If you’re looking at the bets that you can place on a golf tournament, you might well find that the odds on specific outcomes aren’t as long as you’d like them to be. One of the ways to give yourself longer odds is by looking at trickier markets, which is where the likes of straight & dual forecast bets come in. A straight forecast is one that will be well-known to horse racing fans and is a wager on the players that will come first and second in the exact order. A dual forecast is a bet on first and second in either order.
Understanding the Bet
Straight & dual forecast wagers aren’t the easiest to understand, so you’d do well to make sure that you’ve managed to get your head around what it is that you’re betting on before you place the wager. We will start by looking at a straight forecast, which is a bet on which player will come first and which player will come second. This bet requires that the player that you’ve chosen to come first comes first and the player that you’ve chosen to come second comes second, with absolutely no room for manoeuvre. The only slight exception to that is if your player finished tied for second, in which case dead-heat rules apply.
A dual forecast bet immediately offers a little bit more wiggle room, insomuch as it is still a bet on the players that will come first and second at the end of the tournament but it doesn’t require you to identify the order that they finish in. In other words, as long as the two players end up being the top two players come the end of the competition, you will win your bet. If one of the players is tied for second then, just as with the straight forecast wager, dead-heat rules will come into play and your payout will be affected. The most important thing, though, is that the two players finish in the top two, even if tied.
One is a Tougher Bet Than the Other
Let’s be honest, neither of these bets are easy to work out. There are so many variables that go into the outcome of a golf tournament that you’d be extremely hard-pushed to be able to work out the winner, let alone also know which player will come second. Whilst the dual forecast does at least give you a little bit of wiggle room, it isn’t exactly so much easier that most punters will be jumping at the chance to get involved in it. To give you a sense of what we’re talking about, he’s a look at the odds for a few pairings for the RBC Canadian Open in 2024:
| Players | Straight Forecast | Dual Forecast |
|---|---|---|
| Rory McIlroy & Tommy Fleetwood | 75/1 | 40/1 |
| Sahita Theegala & Alex Noren | 450/1 | 250/1 |
| Aaron Rai & Corey Connors | 600/1 | 350/1 |
| Shane Lowry & Sam Burns | 600/1 | 350/1 |
| Maverick McNealy & Tommy Fleetwood | 600/1 | 250/1 |
As you can see, there is a pretty big disparity between the two bet types, which is indicative of how hard is considered by the bookmakers for you to win a straight forecast wager. It is also worth noting that any bet that doesn’t include the favourite for the event automatically sees the odds shoot up, such is the extent to which the bookmakers think that it’s not going to happen.
Do Your Research
Whilst part of the interest of betting on golf is that any number of things can happen during the course of three or four days of play, there is a reason why certain golfers are considered to be more likely to win than others. A big part of that is their form heading into the tournament that you’re betting on, with golf being as much about consistency as it is anything else. With that in mind, having a look to see which players have been playing well in the days and weeks leading up to the competition can be crucial in getting a sense of which players are likely to do well and whether it is therefore worth pairing them together.
There is also the fact that certain golfers tend to do better than others at some golf courses. If you know that your chosen player isn’t a big hitter of the ball, there’s not much point in including them on your straight forecast or dual forecast bet on a long course that favours the big hitters. Similarly, a links course is more likely to challenge those that aim for distance over precision, so that is worth thinking about before you place your forecast wager. The good news is that there is a wealth of information out there allowing you to find out all sorts of things about the golfers ahead of the competition getting underway.