Golf betting works differently to most sports Australians are used to punting on.
Fields of 120 to 156 players mean even the favourite rarely sits shorter than $5.00, and the range of available markets goes well beyond picking a winner.
From each way bets and top finish markets through to head-to-head matchups and first round leader punts, golf gives punters plenty of ways to get involved.
This guide covers everything Australian punters need to know: how the markets work, which tournaments matter, and the stats and strategies worth understanding before placing a golf bet.
Golf Betting Basics: How It Works
A standard PGA Tour event runs Thursday to Sunday, with players completing four rounds of 18 holes (72 holes total).
After 36 holes, a cut removes roughly half the field, and only those who make the weekend play on for prize money and final positions.
In Australia, odds are displayed in decimal format, which means that if a golfer is listed at $15.00 to win the tournament, a $10 bet returns $150 (including your stake) if they take it out.
I am sure it sounds simple enough - although what complicates things is the fact that the size of the fields changes the maths compared to sports like rugby or footy.
Even a genuine contender might sit at $11.00 or $15.00, and longshots regularly blow out past $101.00.
Golf Betting Markets Explained
Golf offers more betting variety than most punters realise. Here’s a breakdown of the main markets you’ll find on Sportsbet.
Outright Winner
Like in all sports, this is the simplest bet to place also in golf since all you do is to pick the player you think will win the tournament.
Keep in mind that if there’s a tie after 72 holes - it’s rare, but it happens-, a playoff determines the winner, so there’s no dead heat risk on this market.
Even the tournament favourite typically pays $5.00 or longer, which makes outright betting high-risk by nature. You’re picking one player from a field of 120 plus.
Each Way Betting
Each way is arguably the most popular golf bet, and for good reason.
This option splits your stake into two equal parts: one on the player to win outright, and one on the player to finish inside a set number of places (typically top five or top eight, depending on the tournament and bookie).
The place portion usually pays at a fraction of the outright odds, commonly one quarter (1/4).
In short, that means if you back a golfer each way at $51.00 and they finish fourth, you lose the winning half but collect on the place half at roughly $13.75 for every dollar staked on that portion.
Of course - if they actually win, both halves pay out.
Top 5, Top 10, and Top 20 Finish
These markets let you back a golfer to finish inside a specified position range without the outright win needing to land.
Top 20 bets are the most forgiving, offering shorter odds but a much higher strike rate. Top five markets sit closer to each way territory but are priced as standalone bets.
Head-to-Head Matchups
Forget the rest of the field. Head-to-head matchups pit two golfers against each other, and you pick which one finishes with the lower score. These can run for the full tournament or just a single round.
Tournament matchups add an interesting wrinkle: if one player misses the cut and the other makes it, the player who survives the weekend wins the bet regardless of their final position.
Round matchups are settled after 18 holes, which makes them popular with punters who follow strokes gained data closely. More on that shortly.
First Round Leader
This market pays out on whoever leads the tournament after Thursday’s opening round. Because it only covers 18 holes, the variance is enormous and the odds reflect that.
Even a top-five favourite for the tournament might sit at $21.00 or longer to lead after round one.
Morning tee times can matter here.
Players who go out early often get calmer conditions, fresher greens and no scoreboard pressure. It’s a small edge, but sharp punters pay attention to the draw.
Make or Miss the Cut
A straightforward proposition: will a specific golfer survive the 36-hole cut and play the weekend?
This market is useful for backing consistent performers who rarely miss cuts but might not threaten the outright win.
It also works in the other direction.
If a big name is coming in cold with limited course history, the “miss the cut” side can offer value.
Prop Bets
Hole-in-one bets are the most common prop in golf.
Professional players make an ace roughly once every 2,500 par-3 attempts, but with 150 players hitting four par-3s per round across four days, tournament-wide hole-in-one bets land more often than you’d think.
You’ll also find over/under markets on individual round scores, particularly during major championships.
The Golf Calendar: What to Bet On
The four majors are the biggest events in golf and attract the deepest betting markets. In 2026, the schedule runs:
- The Masters: April 9–12, Augusta National Golf Club, Georgia
- PGA Championship: May 14–17, Aronimink Golf Club, Pennsylvania
- US Open: June 18–21, Shinnecock Hills, New York
- The Open Championship: July 12–19, Royal Birkdale, England
The Masters stands out because it returns to Augusta National every year, and that consistency makes course form data quite reliable and gives punters a potential analytical edge.
Players like Scottie Scheffler, who’s won there twice, tend to dominate the Augusta conversation for good reason.
PGA Tour Weekly Events
The 2026 PGA Tour features 35 regular season events plus three FedExCup Playoff tournaments.
These run from January through to August, with Signature Events (limited-field tournaments featuring the top 50 players) carrying the biggest purses.
That means golf betting markets are active almost year-round.
DP World Tour
Formerly the European Tour, the DP World Tour runs a global schedule that often overlaps with the PGA Tour.
Several events are co-sanctioned, meaning they count on both tours.
For Australian punters, the DP World Tour can offer softer fields and less attention from the betting market, which sometimes leads to wider odds.
LIV Golf
LIV Golf expanded to a 72-hole, four-round format in 2026, bringing it in line with traditional tour events.
The league features 13 teams of four players plus five wild-card players, with both individual and team competition running simultaneously.
