When it comes to the various golf tournaments that take place around the world, the most important thing is which golfer emerges as the winner. Whether you’re a classical golf fan that favours the PGA Tour or you’re happy enough to have a look at what LIV Golf are up to, you will want to know who it is that emerges as the winner at the end of play. In terms of betting on such markets, you obviously know exactly what you need to happen but thinking about the variables that go into that outcome coming true is something else entirely. Add to that the fact that you could place an Each-Way bet and it’s always worth knowing how it all works.
What You’re Betting On
If you are placing a straight win bet on a player to win one of the golf tournaments played throughout the year then you are, in simple terms, placing a wager that requires them to emerge successful at the end of the competition’s play. The interesting thing about golf as a sport is that the vast majority of bookmakers will include any play-off that happens in order to decide the winner as standard. That obviously differs from football, as an example, which says that your bet is only on the 90 minutes of play and if the game ends up going to extra-time or penalties then your bet on the 1X2 market will be a loser unless the actual match result was correct.
In other words, if you placed a bet on Rory McIlroy to win the Open Championships and McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas all finish their fourth rounds with a score of -7 overall, it will go to a play-off in order to decide the eventual winner. The three players will then play an extra hole or holes, depending on the competition, to figure out which of them will be declared the outright winner of the competition. If it is McIlroy that wins then your bet will be a winner, whilst if it’s one of the other two then you’ll have lost your bet. What you’re placing your wager on could just as well be entitled the ‘Who Lifts the Trophy?’ bet.
Thinking About Each-Way Wagers

If you aren’t 100% certain that a given golfer is definitely going to emerge on top at the end of a tournament then you might choose to place an each-way wager on them. As with each-way bets in other sports, this is effectively two bets: one on the player to win and one on the player to place. Your stake is therefore doubled, so a £10 Each-Way bet costs £20, for example. How much you’ll be paid will depend on four main factors: how big your stake is, how good the odds are, how many places a bookmaker pays out on and how many players they’re tied with. Bookies will each have their own rules, but let’s imagine that your chosen one is paid out at 1/4 odds to five places.
The golfer that you’ve bet on had odds of 20/1, with your stake being £10 for a total bet of £20. If they won then you’ll get £210 for the Win part of the bet, which is 20/1 x £10 plus your original stake back. You will also get £60 back for the Place part of the bet. That is £50 the 1/4 odds, making it 5/1 and therefore 5/1 x £10, plus your original stake. That will give you a total payout of £270 if the player that you placed an each-way bet on wins. If they finished fifth on their own, you will lose the win bet and the £10 associated with it, but you’ll win the place part, which is 1/4 odds x £10 plus that half of your total original stake.
One of the big problems with golf from a betting point of view is that a lot of the players can finish on the same score at the end of the tournament. As a result, bookmakers will employ dead-heat rules to decide how much bets will be paid out at. This will see your original stake divided by the number of people who are tied for each position covered. Imagine that there are four golfers tied for fifth, with one of them being the one you placed your each-way bet on. This means that your original £10 stake for the place part is divided by four, making it £2.50. That is then multiplied by the 1/4 odds of 20/1 down to 5/1 for a payout of £12.50 plus the £2.50 stake.
If you had four players tying for fourth, the next position on the leaderboard would show eighth. This means that four players are sharing two places for betting purposes, assuming that five places are available. In this case your stake would only be divided by two, as each place position, fourth and fifth, has two players. In this example your return would be 5/1 multiplied by your £5 stake for a return of £30, £25 plus £5 stake. In this example, if the bookmaker paid seven places, the four players would be sharing four places so your stake would not be altered and would be paid at the full £10.