Golf Betting Strategy: Find The Best Strategies for Betting on Golf in 2025
The opportunity to bet on golf doesn’t happen too often. The major tournaments, like the Masters and the US Open, only happen in the summer. Betting on golf can also only be done right with a good golf betting strategy.
In this review, we will cover what the best tips are to make sure your strategy is the best for wagering on golf. We’ll also cover the best types of golf bets to make, that is, the ones that provide the most value and give you the best odds for your betting experience. Read on to find out more.
Why Bet on Golf?
Golf betting is a very slow paced game to wager on. There’s so many different markets to choose from, the odds over rounds can be quite inconsistent and the major tournaments can be harder to call. So, why should you bet on golf? We’ll give you three reasons to consider:
1. Plenty of Major Tournaments in Summer
Well, first of all, there’s no shortage of major tours to bet on, at least during the summer. The PGA Tour, the Masters, the US Open and the Open Championship all take place evenly spaced across the summer, so there’ll always be a major tournament for you to bet on during that period of the year. That means a potentially busy betting season and a great opportunity to perfect your golf betting strategy.
2. Great Odds
Another reason to bet on golf is the odds. Across the board, the odds are generally very valuable, with futures betting and per hole betting popular on most sportsbooks for golf. The reason for this is that golf is a very engaging game, despite it being slow paced.
A whole tournament where anything can change on a dime means the odds for golf are always shifting and turning, so putting together a solid golf betting strategy with that in mind can be tough, but that’s also what makes betting on this sport even more dynamic than you would initially think.
3. Plenty of Golf Strategies to Employ
Our third reason to bet on golf is that there are so many golf betting strategies you can try out. Due to the slower nature of the tournaments, and the constant pressure placed on players over the course of the tournament, there’s so many general betting strategies that can work to your advantage, whether that’s cash out betting, futures betting, each way betting, or even hedging. While we have guides available to show you how to employ those strategies, this particular guide will focus on specific strategies built around the sport itself.
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Strategies for Betting On Golf: Top Tips
Without further ado, let’s get into our recommended golf betting strategies. Golf is completely a game of patience, focus and skill, which means you have to approach betting on it differently than you would on other sports. We’ve put together a brief list of tips, to help you create a golf betting strategy you can rely on.
The first thing you’ll have to consider before anything else is the current form of the player you want to back. You can be the greatest golfer in the world, but you’re still prone to having bad days. It happens to the best, and so you have to take it into account before you continue.
You may think the odds for Rory McIlroy, for example, to win the US Open are better than usual. McIlroy may be the greatest in the world, but he has been prone to having poor performances in the past. Look for players who have regularly placed top 5 or tournament winners this season, not base your bets off someone due to their legendary status.
Many casual golf bettors don’t take this into consideration as much as they should, but course variety can make or break a golfer’s success. Some courses are better fits for certain types of players, and it shows in their track record on the course. You want to see if the layout works to the golfer’s style. Is the player you’re backing known for hitting the green early? Or, are they more focused on accuracy than distance?
For instance, wider range golf courses with longer distances will suit golfers that are known to be more powerful drivers. Narrow courses with more obstacles such as water bays and sand pits will suit golfers that focus more on precision and technique, who are known to be extremely accurate with their strikes and are able to navigate those challenges with ease.
Whether it is familiarity with a course due to previous tournaments or if they are locally based near the area, a player’s history on a golf course will affect your golf betting strategy. If they are local to the area, they will likely be very familiar with the course, and have undoubtedly played that course several times over, giving them a potential edge over other players they are up against.
Last, but certainly not least, you need to take into account Mother Nature’s plans. The weather can be the ultimate bet builder or bet breaker because it’s one factor nobody can plan for or control. Pay attention to what the forecast will be before you place your initial wager. Be aware of how quickly the weather can change throughout a day. In some cases, it’s unlikely the weather will stay the same throughout an entire day of the tournament.
Strong winds will always force players to shorten the lengths of their drives, as they won’t be able to get much distance without the ball flying off course. Rain can completely soak the green and the entire course, meaning the play will generally be done with a lot more care and precision.
That is what makes outright bets so difficult in golf, as you have to study the extended forecast for the entire tournament and decide if weather conditions will actually help or hinder the player you want to back for the tournament.
Live betting feels like cheating when you’re betting on golf. All of the best golf betting sites feature some unbeatable odds on live betting, with the likes of Betfred and Ladbrokes upping the ante when it comes to their in play odds.
