Nowadays, golf, the first information about which dates back to the distant 13th century, is played all over the world. Accordingly, betting on this sport is relatively popular, and this article is devoted to it.
Golf geography and major tournaments
Almost every region of the world has its own professional tour — there are Asian, Australian, Japanese, and Canadian tours. For those who are starting to get interested in golf, of course, it is better to focus on the main series — this is the European Tour and the American PGA Tour.
The European tour runs throughout the year and is not really limited to the geography of the Old World, because the tournaments of this series look to the most remote corners of the planet-to South Africa, India, China, Australia and other countries.
PGA Tour events are usually held from January to November. Like tennis, golf has four majors: the US Masters in April, the US Open in June, the July Open, also known as the British Open, and the US PGA Championship in August.
In most cases, professional tournaments are four-day events with the task of completing 72 holes. The tournament is divided into four rounds, and the golfer who uses the least number of strokes to complete the course wins.
Sometimes tournaments with faster regulations are also held, where golfers meet face-to-face using a knockout system.
Types of golf bets
Winning the tournament. The most popular line among bookmakers, but quite difficult for an unambiguous forecast. More than 200 golfers can participate in each tournament, and the choice is not so easy to make.
However, often the circle of real applicants is strictly defined and the odds are not so high. Plus, bookmakers usually offer a bet that a certain golfer will not be able to win the tournament, and here the chance of getting a short-term result is quite high.
Victory at the tournament stage. Not all star golfers manage to start tournaments right off the bat, and you can easily hit the jackpot on the victory of an average athlete in the first stage of the competition.
Getting to the top. Often bookmakers can find a line for getting an athlete into a certain improvised top. The most common tops in offers are top — 3, top-5, and top-10. If you are confident in the golfer’s readiness, but do not want to risk a bet on winning, then this is a good option for reinsurance.
Comparison of golfers. Standard bet for individual sports. Here you can make a forecast of which of the two golfers proposed will take a more worthy place in the final classification.
The best among our compatriots. On the big PGA and European Tour tournaments, you can often find such an unusual line.
We offer a list of golfers from a particular country that is widely represented in the competition, and you can try to guess the best in the final table — for example, the best American, Irish or Swedish.
Golf Betting Strategies: What to look out for
The key to making good golf bets is to develop a specific game strategy that will allow you to regularly find value in the line. We can distinguish four important things, the combination of which should form a mosaic of a winning strategy.
Golfers ‘ uniforms. The first question you should ask yourself when making a bet on a golfer is: what is the athlete’s current competitive form?
You need to pay attention to the latest results in tournaments, and there is no doubt that you should refrain from betting on a golfer who could not even portray a struggle in the last five tournaments. For example, in the 2015 European Tour, 29 out of 33 stage winners were ranked in the top 20 at least once in the five tournaments that preceded their victory.
Results on a specific field. No less important is the fitness of the chosen golfer to the field on which he will perform. The routes of many famous golf courses that host PGA or European Tour events have not changed for years. Therefore, it is easy to track how much the athlete’s playing style corresponds to a particular tournament.
It is not uncommon for a “dark horse” to not show brilliant results in principle, but year after year on the same field it overcomes the highest tournament barriers. For example, there are courses that are considered more old-fashioned, where you need special accuracy and accuracy when starting shots: the abundance of natural obstacles such as trees and tall grass does not allow physically strong golfers to take risks and use all the power when hitting.
Considered more modern, well-groomed courses in open areas are no longer so convenient for subtle golfers who rely on accuracy. Powerful hitters gain an advantage by having more room for errors and developing movement along the route with long strokes.
Weather factor. In golf, the elements can have quite a big impact on the game. On the PGA Tour, there are several courses that have historically earned a reputation for being particularly windy, and wind gusts are quite a serious irritating factor for players.
Not all golfers are able to adapt to occasional gusts — here you need special patience and concentration, and the trajectory of strokes should be lower. Therefore, in windy weather, golfers from the UK or Scandinavians, who have been used to playing in such conditions since childhood, or representatives of the windy states of America — Texas and Florida-usually perform better.
