Golf betting odds are different than lines for other American sports. They are presented more like futures and are usually listed in money line form. Remember that the bets are typically for an entire tournament, not individual rounds. Let’s take a look at what the odds might look like, then we’ll explain what it means.
Sample Odds
The Field (any other golfer) -150
Tiger Woods -115
Phil Mickelson +150
Rory McIlroy +200
Luke Donald +300
Adam Scott +350
Dustin Johnson +500
Justin Rose +700
Sergio Garcia +1200
Usually golf tournaments will have a lot more players listed than what I have above. These sample odds should still give you a pretty good idea of what to expect.
Almost every tournament will have odds listed for the “The Field.” This means you are taking every golfer not listed in the odds and if one of them wins, your bet wins. Otherwise you would select a single player at the given odds to win the tournament.
Looking at the sample odds, Tiger Woods is the favorite at -115. This means you would need to wager $115 for every $100 you wanted to win. If Tiger were to go on and win the tournament, you would have a winning bet.
Searching further down the odds, we see that Adam Scott is listed at +350. With these odds you are getting $350 for every $100 you wager. So while the odds of Scott winning are lower than Tiger’s, you would get a better payout if Scott won.
The great thing about golf betting odds are that you only need to hit one or two decent underdogs. Do that, and you pretty much make enough money to keep betting on every tournament. If you end up hitting more or being lucky enough to hit someone around +500 or more you could wind up with a huge profit.
Golf wagers are definitely risky, but the payout may be worth it. That’s especially true if you think you have an idea how players will perform at certain events.
Majors: