Gaming news Feb 28, 2025

Betting on Golf, From Major Tournament Outcomes to other Golf Betting Options

Golf betting takes several forms, from outright winners to hole-in-ones. We explore different types of golf bets here.

Golf player taking their swing for the next hole

Online sports betting is now legal in approximately 30 states and the District of Columbia. One of the sports that has benefitted from this swell of new bettors is golf. Golf provides a wide variety of betting options, and unlike other popular North American sports like basketball, baseball, and football, is played year-round and across the world. Betting on golf online, as with other popular sports, games, and tournaments, is permitted only in jurisdictions where online sports betting is legal.

This article provides a general overview of betting on golf. We’ll explore common terminology, and some of the diverse types of bets that may be available for betting on golf.

The most popular types of golf bets

1. Tournament winner

Golf’s most basic wager is often its most popular: placing a bet on who will win the tournament after four days of play.

A golf player swinging his golf club for the next point

Although a straightforward bet to place, winning odds significantly vary between players. While serial major and PGA Tour event champions like Scottie Scheffler are never going to have 500/1 odds of winning, it’s far from uncommon to see players with 50/1 odds in the winner’s circle on Sunday.

Notable examples include 2003 PGA Championship winner Shaun Micheel, who had never won in his previous 163 starts on tour and still hasn’t won since, and 2005 U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell, who had only six European Tour wins to his name when he came from four shots behind to win the trophy on the final day.

In the Major golf tournaments, mentality and a favorable run on the course may have a greater bearing on who wins than the ability to play the game. This is because, unlike in other sports, golf has quite a small skill gap between the world’s best player and the rest of the top 100. As a result, a surprise winner or top ten finisher may emerge if their game clicks into place at the right time on a course that suits how they play.

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2. Split betting

Also known as “each-way” betting, this involves splitting a bet across multiple outcomes, such as half placed on a golfer to win the tournament and the other on them to finish in the top 10. Opting for this type of bet will bring lower returns than placing the full amount on an outright win, but it means the bettor may still have some returns from a range of finishes.

Not every sportsbook offers this type of bet. It is, however, possible to recreate by placing two separate bets.

3. Final place on the leaderboard

These bets underpin each-way betting. They involve placing money on a golfer to finish in the top five, 10 or 20. Golfers win money for finishing outside the top 20 (as much as $137,800 for a 25th-place finish in The Masters), but top 20 is almost always the stopping point when it comes to placing bets.

Like with each-way betting, these bets have shorter odds than placing money on the outright winner. It’s also important to understand a chosen sportsbook’s “dead-heat” rules. A dead-heat happens when several players tie for the same position, expanding the number who qualify as top five, 10 or 20 finishers. Odds or a particular bet are then chopped by a proportional rate.

4. Live betting on golf

Mobile betting apps have expanded live betting options across most major sports, with golf being no exception. Not only do odds shift as players make their way through their round, but bettors can place money on scores for specific holes. This works both ways: players on a hot streak could be backed to make a run of birdies, while those struggling are more likely to attract bets on consecutive bogeys or worse.

5. Betting on players going head-to-head

These are either created by legal sportsbooks or based on the actual matchups in rounds across the tournament. If opting for the former, the book will seek to keep the pairing as even as possible.

Golf player setting their golf ball on a tee

Golf also lends itself to prop betting

Prop bets are side wagers that usually have nothing to do with the outcome of the tournament. As a sport, golf is primed to offer many of these, and they’re especially popular during the four Majors. Some typical golf prop bets include:

Top nationality: Betting on the best-placed finisher from a country, usually applied to nations that only have a few representatives at the tournament.
Albatross: Golf’s most elusive score – three strokes under par on a hole. Impossible on a par three, so it can either be the extremely unlikely hole-in-one on a par four or the more common although still very rare, two on a par five. There’s not been an albatross in a men’s major since 2012 and 2014 in a women’s major.
Hole-in-one: One of golf’s most exciting and celebrated aspects. A bettor can either bet on there being a hole-in-one at any point in the tournament or on a specific player to make one.

Betting on golf: Diverse types of bets that offer multiple options and year-round opportunities to place wagers

Golf offers multiple betting options that can take anywhere from a single hole to several days to play out. This means it’s poised to embrace the expansion of legalized sports betting across the US, as well as the rapid rise of live betting fueled by mobile betting apps.

Skrill is a quick and secure betting account deposit option that’s accepted at the world’s leading licensed sportsbooks.

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