Everything you need to know ahead of placing your first bet on gold – a sport with a wealth of options and the genuine prospect of landing a winner with a huge price!

It is almost always the case that gold tournaments take place over four rounds of golf, making up a total of 72 holes of what is referred to as stroke play (every stroke is counted). The winner is the golfer whose end-of-tournament total is the lowest. If two or more golfers tie the lead then a playoff will decide the winner.

A tournament will typically have a field of 156 players, although the more elite events have smaller fields. In normal circumstances, the field is “cut” after two rounds, with only the top 65 players (and ties) continuing into the final two rounds (these details can change).

The biggest circuit of them all is the PGA Tour which is based in the United States of America (although it plats a few events beyond the borders). The second biggest is the DP World Tour. Recently re-named, it used to be called the European Tour, although even then it had a wide geographic scope.

How to Bet on Golf ?

Pretty much every book now permits betting on gold with the focus on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. Most books also feature the LPGA Tour, the Champions Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour.

Betting on the tournament result is sometimes referred to as “future” or “outright” betting. It is possible to take one of three options when betting this way. They are:

• to win
• to place
• each way

What is a win bet in golf?

This is the most straightforward option. The aim is to predict which player in the field will end the week with the lowest total and lifts the trophy.

Typically the odds available will range from about +500 to as high as +75000.

When Tigers Woods was at his best he started the week a hot favorite, but that is very unusual.

It is also rare that golfers priced +20000 and higher win, but the great attraction of golf is that it does happen and wins at prices ranging from +3300 to +10000 are very common.

What is a place bet in golf?

Because identifying the winner alone is quite a restrictive option you ca also back a player to “place” or to “finish in the places”. This might be to finish in the top five, the top 10, the top 20 and so on

What is an each-way bet in golf?

The third and very popular possibility is to back a player “each way”. This sees the stake split: half on the win and half on the place. Different books offer different rules regarding the place option in each way betting in two regards.

The first is how many places are on offer (usually between five and eight). The second is what fraction of the win price the place element is (usually it is 1/4 or 1/5). Typically the win part of the price will be higher if fewer places are on offer.