Golf

Between the presence of social media and sports betting, the game of golf has grown, and the professional tours have started to garner more followers. With big-name golfers like Tiger Woods trying to salvage their careers and young phenoms like Scottie Scheffler trying to become one of the greats, the excitement each week is at an all-time high, especially now with the ability to bet along with every shot.

Comparing online sportsbooks and their golf betting markets

Betting on golf can provide large payouts, but it is important not to leave money on the table. Depending on the state a bettor resides in, there are typically quite a few sportsbooks available to them. We always recommend opening as many betting accounts as possible so customers can line shop for the best prices.

In general, we’ve found that DraftKings is typically a good place to start for golf bets. They tend to offer interesting betting markets, whether pre-tournament or live. DraftKings is also the best place to go when looking to bet on golf events that are not PGA Tour events. Now, just because DK is a good place to start does not mean every golf bet should be placed through them, as it is certainly a possibility that an app like FanDuel has better prices for a wider range of golfers and their finishing position.

One thing to always keep in mind with golf betting is dead heat rules, which can lower the payout of a winning bet. However, shops like BetMGM pay their finishing markets out without dead heat rules if there is a tie, which can make up for the fact that their prices may not be as strong as FanDuel.

Golf and daily fantasy sports

Fantasy golf has actually been around longer than legalized mobile sports betting, and as time has gone on, the quality of the DFS contests for the sport has only gotten better. When fantasy golf first started, fans would be able to draft a team for the PGA Tour season just like they would for the NFL season, but now fans can not only draft a team for the season but can also create a lineup for either a full tournament or just a given day of a tournament.

DFS apps like Underdog and DraftKings offer countless contests for each PGA and most LIV events. Fans can filter these contests to meet their specific needs, choosing how many other contestants they want to compete against, how much money they want to put into the contest, and how long the contest runs, whether that be a day or a full tournament.

Outside of drafting a lineup, the biggest DFS contests for golf are Pick’em entries. These contests allow fans to select over or under for different player stats, including how many eagles they have, their final score, how many putts they sink, and more. The more selections a customer puts into an entry, the higher their payout will be. Additionally, some products offer “Versus” style Pick' ems, which allow fans to choose which golfer will have more or less of a given stat.

What kind of golf bets can you place?

Just like there are countless ways for a golfer to approach a shot, there are also countless ways for a golf fan to approach betting on a tournament. Before getting into the nitty gritty of golf betting markets, it is important to start with the most popular markets, which are “finishing place” bets. These markets allow a bettor to wager on which place a golfer will finish for a tournament, including 1st, T5, T10, T20, and T40, depending on the size of the event.

Now, with these bets, it is important to keep dead heat rules in mind. Since multiple bettors can finish with the same score, therefore making eight golfers finish in the T5, sportsbooks will then apply dead heat rules, which means they will adjust the payout of the bet depending on the number of players involved in the tie. That said, it is always important to focus on the rules of each market, as they may vary by sportsbook.

With dead heat rules explained, we can return to other golf betting markets, which include other “finishing place” bets. Outside of winners or placements for the whole tournament, bettors can wager on the first-round leader or which golfer out of a certain group will finish higher in the event, for example, the highest-placing U.S. player or Englishman. Bettors can also wager on whether or not a golfer will make the cut for the event.

Matchups also make up a large part of golf betting, as fans have the option to wager on which player will shoot better than the other on a given day. Fans can also bet on the best finisher out of a group of six golfers, which is better known as a “Six Shooter.” Many sportsbooks will also offer special markets for tournaments, and these could be something along the lines of “Scottie Scheffler to play bogey-free in round one."

Men's major golf championships

If you’re looking for a golf fan's ears to perk up, just mention the phrase “Major championship.” These four tournaments are what every golfer, golf fan, and golf bettor lives for, as they bring out the best players in the world and are typically filled with drama and heartbreak.

These events include The Masters, U.S. Open, PGA Championship, and Open Championship. Each event has its own unique history, starting with the Masters, which is played every year at Augusta National in Augusta, Georgia. Each Masters winner receives an iconic green jacket, and Jack Nicklaus holds the record for wins at this event with six.

The Masters is the only major held at the same course each year. Other events, like the Open Championship (British Open), are held at a rotation of courses, while the PGA Championship is typically played at different parkland clubs. For the U.S. Open, the PGA Tour generally picks one of the toughest courses imaginable for the golfers to compete on. For each of these events, bettors will typically be able to find the same betting markets, while some sportsbooks may additionally offer special markets depending on the event.

READ MORE:

• The Masters Odds

• The Open Odds

• US Open Odds

• PGA Championship Odds

Women’s major golf championships

Up until 2012, women’s professional golf also featured four major championships. In 2013, the LPGA decided to introduce The Evian Championship, which became the fifth major event on the tour. Outside of The Evian Championship, the other majors include the U.S. Women’s Open, Chevron Championship, Women’s PGA Championship, and The Women’s Open.

