian Tour has been around since 1995 and is the top professional golf tour across Asia. It covers all Asian countries apart from Japan, who have their own golf tour in the form of the Japan Golf Tour. Events that are held on tour will count towards Official World Golf Rankings, making them a great stepping stone to get into bigger events across Europe and the US.

As part of the setup of the tour, the Asian PGA was formed to order to govern the tour and oversee events on tour. This include representatives from 8 countries across Asia and were also held by bother the PGA Tour and the European Tour whilst setting up.

As part of the help the tours agreed to co-sanction some events, which helped raise the profile of the tour and also the prize money on offer. The main events have come in the form of the Omega European Masters in Switzerland, with events on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa and that of the PGA Tour of Australasia.

Whilst it’s still seen as one of the smaller professional golf tours, the Asian Tour has seen significant growth. For example, in 2004 the pooled prize money was that of $11.4million, whereas just 5 years later in 2009, this much had already jumped to over $39million.

Japan Golf Tour

Keith Allison, flickr

The Japan Golf Tour has been about since 1973 and outside both the European Tour and the PGA tour is the third highest annual prize fund of any tour in the world, such has been the success. However, it has been noted that the tour has failed to keep with growth compared to the other two tours, which does signify it is still someway off being considered a genuine rival or alternative for professional golfers.

Whilst the majority of players are in fact Japanese, the tour does have a diverse collection of players, especially from within Asia and Australasia. It’s seen as a great platform for younger players to get a feel for tour life and also springboard themselves onto the world stage at some of the co-sanctioned events that they run with the likes of the PGA Tour and the European Tour.

Interestingly, Ryo Ishikawa is the youngest player to have won on tour as a 15-year-old amateur playing in the Munsingwear Open in 2007. He’s since gone on to become one of the world’s top golfers and regularly competes on the PGA Tour as a result.

Sunshine Tour

The Sunshine Tour is one of the leading golf tours in the world and make up one of the 6 main tours within the International Federation of PGA Tours. It’s been established since 2000 as the Sunshine Tour, but originally dates back as far as the late 1960’s.

The tour isn’t as strong as some of the ones that we have already mentioned, but it does offer a good platform for African players to springboard into the bigger tours. Most of the tours bigger events are co-sanctioned with the European Tour. This allows them to present more prizemoney and in turn, attract biggest names to these tournaments.

Some of the names that have seen success on the tour and gone on to be household names around the world include the likes of Ernie Els, Gary Player, Charl Schwartzel, Richard Sterne, Branden Grace and George Coetzee, to name just a few.

LPGA

The LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association) is widely regarded as the founding member of professional golf for women. It was first established in 1950 and since then has grown to be the elite tour for women’s golf anywhere in the world.

The tour has seen some uncertain times of late, with total prize money and events decreasing from 2009 to 2010, mainly because of the recession. But, it’s definitely back on the up with over $63million in total prize money on offer each season and more than 30 events. The prizemoney alone is more than 4 times greater than that of their European competitor on the LET.

The majority of tournaments are held with the US, but they do venture out of the country for some, including the likes of Mexico, Singapore, Canada, France, England, South Korea and Japan in previous years. They also include 5 majors per year, 1 more than the men’s game, which includes the ANA Inspiration, US Women’s Open, Women’s PGA Championship, Ricoh Women’s British Open and The Evian Championship.

Ladies European Tour

The ladies version of the European Tour has been about since 1978 and in that time has seen steady increase both in popularity and the quality of players that are now starting to filter through. The tour is based out of Buckinghamshire Golf Club, which is near London, England.

The tour now functions as a limited company, which means they have full control regarding what money comes in and goes out. It also allows a good number of players to participate in board meetings in order to progress the tour even further, something that was lacking in the early days of the men’s game.

Like the men’s game, the tour takes advantage of a wealth of courses situated across Europe and around the world. They currently have over 20 events held each year, of which take part in 15 different countries. Total prizemoney sits at around €15million, which is a figure that has gradually increased over the years.

Throughout the season the players compete on the order of merit, which is a league table based on total earnings for that year’s golf. Along with this the tour record the player of the year, rookie of the year and the lowest stroke average across the whole season.

Major Golf Tournaments

The Masters

The first of the year’s golf majors is The Masters, played each year in April at the iconic Augusta National course. It is famous for its Green Jacket, which is literally a green blazer that is handed by the defending champion to the new winner. It is Jack Nicklaus that has been adorned with that lovely green the most times with six Masters titles to his name, although he would have missed out on the modern day prize pot which is worth a whopping $1.7 million to the champion.

The Open Championship

The Open Championship is the only one of golf’s four majors to be held outside of the USA. It is a markedly ‘English’ affair – we love traditionalism here – with the host course rotating each year; the likes of Royal Troon, Royal Birkdale and Carnoustie are next in line. It is the traditional four round, 72 hole strokeplay format, and with eight different champions in the last decade alone it has become something of a punters playground.

The US Open

The US Open is the third of golf’s majors, usually held in the middle of June, and in recent years it is hosted at courses that favour neat and accurate play. Often played at coastal venues, so that wind and other conditions become a factor, it is a heady test of a golfers’ game. As if further proof of that were needed, between 2003 and 2016 the event was won by sixteen different players. Only the toughest need apply….

The PGA Championship

The fourth and final golf major is the PGA Championship. Held Stateside on a rolling basis across a number of courses, the scene is set for a fantastic season finale in the late August sun. Little separates from the other US based majors, although it is the most lucrative on tour; with a total purse of some $10.5 million. It’s an interesting tournament for punters as a number of recent winners, including Jason Dufner (2013), Keegan Bradley (2011) and Yang Yong (2009), were huge outsiders with the bookmakers.

Ryder Cup

It is here that Team Europe does battle with Team America for supremacy on a biennial basis in an event that comprises both singles and pairs play. The winning team is the one with the most points accrued from the fixtures held throughout the weekend. The Ryder Cup is a lot different to the gold you might normally be accustomed too; this is a feisty old affair. Passionate men holding sticks bristle with both personal and national pride – it’s always likely to get a bit tasty.

Types of Golf Betting Offers

Here are some of the most common types of golf betting offers.

• Enhanced Place Offers – Always seen when the majors roll around and often in other tournaments too, bookies will invariably offer enhanced each way terms whereby they will payout on the top five, six or even seven or eight places. This can be a great way to back some long odds outsiders who might not have enough to win a tournament but could sneak into the top six or seven places.
• Money Back Offers – A favourite amongst bookies in recent years has been to offer refunds on losing pre-tournament outright bets if Tiger Woods is the victor. There are a number of variations on this theme such as refunds if a hole in one is scored, if your player loses in a play-off or any number of other eventualities.
• Enhanced Odds Offers – As well as the enhanced place offers, bookies also sometimes bump up the odds on some of the big name players (often Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy, but occasionally others) as they try to attract your custom. If you are planning to back one of the favourites, always check this page to see if there’s an enhanced odds promo going on (especially before the majors) as it could really boost your winnings if they do the business.
• Mobile Specific Offers – Mobiles are the new laptops when it comes to betting as more and more punters places their bets when out and about. As such bookies are falling over themselves to get these technologically adept punters to bet with them, hence we’ve been seeing a lot more mobile specific offers for all sports. There have only been a few so far for golf bets, but we think there will be plenty more coming your way before long, so keep an eye on this page and be ready to place bets on your mobile or tablet to take full advantage.

So, as when betting on any other sport, make sure you check out the latest betting offers on this site BEFORE you place your golf bets and give yourself the chance of earning bonuses or getting refunds, especially with the majors.