PGA Betting Strategy

Golf Betting Strategy: Breaking down the Tournament Field

pga-golfers

When you first go to bet on a PGA tournament, it can seem like a mind-boggling process. After all, there are anywhere from 132 to 144 players who start out each tournament, which makes picking a winner hard. Many bettors' solution is to simply pick from the top 5 players, which is great in regard to your rate of success.

Of course, your payouts won't be as large when you stick with favorites in PGA betting. So rather than just blindly picking Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, Phil Mickelson or Rory McIlroy to win, it's always nice to look for value picks too. Obviously you can't research every single golfer at each tournament, though, because this would take forever. So let's go over some tips for simplifying PGA tournament fields and finding the best options.

Decide what Type of Course you're dealing with

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The first and foremost thing that you need to do when making a wager is figure out the course. Every course is different from the next, and this will no doubt affect the overall tourney results. Some courses feature wide fairways and thick rough, while others have narrow fairways and more sand bunkers than average.

For example, the Muirfield Golf Club, where the 2013 British Open was played, has few trees, deep pothole bunkers, large seaside grass, and plenty of bushes (all elements of a links course). So good wedge players who hit low-line drives that stay out of the wind usually fare well here.

Choose Players that would do well on the Course

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PGA rankings are based on players' overall results across a broad spectrum of tournaments. However, a player's performance at each individual event is greatly influenced by how they do on the course at hand.

Going back to our links course example, Ernie Els has always been pretty successful on these coastal courses.  Els has the ability to hit controlled, low line-drives, and can manufacture shots on the uneven links surfaces. More importantly, he's won two British Open titles and has done well on other links. So any time you look at a specific tournament, consider players who traditionally fare well on the type of course being used.

Look at Recent Performances

It's not enough to simply feel comfortable on a certain course. Players also have to be in the right state of mind and exude confidence to win a tournament. In order to find golfers who are experiencing success at the right time, look at their past 3-5 tourneys.

Players who rack up a number of strong finishes over this span are probably feeling like they could put any drive on the fairway or sink any putt. And when a golfer gets into this mental zone, they are definitely a threat to win a tournament.

Narrow things down to a Few Legitimate Contenders

We'd all love to pick the 300-to-1 longshot that wins a tournament and makes us tons of money. But the only problems with this are A) longshots don't win very often (hence the name), and B) you'll be waiting quite a while for one of these bets to pay off.

So a much better idea is to narrow your list of players down to those who've got decent odds of winning. Sure, if you spot a 100-to-1 underdog with great value, go for it. But it's definitely nice to keep your picks within the 5-to-1 and 50-to-1 range just so you have a more realistic shot at winning.

By keeping what we've discussed in mind, you'll be able to greatly reduce tournament fields and pick golfers who are capable of winning an event. Just remember to be patient and keep improving so that you can earn long-term profits through PGA betting.