Betting on Golf: How does it work in practice?
Golf, isn’t that the ‘sport’ with which businessmen justify absences from the office for whole afternoons? Hitting a ball, driving a cart over the grass, eating and drinking, that’s not a sport, right? It may seem that way to many players of non GamStop casinos, and it is of course a bit of an elite sport with a certain image, but Tiger Woods really didn’t get rich with ‘hit a ball and drive over the green in a cart’. Serious money can be made from golf worldwide, and it’s a competitive sport. And that means you can also bet on golf. How does that work? We looked into that for you.
What Is Golf?
Golf is indeed that one sport where you hit a ball with a club on a grass course (green). And where you have to get that ball into a hole with as few strokes as possible. A green consists of a number of holes (usually 9 or 18), so a match is usually won by whoever has the fewest strokes at the end of all holes (this is called a stroke play).
Another variant is match play, in which two players or duos compete against each other per hole. Whoever completes a hole in the fewest number of strokes wins the hole, and whoever has won the most holes at the end of the match is the winner. In that respect it is very similar to miniature golf (which explains the name of course).
Each hole and course has a par (Professional Average Result), which is how many strokes a hole should normally be played in. The par of a course is the number of strokes you should average for the entire course. A good player plays under par. The number of pars per hole is determined by the length of the hole, for the men it is:
- 80 – 235 meters (85 – 250 yards) = par 3
- 220 – 450 meters (240-490 yards) = par 4
- 415 – 630 meters (450-690 yards) = par 5
- Longer than 631 meters (691 yards) = par 6
Amateur Golf
An amateur player has a handicap. This is the average number of strokes it takes over par to complete a course. An 18-hole course usually has a par of 70, 71 or 72. If you need an average of 94 as a player on a 70 par course, your handicap is 24.
If you need 28 strokes more than the par in a round, you run 4 strokes above your handicap. If this player plays against a player with a handicap of 10, the first player may have 14 strokes more on the court. This way players of different strengths can still play fairly against each other and they both have a chance to win.
Professional Golf
Of course, golf is also played at a professional level. In the UK, the sport as a professional sport is not really alive, although the roots of the sport lie in our country (together with Scotland). The major players often come from the US, and a few from the United Kingdom and Spain.
There is no handicap in professional golf. It is therefore assumed that a professional golfer should always be able to reach the par, and even play (far) below it. I think the most famous golfer ever is Tiger Woods.
Besides the fact that we know him as a good golfer (understatement) and from commercials for all kinds of brands with which he still rakes in millions a year, years ago he also made the news because of his private life. He allegedly violated his marital vows to his wife Elin Nordegren several times, which led to a divorce. In the period surrounding all the fuss, he did not play professional golf for some time.
Golf Seasons
The American golf season runs almost all year round, except for the month of September. In the winter, tournaments are played in places such as Florida and Hawaii, but also in Mexico, China and Korea. Other American states are on the program in the summer months. The European tour goes all over the world, from Australia to Dubai, Europe and America, all year round. On average, about 4 to 5 tournaments are played per month per tour.
Betting on Golf
There are plenty of tournaments worldwide on which you could place a sports bet. Of course, you can normally bet on who wins a tournament. The odds for this are mainly determined by the movement that the sports bettors make. If there is a lot of betting on a particular player, the odds will drop and you will get less if you win. In addition, various side bets (extra bets) are possible. You can think of:
- Player X’s score in the first round: 70.5, higher or lower?
- Will a hole-in-one be played?
- Who will be the best amateur of the tournament?
- By what margin does the winner win?
- Competitions within nationalities (who is the best Englishman, American, Spaniard, etc).
- Inter-player results.
- Individual rounds (who is the best player on Saturday, who is in the lead after the first day, etc).
- Bets against other sports (player X has more birdies in the first round or can the New York Yankees make more runs against the Boston Red Sox).
Do Your Research Before Betting on Golf!
Betting on the winner is, therefore, the easiest and simplest when you are going to bet on golf. That does not mean that the choice of the winner is just as easy! Although Tiger still takes in tournaments here and there, he’s not as good as he once was. And there are currently no players that match his level of the past. 10 years ago, if Tiger played, you could safely bet on a win for him.
He won a lot, a lot. There are now some favorites, but the results achieved so far show that they rarely win the tournament for which they are favorites. Winning in a previous tournament is also rarely an indicator for winning the current game.
Figures and numbers are beautiful and can say something about the chance a player will win. For example, top 5 to 10, is a good indication of a good game, with average scores. But the average is not excellent, and whether the player wins a tournament with that? Live betting is therefore recommended, because you know how the player is currently playing. And also, look at the weather forecast, a player who has to tee off in bad conditions will not win easily.
