Golf Betting Tips For Major Tournaments
The U.S. Open is about to get started. That means that for a lot of people this is one of the four weekends every year that they actually pay attention and bet golf. If you are a sports bettor (and you probably wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t) then there’s a chance that this is also one of four weekends that you are tempted to bet on golf as well. Betting on golf – especially the grand slams – doesn’t have to be difficult, and it doesn’t require you to think differently than a lot of other betting, but there are adjustments you need to make to succeed. Here are six things to keep in mind as you get ready to fatten your wallet during the U.S. Open:
Don’t get suckered in by big names – People who don’t follow golf closely know the big names, and always assume that they are going to win. If you bet on Tiger and Phil Mickelson and the guys like that to win the grand slams then you are going to be right reasonably often, but the odds on those guys are so low that you aren’t going to show much of a problem. Backing the big names is particularly dangerous at the U.S. Open because the winner recently has often been far from household names. Tiger won it in 2008, but the other four winners in the last five years – Lucas Glover, Angel Cabrera, Geoff Ogilvy, and Michael Campbell – were far from the public consciousness when the tournament started. Each of those four guys paid off at very attractive prices in the future bets as well. If ever there was a time to take a shot on a few obscure names the U.S. Open is it.
Play more than one option – The beauty of betting on golf is that the payoffs for all but the most elite players is high enough that you can afford to bet several players and still enjoy a big payoff if you are correct. You might be a hero if you just pick one name and you are correct, but you’ll look like an idiot if you do that and are wrong. Covering as many bases as you can only makes sense here – especially because your handicapping isn’t going to be as precise as it could be because you don’t follow the sport closely.
Look at matchups – Head-to-head matchups are a great way to bet on the tournament because they are easier to get a handle on than the whole field. As you can guess by the name what you are doing here is betting on which one of two listed golfers is going to finish higher in the standings. Some matchups are obviously more attractive than others, but by concentrating on a few and doing your homework you stand a good chance of success.
Consider place betting – On the grand slams many of the online sportsbooks allow the option of place betting. This means that you can bet on a guy and you’ll win if he finishes in the top five in the tournament. The payoffs aren’t as high as they are if you bet to win, but it’s also easier to win, and that extra margin of error can be very handy.
Look at props, but be careful – On the grand slams there are a wide range of props available. Some of them are sucker bets designed to suck the money out of the wallets of square bettors. A good example of that is betting on whether a particular golfer is going to get a hole in one. The payoff of 100/1 can seem very attractive, but the chances of a guy shooting a hole in one in a given tournament is far lower than that. There are some of the props, though, that offer very fair value if you can spot them. Of particular interest are the prop bets that can ask you how a particular golfer are going to perform during a round – the number of birdies or bogeys they will have, for example. The advantage with those is it is easy to look at how the golfers have been performing recently and how they have performed in past grand slams so you can form an educated opinion of what is likely. The public will often be strongly on one side of the props involving the big names, so if your research can indicate that the unpopular side makes sense then you can find real value.
Wait until later rounds – There is real pressure for bettors to make their bets on the grand slam tournaments before the tournament starts. This doesn’t always make sense. There are plenty of options presented to bet on the second, third and fourth rounds after the previous round is in the books. The big advantage you have there is that you have already been able to watch the players in question play. Golf is one of those sports where information is more valuable the more recent it is.
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