The Evian Championship and Chevron Championship are held at the same course each season, while the other three events are played at a rotation of courses. Each women’s golf season will start with The Chevron Championship, and the final master is always the Women’s Open, which is held in Britain in late August.

Ryder Cup

Outside of the Major Championships, the Ryder Cup typically draws the most buzz among golf fanatics as it pits the United States and Europe against each other. The event takes place every two years, and each team consists of 12 players. Each team has a captain, and that player will pick a certain number of players who didn’t automatically qualify to join the team while also determining the playing order in each group of matches.

Each country operates its team a bit differently when it comes to how many players are selected by the captain and what players need to do to qualify. At the actual event, the first two days of the tournament consist of foursomes or fourballs, and the final day is singles play. Winning a match gives each team a point, and a tie results in a half-point, so the team with more points wins the event. The next Ryder Cup will be played in 2025 at Bethpage Black Course.

Solheim Cup

The Solheim Cup is the women’s version of the Ryder Cup. It is a biennial match-play event between teams from the United States and Europe, both of which consist of 12 players. The European Team consists of players from the Ladies European Tour, while the American team consists of players from the LPGA Tour.

Competitors can either qualify for the event or they can be selected by the team’s captain. Scoring and the format of which the matches are played are the exact same as the Ryder Cup, as the first two days of the tournament consist of foursomes or fourballs and the last day of the 12 tournament is singles play. Most recently, the European Team won the 2024 Solheim Cup, which marks the third consecutive event they’ve won.

PGA Tour

For the longest time, the PGA Tour was the home to all of the best players in the world. While plenty of the premier players on the globe still have a PGA Tour card, many players have decided to join the LIV Tour due to the amount of money they were able to receive. At the end of the day, the PGA Tour still receives the most eyes from TV viewers and the most wagers from golf bettors.

The PGA Tour season starts in early January and ends the final weekend of August with the Tour Championship. During that span, there are 36 official FedEx Cup events, which include all four Major Championships, signature events, THE PLAYERS Championship, and more. Throughout the season, golfers compete to earn FedEx Cup points in addition to the points earned in their respective tournaments. Each tournament has a purse that the winners receive, and the amount varies by event.

At the end of the season, the top 125 players with the most FedEx Cup points advance to the playoffs and Tour Championship. In 2024, the purse for the PGA Championship was $18.5 million. In the history of the Tour, Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus have the most PGA Championships, with five, while Tigers Woods and Sam Snead have the most PGA Tournament wins, with 82.

LIV Golf

In 2021, the LIV Tour took the golf world by storm. CEO Greg Norman began offering PGA Tour golfers enormous amounts of money to leave the PGA Tour and join LIV. This caused a massive divide in the golf world between fans, sponsors, and the pro golfers themselves. Some of the golfers who defected to LIV include Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and most recently Jon Rahm.

The first official LIV tournament took place on June 9, 2022, but now the full LIV season runs from February 2nd to September 22nd. Not only is the LIV season schedule different from the PGA season schedule but the rules and format are also quite different. For starters, there are 54 golfers on the tour, and those golfers are broken into 13 teams of four, along with two Wild Cards. The Wild Card golfers can gain individual points through events, and if they play well, they can work their way onto a team.

There are 14 events in total, and there are no cuts at any of these events. Players compete for both an individual championship and a team championship throughout the season. For the individual championship, the players who finish in the top 24 at events receive points, and the player with the most points at the end of the season wins. The team championship is decided in the final event of the season through match play and stroke play.

DP World Tour

While the DP World Tour may be the least-known tour by casual golf fans, it has actually been around for quite some time. This tour is the PGA European Tour, but is called the DP World Tour due to sponsorships. Despite its lack of notoriety, the DP World Tour has been around since 1972, and plenty of big-name golfers have participated in it, including Jon Rahm, Rory Mcllroy, Sergio Garcia, Vijay Singh, and more.

There are typically 44 events in total per season, and these events are played across 24 countries. Each season ends with the DP World Play-Offs, which are played in Dubai. Much like the PGA Tour, golfers compete all season to earn points by having success in different events, which helps them in the Race to Dubai. At the end of the season, the player with the most points is named the Race to Dubai Champion and receives the Harry Vardon Trophy.

Each DP World Tour season has three different phases, which include Global Swings, the Back 9, and the DP World Tour Play-Offs. Tournaments in each phase are worth a varying range of points that go to the end-of-season total. For example, Global Swing tournaments are worth 3,000 Race to Dubai Points, while tournaments in the DP World Tour Play-Offs offer between 9,000 and 12,000 ranking points.