2024 Golf Betting Guide - Free Bets, Betting Offers and Best Bets
Here are the latest free bets, odds and offers on Golf betting.
The Masters 2024
One of the biggest weeks in golf is upon us as it’s time for The Masters!
The world’s best players all head to Augusta National with the green jacket in sight.
Jon Rahm put the jacket on in 2023, will he retain, will a former winner come again, or will we see a new name on the winners board?
Head over to our golf tips page for our full Masters betting preview and predictions from resident golf expert Charles Perrin.
Best Golf Free Bets and Betting Offers
The Majors
Contesting and winning golf tournaments is a lucrative business for the top players in the game, but winning one of the four major competitions is a sure-fire way to be remembered as one of the sport’s greats.
The Masters has been held annually at Augusta National Golf Club, a private golf club in the city of Augusta, Georgia, USA, since the tournament’s inception in 1934. Since 1949, a green jacket has been awarded to the champion, who must return it to the clubhouse one year after his victory, although it remains his personal property and is stored with other champions’ jackets in a specially designated cloakroom.
Jack Nicklaus has the most Masters wins, with six between 1963 and 1986. Tiger Woods won his fifth green jacket in 2019, Arnold Palmer won it four times, and five have won three titles at Augusta: Jimmy Demaret, Sam Snead, Gary Player, Nick Faldo, and Phil Mickelson. Gary Player, from South Africa, was the first non-American player to win the tournament in 1961; the second was Seve Ballesteros of Spain who has won it twice in both 1980 and 1983.
Jordan Spieth equalled Tiger Woods’ 1997 course record of 18-under par when landing his first career major with victory in the 2015 Masters and narrowly missed out on a second green jacket in 2016 when in pole position heading into the famed back nine at Augusta.
Following the shake up to the golf calendar in 2019 the PGA Championship is now the second major championship of the year. The US PGA hope that the move will help the tournament to be held in the same high regard as the other three majors. The PGA Championship has certainly had several high-class winners in recent years and is set to visit some of America’s greatest golf courses in the years to come, starting with Bethpage Black in 2019.
The US Open is the third major of the season and is another tournament that has been dominated by American golfers over the years. Jack Nicklaus and are both multiple champions that 2015 winner Jordan Spieth will hope to emulate in the coming years. It is played at various courses State-side and will take place at the world famous Pebble Beach Golf Links in 2019 before visiting Winged Foot Golf Club in 2020, the South Course at Torrey Pines in 2021 and the Country Club, Boston in 2022.
The Open Championship is the only major to be played outside the US and is now the final to take place in a calendar year. The current champion is Francesco Molinari who won the Claret Jug at Carnoustie by two shots from Justin Rose. In 2019 the Open will return to Northern Ireland and Royal Portrush. The historic links course is one of the jewels in the crown on the island of Ireland and the likes of Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Graeme McDowell will be especially keen to win the Claret Jug there.
Top 5 Major Champions
1. Jack Nicklaus – 18 Majors
2. Tiger Woods – 14 Majors
3. Walter Hagen – 11 Majors
4. Ben Hogan & Gary Player – 9 Majors
5. Tom Watson – 8 Majors
Since the 1920′s each decade has been dominated by USA major champions with only a few other countries accounting for tournament wins, but there are signs that other nations are becoming more competitive. The decline of Tiger Woods combined with Rory McIlroy’s 4 major wins see Northern Ireland just one major behind the states so far in this decade.
England accounted for no major winners in the 2000s (the first decade with no English major winners since 1880s) but Justin Rose’s 2013 US Open victory ensures that there will at least be no blank in this decade. Scotland have not produced a major winner since the 1990s, while Martin Kaymer’s 2010 PGA Championship and 2014 US Open triumphs take Germany on to 2 for this decade so far.
Ryder Cup
Aside from the majors, the Ryder Cup is a golf tournament that tends to bring huge media focus with punters also keen to have their say. Team USA and Team Europe go head to head in a series of fourballs, foursomes and singles matches for a share of 28 points over the three day event.
In 2014 Europe successfully defended their title at the PGA Centenary Course at the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland. The 40th Edition of the event went to Paul McGinley’s European side who beat Tom Watson’s USA players by 16½ points to 11½ to record a hat-trick of successive victories.
Most Ryder Cup Singles Points Won
5 players have achieved 7 singles points in Ryder Cup history, their records are detailed below with holes that were won-lost-halved in brackets.
1. Colin Montgomerie (Eur) (6–0–2)
2. Billy Casper (USA) (6–2–2)
3. Lee Trevino (USA) (6–2–2)
4. Arnold Palmer (USA) (6–3–2)
5. Neil Coles (GB&I) (5–6–4)
Best Golf Betting Offers
Boylesports are one of the best bookies around when it comes to golf betting offers. They regularly attack events on the PGA and European Tours with enhanced place offers. Like Boylesports, Paddy Power also pay out extra places compared to the competition and have an Acca Insurance offer which can be utilised with your golf bets.
Unibet are an excellent choice you like in-play golf betting odds as their 25% Live Profit Boost offer can be used in conjunction with their impressive golf betting odds.
NetBet also have golf punters well covered thanks to their free bet offer for those who correctly predict the first round leader.
Popular Golf Markets to Bet On
There is nothing quite like the thrill that comes with landing the winner of a golf tournament. There’s much more to golf betting than simply trying to predict the winner though.
One of the most popular markets for those who bet on golf is the First Round Leader market. This gives you a chance to lock in a profit from the bookies long before a tournament is over and is also slightly more predictable as the weather and conditions at the course have a bigger impact over one round than four.
As well as betting on players to do well, punters like to make a profit from their golf predictions on players who will struggle. You can do this via the bookies’ To Miss the Cut markets. Other interesting golf betting options include betting on players to finish inside the top five, 10 or 20 on the leaderboard and the shot winning margin.
Popular Golf Bets
- Each Way Betting – The large number of competitors and difficulty in predicting the winner makes each way betting an important option for punters betting on golf
- Extra Places – If you are backing golfers each way make sure to look out for extra place golf betting offers as these can make all the difference if the player you back is on the cusp of the places
- Match Bets – These are bets on which of a group of three or two competitors playing their rounds together will shoot the lowest round. Whilst the odds are shorter match bets are more predictable and can be combined into accumulators
Golf Live Streaming
It is rare to find the majors, PGA or European Tour events streamed live with the bookmakers. The PGA Championship has been available to stream in recent years but it doesn’t look as though that will be the case in the future.
Thankfully, PGA Tour Live provide the first part of their live streams for free on Twitter whilst the official Masters website has every shot from every player available to view just minutes after being hit.