However, the factors of players ‘ shape and fitness for the field are more important when choosing a bet, since it is sometimes almost impossible to predict the weather on a particular day. Especially if you want to catch a good coefficient at the start of the line. Unfortunately, even the best meteorologists are not yet able to give an accurate forecast of wind speed and direction a few days before the event.
Player experience. Think ten times before risking your money on a promising golfer who is hungry for a first trophy on a serious tour. Yes, he was able to break up opponents on the margins of tournaments of lesser significance for several months, so he received an invitation to a big event. However, serious, experienced” lions ” of golf do not need too much fuss and can easily be brought to the big PGA or European Tour tournaments without tiring trips in the hope of getting extra points.
The fact is that a golfer who has won once in the PGA or ET, then gets the opportunity to compete in large tournaments for two to five years, regardless of the current results. This is a circle of favorites, where beginners are not allowed to enter until the first serious victory, and titled golfers are actually the masters of their schedule, without needing an extra struggle to survive on the tour.
Statistics for forecasts
On the same site of the PGA tour, you can find a lot of statistical indicators and samples that can help you form a bet. Here are the most important ones.
Driving Accuracy. As already mentioned, some fields require special accuracy of long-range strikes in the initial stages. And the Driving Accuracy indicator will help you get basic information about the reliability of strokes — this is the percentage of golfers ‘strokes that reach the” working territories”, the fairway.
Driving Distance. These statistics will help you get a basic idea of the golfer’s impact strength and the average distance that the ball covers after hitting. This indicator is especially important in more open fields with a limited number of obstacles.
Hitting the green with the estimated number of strokes (Greens in Regulation, GIR). Many people consider this statistic the most important in golf, thanks to it you can evaluate the skill of the player as a whole. This is the percentage of golfers hitting the green (a convenient area directly around the hole) at least two strokes before par (par is the standard number of strokes for passing a particular route).
Players with a high GIR percentage in recent tournaments usually have a higher chance of winning, their golf is more stable and less stressful.
Average number of putts (Putting Average). A putt is a putt made on the green just before the hole, the cherry on the cake of any masterful route. A good golfer must carefully and accurately execute the final stroke, so that the work of passing the course is not in vain. The lower the Putting Average, the better.
Scrambling (Scrambling). An indicator that shows the golfer’s ability to get out of difficult situations. This is the percentage of successful passes after a player misses the green within 50 yards.
Golfers with high scrambling skills are prepared for trouble and can still stay in the race if there are short-term difficulties. While bad scramblers are less stable and on ornate routes can quickly lose their composure.
Which bookmakers can bet on golf
In the West, golf is a popular sport with a particularly dense concentration of fans among wealthy people. In this regard, the golf betting market is well developed, and there are many people who are willing to risk a lot of money by betting on their favorite players.
For Russia, golf is still exotic, a certain aristocratic attribute with a high entry threshold. Therefore, not all bookmakers regularly accept bets on golf events, and margins are usually higher due to low line demand. This means that the best bookmaker for betting will not be determined from the entire list, but only from those companies that understand this sport.
Relatively rich golf offers are provided by the famous “1xStavka” murals. As a rule, in this office you can find odds not only for majors, but even for amateur championships.
The margin is working, in the “Who wins” line it can reach only 5-6%. Long-term bets on major tournaments are always available. In Russia, 1xStavka is probably the perfect place for betting on golf.
For PGA and European Tour events, at the Ryder Cup, you can sometimes find a line in other popular offices: in BC “Liga Bet”, Winline,”Olymp”, “Marathon” and others.
In 2009, golf was included in the program of the Olympic Games, so for sure this sport will get some kind of boost in development in Russia. It’s not a bad time to immerse yourself in the aesthetics of this beautiful and smart sport, which golf betting can help you do a lot.
There are not so many betting offers in Russia yet, and it is unlikely that you will find a win-win strategy. This does not change the fact that it is better to bet on golf wisely, not only relying on luck, but also increasing your knowledge of the discipline with each forecast.