As well as that, golf is not a high paced sprint like rugby and football is. It is a slow, deliberate and strategic game, meaning that many of the impulse decisions you might have to make with other sports aren’t the same here. For instance, in our cash out betting guide, we warn that you might find more need to monitor your emotions when betting on other sports where outcomes can sway in the opposite direction drastically. In contrast, in golf, there is time taken between holes and there are huge amounts of time taken between swings. The longform nature of the game of golf just means that live betting on it is one of the easier sports to live bet on.
The only issue you need to keep in mind when live betting is that your bets will take longer to clear. However, that is just the nature of golf, and you’ll have to take this into account for many of your decisions.
This is your key to picking up some serious wins over the course of the major Grand Slam tournaments, especially when it comes to the likes of the PGA Tour and the Masters. What are value odds, you ask? The value odds are dictated by the probability of an event happening that is greater than the sportsbooks odds. For example, if real data, statistics and analytics suggest that Rory McIlroy has a good chance of winning the Masters but many of the top online bookmakers don’t agree with this, then it only serves to help us.
The odds on McIlroy would likely be much higher as a result on these sportsbooks, as they don’t expect him to win. That way, you could be betting on odds of 5.0-6.0, for example, as the sportsbook considers him a middle of the road option. But, if the actual data and statistics back him, then his chances of winning drastically go up. That’s why it’s so essential to do your research, especially on the best edge picks. These picks will ultimately help your overall golf betting strategy.
What Types of Bets Can I Place on Golf?
Now that you have some golf strategies in mind, you might be wondering what kind of bets you can take a swing at. There are some wagers that are more beneficial than others when creating the best golf betting strategy. However, there are also some wagers that you don’t apply to golf, due to the nature of the game as a whole. We decided to put together a brief graph to detail all of this.
| Bet Types | Explanation | Golf |
|---|---|---|
| Outright | Betting on a golf winner | ✅ |
| Each Way | There are over two participants in golf, so you can easily make place bets as well as win bets | ✅ |
| Handicap | Golf is a game where it is impossible to bet on the handicaps, as they can’t be measured as a betting market | ❌ |
| Correct Score | It is hard to track an exact score in golf and every course is different which makes it even more difficult to measure | ❌ |
| Double | You can bet on multiple markets easily | ✅ |
| Treble | You can bet on multiple markets easily | ✅ |
| Parlays | Creating parlays over multiple games is simple | ✅ |
| Nationalities | You can bet on what nationality will win a tournament | ✅ |
| Canadian | There is not enough markets to make such a large scale bet in golf | ❌ |
Betting on the PGA Tour
If you want to bet on golf, you’ll probably want to bet on the PGA Tour. The PGA Tour would be your best bet if you are looking to bet on major golf tournaments, because it is the biggest tour in golf, so you’ll have access to the best odds, betting markets and promotions across certain sportsbooks.
There are other tours you can wager on, such as the Challenge Tour and Arnold Palmer, that are shorter and may be easier to call. Just keep in mind the odds won’t be as competitive and you won’t have access to as many betting markets, as they are not as popular as the PGA Tour.
PGA Tour Events
Here’s a full list of all the major tournaments involved in the PGA Tour, and the chronological order in which they happen.
- The Masters
- PGA Championship
- US Open
- The British Open (Open Championship
- Ryder Cup
Betting on each of these tournaments will be a little different, due to a variety of environmental, and seasonal factors that you have to take into account for your golf betting strategy.
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Golf is a precise and tough sport to bet correctly on. However, if you develop the best golf betting strategy for you and keep the tips we explained to you in mind, it can be done, and be done very successfully. However, it’s essential to understand why you need a good betting strategy.
Golf is a slower paced sport, with the PGA Tour featuring the most valuable golf tournaments to bet on. Make sure you have a good understanding of the variables in golf so you can maximize your potential bets. The more you understand golf, the better your strategies will be.
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Best Golf Betting Strategy FAQ
❓ Is golf hard to bet on?
Golf betting is considered to be one of the hardest sports to bet on. This is due to its unpredictable nature, the large courses and the limited betting markets.
🤔 What is the best way to bet on golf?
The best way to bet on golf is by outrights. Choosing a strong player to win a tournament is the simplest bet that gives you the best chance of placing a winning wager, as other bet types are too unpredictable.
✅ How often do favourites win on golf?
Not as often as you’d think. Only 8.15% of the time do the favourites actually win, so it’s better to spread your bets for golf.
⛳ What are good odds in golf?
Odds in golf can be actually a bit higher than other sports. A favourite, for example, would have odds between 6.0 and 9.0, depending on the platform used.
💲 Can you bet on a hole in one?
Ladbrokes will allow you to bet on a hole in one. The odds are extremely high, but this is because it is such an unlikely event!
