It is all well and good knowing what the various golf terms mean, but knowing how they apply to bets is an entirely different matter. There are also some terms that are used in golf betting that aren’t used in other forms of wagering, so it is helpful to have a sense of what it is that you are betting on before placing your stake. Here is a look at some of the more common terms:
Winner
In golf tournaments, there is always an outright winner. Sometimes the chosen golfer wins the tournament because they took fewer shots to complete the round than the other golfers, whilst sometimes they are tied with other golfers at the end of the final round and so enter a play-off. Regardless of how they won, your bet will be settled as a winner if the golfer that you bet on lifted the trophy at the end of the tournament. If you place an outright Win bet then you will need your chosen golfer to be the one that lifts the trophy at the end in order to win. You might, however, chose to place an each-way wager.
In golf, each-way bets work in much the same way as they do in other sports, apart from the fact that it is much more likely that the player you’ve bet on will be tied for a place. When this happens, you will need to know how many places your chosen bookmaker is paying and what their rules are. Each bookmaker will approach it differently, but let’s imagine that they’re paying places 1-5 for each-way bets and they’re paying 1/4 odds. If you backed a golfer for £10 each-way at odds of 10/1 and they finished fourth on their own, say, you will be paid £10 x 2.5, which is 1/4 of the 10/1 odds, with the win part of the bet having been lost.
Where things get quite complicated is if the player you bet on is tied for fourth with other golfers. At this point, Dead Heat rules apply and your stake will be divided by however many players the golfer is tied with and how many places those players occupy according to the each way terms. Let’s imagine that there are four players tied for fourth and there are two places available for those four players, fourth and fifth. This means that your £10 is divided by two to give £5. Now your £5 is multiplied by the 2.5/1 odds you get for the each-way bet, with the £10 placed on the Win having been a loser. In other words, you get £5 plus £12.50 back for a total return on your bet of £17.50. Obviously that means you’ve lost £2.50 from your original £20 wager, but at least you’re getting something.
Top 5/10/20 Betting
If the Each-Way market is a little too risky or complicated for you, you might prefer to bet on the Top 5/10/20 market. This is a bookmaker saying that they will pay out if your player finishes in the top 5 players of the tournament, the top 10 players or the top 20 players, depending on which you bet on. Do be aware, though, that dead heat rules will still apply if there are several players that finish in, say, 20th.
Round Leader
In the vast majority of golf tournaments, there are four rounds of golf played. Some bookmakers will allow you to bet on who will lead at the end of each round. If the player that you bet on is indeed leading at the end of the round in question then you will win your bet. If they’re not leading then you’ll lose your bet and if they’re tied for the lead then you’ll win it, albeit with dead heat rules applying.
2/3 Ball Betting
One of the sport’s most popular betting markets, 2 or 3 ball betting allows you to put players against one another without needing to bet on the outright market of the entire tournament. In essence, you’re betting on which player will do the best out of the two or three players that make up a specific group. There is also what is known as mythical 3-ball betting, which is where the bookmaker creates the 3-ball and they aren’t actually playing with each other. The bet still works in the same way, though.
Top Country Player
This is a fun bet to place if you know certain players are from the same country. You’re betting on which will be the highest finishing American, say. If your chosen player finishes higher up on the leader board than other people from the same country as him then you’ll win your bet.
Make the Cut
In the world of golf, there is normally a ‘cut’ at the halfway stage. In other words, after 36 holes, roughly half of the golfers taking part in the tournament will be removed from it, which means they’re said to have ‘missed the cut’. If you’ve bet on a player to make the cut then you win your bet if they’re still in the tournament after the cut takes place and you lose it if they’re not. It is that binary.
Winning Margin
This is a bet on how big the margin will be between the winning player and the player or players who come second. It is a fairly straightforward market, with your bet winning if the margin between them in shots is correct, with playoffs included as an option. There is normally an upper limit at around 5 shots, with any winning margin above that included. Imagine you’ve bet on a winning margin of 5+ and the winner shoots 260, your bet will win if the player or players in second shot 265 or more.
Straight & Dual Forecast
Golf is no different to the likes of horse racing, with forecast bets being possible if you fancy. A straight forecast is a bet on which player will finish first and which player will finish second in that exact order. As you might imagine, the dual forecast is a bet on the players finish first and second in any order. With both bets, dead heat rules will apply if the player in second is tied for position.
Betting Without
In some tournaments, there is a favourite who is considered to be so likely to win that bookmakers will offer a market on the field without that player included. The odds that you’ll get on a player will be lower than the odds on them winning if you bet on the field including the much favoured player, but obviously your chance of winning will be reduced.
Group Betting
In group betting, you’re placing a wager on a golfer to have the best score out of a specific group of players. Sometimes this will be the group that they’re playing with, whilst sometimes it will be a group of players that the bookmaker has chosen themselves. If your player has the best score then you win your bet, whilst if they don’t then you won’t. As with the vast majority of other bets when it comes to golf, dead heat rules will apply.
Head-to-Head / Matchup Betting
Different sites will call this bet type different things, but it is pitting players against one another. It is a bet about whether one player will do better than another one. Just as bookies call it different things from one another, so too is it worth remembering that they will also all offer it over a different length of time. You might be able to bet head-to-head over 18 holes with one bookmaker, 36 holes with another and 72 with a third. The more holes, the tougher it will be to predict.
Hole-in-One
This is a simple enough bet to understand: will there be a hole-in-one recorded in the competition. Most bookmakers only allow this bet to stand if at least 36 holes are played of a tournament.
Albatross
This is basically the same as the hole-in-one bet, with the difference being you’re betting on an albatross being recorded in the designated rounds of a competition. Again, a minimum of 36 holes normally need to be played for this bet to stand.