Golf Betting Guide: How to Win at Betting Golf

The U.S. Open is upon us with a full field of the best golfers and top amateurs teeing it up for the national championship. Now is as good a time as any to dive in and bet on golf. Golf betting is much different than your typical football or baseball betting, but no less exciting. But before you bet, let’s make sure you have all the information you need.

Make sure to sign up for “Betting with Bearman,” which will feature analysis and picks for all upcoming events.

Outrights: For starters, much like every other sport, you can bet on who wins. The odds are similar to football/baseball futures in that you are putting your money on one golfer to win the event. Want to bet a favorite at +250 or a longshot at +7000, the options are yours.

Top Finishes: If you want to shorten the odds a bit and give yourself some runway, you can bet on a golfer to finish top 5, top 10, top 20, etc. This gives you more slots to win, but also at much shorter odds.

Head-to-head: Each event will have matchup props, where you pick one golfer to finish better than the other. The odds on these will depend on what the match up is. There are two distinct types of head-to-head: round-by-round, which is a one day match for a tournament head-to-head, which is typically all 72 holes (4 rounds).

3-balls: In addition to the head-to-head matchups, golf has special “3-balls”, which are available on the first two days of each tournament when each tee time has three golfers. You are betting on which of the three golfers wins the day. Odds are different due to there being 3 in the group and not 2 and each bet having to beat the other two golfers.

Group Betting: Similar to NASCAR betting, you can bet who will finish the best out of a group of four to six golfers.

Props: As with all sports, there will be various props depending on the event. With golf especially, there are many options such as:

Golf is one of the perfect live betting sports to me. The pace is much slower paced and allows plenty of time to think, react and adjust.

For starters, you have 3-5 minutes in between the tee shot and approach shot. You will have another 3-5 minutes between the approach shot and anything that happens around the greens. (plus another if it’s a par 5). Then another one after the hole is over and before the next hole starts. This is an infinity of time in live betting.

Not to mention, the first two days of the four-day event features two additional players in each group, which means more time! Golf is also an individual sport and not a team sport (there are exceptions like Ryder Cup), which means you can play players against each other based on what you see in front of you. Lots of time + lots of info = great live betting situations.

Live Betting Options

Much like pre-tournament betting, you can live bet any outrights, top finishes, head-to-head, 3 balls and props. The odds will be different depending on what has happened prior, allowing you to use real-time action to place smarter bets than you did before the event.

However, in addition, you can also live bet each hole, betting on either (a) a golfer results on a hole, (b) who wins each hole or (c) a collection of two over a group of holes.

Golf is unique in that it is a more individual sport and result you are betting on. With that comes some additional nuances. Here are some terms to know that might come into play.

“Dead Heat” vs. “With Ties”: When betting “Top Finishes”, aka, top 5s, top 10s, top 20s, there will be ties as golfers can finish with the same score. The event will have one winner, but you could have 5 people tied for 9th-13th place. In these situations, the payout depends on how you bet it.

Winner Without: Occasionally, a player is such a huge favorite (Scottie Scheffler) or has such a big lead entering Sunday’s final round that the result of the event is not in question. At this point, books will offer a “Winner Without” prop, which is basically, who will finish 2nd. Ignoring the eventual winner, you pick who will win without him. This is also offered at majors in various forms to allow for different odds and bets to be made.

Know the course: Golf is all about the information and elements. You have 4 days to figure it out. Which are the tough holes, which are the easy holes. A par-5 is coming up, which leads to birdie changes. That birdie will change the odds, so get ahead of it. The toughest hole on the course is coming up, which could be a bogey. You can wait and get a better line once that bogey happens.

Weather is key: golf tee times go in waves. You are either AM Thursday/PM Friday or PM Thursday/AM Friday for the first two days. This could lead to major weather situations that you can take advantage of. In this case, the books don’t have any more information than you do. Both of you are monitoring the weather.

Like a major favorite? Wait: There are 70-156 golfers in any one event. It’s very hard to get value on a pre-tournament +450 pick (aka The Scottie Scheffler). But if he gets off to a slow start or has a late tee time and others have gone low, you may be able to get him at +900. Golf future betting is extremely volatile. Pick your spots that give you the best advantage. Getting behind early doesn’t mean the golfer can’t win. It just means you now get longer odds.