PGA Tour Betting – A Beginners Guide

Over the last few years, the game of golf has evolved like no other.  Whether it’s getting out on the links with a few buddies or tuning into a major tournament, people’s interest in the game has rapidly climbed the ladder.  Golf brings together a plethora of features.  The elegant landscape of a course, socializing with friends, and the true competitive spirit of sport itself.

Because the game is so electrifying to play and watch, you can’t help but realize how thrilling placing a wager on a tournament can be.  There are all different types of bets you can make.  Outright bets, finishing positions, head-to-heads, prop bets.  The whole nine yards.

What I want the folks to get out of this piece is to understand the basics of golf betting in the simplest terms possible.  I’ll go through all the different types of bets you can make, what they mean, and how you should go about making them.  For those first being introduced to the market – welcome.  We are glad to have you.  It would be my honor to provide you with the knowledge you need to know to keep those account balances in the green and out of the red.

Without further ado, welcome to PGA Tour Betting – A Beginners Guide.

Professional Levels of Golf

 Like other sports, there are different levels of professional play.  Take baseball for example.  You have Triple A, Double A, Single A, etc.  Even take basketball.  You have the G-league, overseas play, etc.  It is the same idea as golf.

The top three levels of professional play in the game of golf include the PGA Tour, Korn Ferry Tour, and Euro Tour.  Climbing up the ranks is newly organized LIV Golf which a lot of the PGA Tour players have been migrating to.  However, the level of golf bettors primarily focus on is known as the PGA Tour.  When you think of Tiger Woods, think of the PGA Tour.  When you think of Arnold Palmer, think of the PGA Tour.  The highest level of play the game has to offer.

The PGA Tour is predominantly played in the United States where the season commences in the middle of September and goes all the way through the last weekend of August.   Four tournaments within the PGA Tour known as the “Majors” get the most publicity.  Included in that four are The Masters, The US Open, The PGA Championship, and The Open Championship.

However, there are also numerous smaller, less publicized tournaments within the PGA Tour that you can bet on.  These smaller tournaments enable you to stay engaged all season long.  Once you get more familiar with these smaller tournaments, you won’t want to miss a wager on them.

Types of Golf Bets

 Outright / Winner of Tournament

The outright bet is usually the most prevalent wager a bettor will place.  In plain terms, who do you think will win the tournament at hand?  However, these bets are the hardest to win.  Think about it.  You are predicting one player to win out of about 160 who all relatively have the same skill level as others in the playing field, give or take the top dogs.  For this type of bet, you will see odds anywhere from +500 to +9000 or even higher.

For example, let’s look at the Honda Classic, played in February of 2022.  One of the top players in the world, Sungjae Im was the heavy favorite at +1400.  However, he did not end up winning.  Instead, Sepp Straka who was +10000 ended up capturing his first victory on the PGA Tour.  While these bets can be very hard to predict, they can be highly exhilarating when riding a heavy underdog who has a chance to hoist hardware come Sunday.

Think of the outright bet as a small risk high reward.  If your average bet is $50, take 1/5 of that to place on an outright winner.  This will enable you to place a bunch of small wagers on players you think have a chance for that tournament.

Finishing Position Bet (Top 5, 10, 20, 40)

The finishing position bet allows you to place a wager on a player to finish within a tier of the standings.  The tiers that you will see available, most of the time, are as follows: Top 5, Top 10, Top 20, and Top 40.  The better the finishing position, let’s say T5, the better odds you will see.  The worse the finishing position, let’s say T40, the worse odds you will see as it’s easier for a player to finish T40 as opposed to T5.  I recommend placing half of your average wager on these types of bets depending on what odds you get your golfer at.

Round Leader Bet

The round leader bet is simple.  Who do you think will have the outright lead after day one of the first 18 holes?  Who do you think will have the outright lead after day two, or after the second 18 holes?  And so forth going into rounds three and four.  Like the outright section, this is a long-shot bet where very small amounts should be wagered.

One thing to keep in mind is that if your player ties at -6 for that top spot with four other players, the payout will be divided by how many players tie for that top spot.  In this example, it would be the payout divided by four.  I am constantly getting sucked into these bets as they are very fun to play and can provide a hefty payout if predicted correctly.

Head-to-Head Matchup Bets

The Head-to-Head matchup bet is where you would want to wager your full average unit bet.  You are betting on one player to outperform another player on a given day or duration of a tournament.  For head-to-head bets, it is important to conduct your due diligence.  For example, how well has this player been playing as of late?  If the course relies heavily on elite approach play, how well does this player hit their irons?  If the course relies heavily on driving accuracy, how often does this player hit fairways?  There are so many different stats and metrics to look at (which I will explain in detail in another article) that you can use in making your predictions.  Some just for context: shots gained approach (SGA), shots gained off-the-tee (OTT), shots gained ball striking (BS), shots gained putting (SGP), and the list goes on.

You will usually see these bets very close to even money (-115, -110, +100) which is why I recommend placing your full average unit bet.  There’s truly no better feeling than going 5/5 on your matchup bets for a given tournament.  It is a perfect way to stay engaged with a bunch of players and to be a part of some hefty cash-outs.

So, there it is folks, PGA Tour Betting – A Beginners Guide.  What I provided you with, in my opinion, are the most popular bets one can make within the field of PGA betting.  As I mentioned, these are just a select few.  You can get involved in many other bets that will start making sense as you start getting more into golf betting.  It’s probably one of the best sports you can bet on.  Highly exciting, but more importantly, highly lucrative.

Let’s be great folks.

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