With seemingly every sport now available in the betting markets, there is a huge need to understand all the rules and options you have when wagering. Fortunately, we have you covered here at OddsShopper, and I’m here to answer all your questions regarding how to bet on golf outrights, including some strategy tips and expert advice. Now, unlike other bets, hitting an outright in golf is a difficult task — the odds ranging usually anywhere from 5-1 all the way into the 100-1 (or more!) range for longshot golfers.
Finding a winner a few times a year is probably enough to get you in the green, and understanding some key concepts can help us do just that. Make sure to check out our sports betting tools or our sports betting promos as well!
How to Bet on Golf: Tips, Strategy & Expert Advice
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Tip 1: Shop the Odds | How to Bet on Golf
No matter what sport you are betting on, you want to maximize your potential winnings while minimizing the amount you have to pay for a given bet. That’s standard practice, but with PGA outrights the concept is critical — when you look at an outright board before a tournament tees off, you could find a golfer sitting 25-1 at one book while he is 18-1 at another.
At first glance, pricing might feel like that big of deal, but just getting the best number could be the difference between being up or down at the end of the year. With how difficult it is to hit an outright, you want to make sure to get every dollar of upside anytime you make a bet.
The easiest way to do this is by using an odds screen like OddsShopper’s to help you see a golfer’s price across multiple books. Not buying the best available number is one of the easiest mistakes to fix that I see new bettors making, and their bottom lines suffer because of it.
Tip 2: Understand the Event
The piece of golf betting advice I have is a little more nuanced, but it’s just as important: you must understand the event itself. Unlike most sports, where everything about the game remains the same, we get a changing of fields, layouts and even formats of the tournament each week.
For example, one week players may be teeing it up in California amongst a full 150-man field with most of the top players in the world resting. The next week, it could be a 50-man non-cut event with all the top players at a completely different course.
Of course, the books already account for this, but if you don’t, your interpretation of the board will lead you to draw some false conclusions about perceived value.
Unlike shopping for odds, this isn’t a simple step, but it may be equally important. The best way is just to make sure you get a quick sketch of what the event is, field strength, and what other factors may be playing into the odds board.
Each week of the golf season, we’ll put out our best golf bets, featuring a few names to consider, and, more importantly, a preview of the course and potential skillset to keep in mind when trying to pick golf outrights.
Tip 3: Don’t Forget About Live Betting
Another unique feature of golf versus other sports is that it’s a multi-day event. A typical golf tournament begins on Thursday and then finishes in the fourth round on Sunday. Between that first shot and the crowning of a champion, you will have a ton of swings like you do in any other sporting event — they’re just spread out over time differently. The golf betting experts know how to use these pauses to their advantage.
The large breaks in between rounds give us a chance to examine, review and ultimately make new bets in the form of live betting. Now, of course, the books are reacting and setting lines based on what’s happened, but that doesn’t mean advantageous positions can’t arise.
Similar to knowing the course and field, this is a nuanced tip, but it can prove powerful if you are willing to do some digging. Not all scores and situations are created equal in golf, and, at times, this creates value in the middle of a tournament. For example, say a player played the first two rounds in the worst of the weather on both days and now finds himself in the middle of the pack. It’s not a guarantee that he will suddenly emerge, but, at the same time, his position may be slightly undervalued due to the conditions he got stuck with earlier in the tournament.
These little edges can create situations where live betting is a powerful tool, as we can react to changing weather, conditions or updated strokes gained data — just like the books can.
One thing I love about our Discord community here at OddsShopper is the sharing of this type of information, as it can be very difficult to stay on top of everything that is happening 24/7. Being able to check out leads, follow up on situations or get pointed in the right direction is a huge time saver. Ultimately, it can help get us to spots worth attacking.
Hopefully, you have a better understanding of how to go about trying to pick PGA Tour Outrights and the process behind them. Stay tuned for even more PGA 101 betting topics from matchups bets, top-20 markets and other areas where we can find some edges on the books.
