When you watch golf tournaments, you’ll notice that most of them involve playing four rounds of golf. The first usually takes place on the Thursday, then the second is on the Friday, the third is on the Saturday and the final round is on the Sunday. The obvious exception to this is LIV Golf, with the Saudi Arabia-backed competition only involving three rounds of golf and therefore being less of a test of the players. Regardless, rather than betting on something like the outright winner, you might want to bet on the leader at the end of each round.
Round Leader Betting Explained
Because the big golf tournaments from the likes of the PGA are played over four rounds, some people like to place a bet on who will be the leader at the end of the first, second or third round of golf. This means that it is a bet on the player that has the lowest total score when all players have finished the necessary rounds. On the first day, bets will only be settled when every golfer in the tournament has played 18 holes, whilst on the second day they’ll need to have played 36 holes and on the third day it will be 54 holes. If the player that you’ve bet on leads after everyone has played the necessary rounds then you’ll win your wager.
Variations on the Bet
Some bookmakers will offer variations on the round leader markets. You might, for example, be able to place a bet on the round leader early/late starters. This is often available when competitions split the players up into early starts, which usually involves players in the first-half of the draw, and late starters, which is players in the second-half of the draw. If your chosen player is the one that is the highest in the leaderboard out of all players in their half of the draw then you’ll win your bet. Similarly, some bookies offer 1st/10th tee leaders, which is for players that have started their round on either tee when split starts are required.
The other variation that you might want to look out for is the dual forecast bet, which asks you to pick which players will be first and second after a given number of holes have been played. You will need them to finish in those positions in order for your bet to be a winning one. Obviously this is much harder to predict than just the round leader, which says something because correctly predicting the round leader can be very difficult. With that in mind, correctly predicting both the player that comes first at the end of a round of golf and the player that comes second will be all but impossible, with the benefit being that the odds will be longer.
What to Think About
If you want to, you can place an each-way bet on the round leader market. These bets will usually see a number of places given to them, such as five places, meaning that you’ll lose your Win part of the wager if your chosen player were to finish, say, fourth, but you’d win the place part as reduced odds. As with so many other golf bets, dead-heat rules will apply in instances when there are several players tied for the lead at the end of the chosen round of golf. This is true of both each-way and straight win bets, usually seeing your stake reduced by the number of people tied for the same position that affects your bet.
If you’ve placed a £10 win bet on a player to be round leader, for example, and they finish the round in question tied for the lead with four other players, your bet will be reduced by a fifth. If you imagine that you bet on someone with odds of 10/1, this would mean that your bet is reduced to £2, meaning that you’d be paid out £20 plus the £2 stake for a total of £22. If you placed a £10 each-way bet that paid to five places and they finished fifth tied with four other golfers, you’d see the £10 win part of your part end up as a loser and the £10 place part reduced to £2, whilst the 10/1 odds would also be reduced to 5/2 (a quarter of 10/1) seeing you paid £7 all-in.
The other thing to think about is who is likely to end up as the round leader. This will often depend on which round we’re talking about, given the fact that it is quite rare for a golfer to lead in every round. It isn’t uncommon for a less fancied player to take the lead in the first round because there’s less pressure on them, whereas in the final round they’re more likely to fall apart after the pressure gets to them.