Cameron Smith captains the Australian-backed Ripper GC alongside Lucas Herbert, Marc Leishman and Elvis Smylie.
The smaller fields (57 players) make outright markets tighter, and the team element adds a betting layer that doesn’t exist anywhere else in professional golf.
Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup
The Presidents and the Ryder Cup are team match-play events run on alternating years and require a completely different betting approach.
Instead of stroke play over 72 holes, players compete in head-to-head and pairs matches across multiple formats.
Individual match betting, overall winner and session betting are the main markets.
The Presidents Cup pits the USA against an International team that frequently includes several Australians.
Australian Events
The Australian Open and Australian PGA Championship headline the domestic schedule, typically running in late November and December.
These events draw a mix of local stars and international players, and the local knowledge factor creates interesting betting angles.
Both are broadcast on Nine/9Now and Fox Sports/Kayo.
How to Use Stats and Strategy to Bet on Golf
Picking a golfer because you like their name or they won a tournament three months ago is one of the fastest ways to drain one’s bankroll.
Although data cannot guarantee anyone to pick a winner, punters who consistently find value in golf markets use data, and the good news is that most of it is freely available.
Course Fit vs World Ranking
Every golf course has a different profile, and while some reward length off the tee, others demand precision with mid-irons..
A player’s world ranking tells you they’re good overall, but it won’t tell you whether their game suits a particular course.
Augusta National is the clearest example. It demands a right-to-left ball flight, elite distance, strong approach play from 125 to 200 yards, and the ability to lag putt on lightning-fast greens.
A player who ticks those boxes and has course experience is a far better betting proposition than a higher-ranked player whose skill set doesn’t match the layout.
That’s why it’s always advisable to look at the course before betting on any tournament.
When you do that, try to understand if it is a long, open track that favours bombers, a tight, tree-lined layout that rewards accuracy, or a links course where wind management may turn out to become a key skill.
Always try to match the player to the course, not the other way around.
Strokes Gained: The Stat Every Golf Punter Needs to Know
Many consider strokes gained to be the single most useful statistical framework available because it measures how a player performs relative to the field average in four key areas:
- Off the tee
- Approach
- Around the green
- Putting
If the average PGA Tour player takes 2.8 strokes to hole out from 150 yards and a specific player averages 2.4 strokes from the same distance, that player is “gaining” 0.4 strokes per attempt on approach.
Add up those gains across all four categories and you get a picture of where a player’s game is genuinely strong versus where they’re leaking shots.
Strokes gained approach (iron play from fairway to green) is the most predictive long-term performance metric in golf.
Players who consistently gain strokes on approach create more birdie chances and tend to perform well across different course setups.
Putting, by contrast, is the most volatile category. A golfer who’s been holing everything for two weeks will almost certainly regress.
This is worth understanding when reading the market.
A strong ball-striker coming off a couple of missed cuts due to cold putting might be priced longer than their underlying form suggests.
Meanwhile, a player riding a hot putter into a major might be shorter than their skill set warrants.
The data is available for free on pgatour.com and datagolf.com.
Recent Form vs. Long-Term Ability
Golf betting markets tend to overreact to recent results,and that’s precisely why a player who won two weeks ago will be priced much shorter than their underlying skill level might warrant.
On the flipside, someone who missed a couple of cuts can drift to generous odds despite being fundamentally the same golfer they were a month earlier.
Look at a window of 12 to 24 tournaments when evaluating a player, not just the last two or three.
Short-term results in golf are heavily influenced by putting variance, which evens out over time.
The player’s ball-striking trend line is far more stable and far more useful for predicting future performance.
Weather and Draw Bias
It’s no mystery that golf tournaments can be heavily affected by weather, particularly wind.
On courses exposed to coastal or desert conditions, a 15 km/h difference in wind speed between the morning and afternoon waves can add a full stroke or more to scoring averages.
To mitigate the risk of weather playing an unexpected role in a tournament, just spend a few minutes checking the extended forecast before betting.
Common Golf Betting Mistakes
While data alone will never guarantee you to win your bet on golf, knowing about some common mistakes can help you skip some of the most painful steps most beginners seem to go through, unavoidably.
Let’s look at the most common ones, together.
Backing names over form. Golf’s star power can blind punters to the reality that even the best players in the world miss cuts and finish outside the top 30 regularly.
A big name at short odds is often of poor value compared to a mid-ranked player whose game fits the course perfectly.
Over-betting outright winners.
The strike rate on outright winner bets in golf is brutal. With fields of 120 plus players, even a well-researched pick might win once in every 15 to 20 attempts.
In this case, it’s probably best to diversify across each way, top finish and head-to-head markets to smooth out the variance.
Ignoring course history.
Some golfers perform significantly better at certain courses year after year because of the course’s nature and…because they simply do..
As we;ve said earlier, Course fit is real, and it’s worth factoring into your analysis.
Chasing hot putting.
A player who gained four strokes putting last week is far more likely to regress than repeat.
Putting is the most volatile stat in golf. Don’t let a couple of weeks of hot putting convince you someone has reinvented their game.
How to Watch Golf in Australia
PGA Tour, DP World Tour and all four majors are broadcast on Fox Sports 503, available through Foxtel and Kayo Sports.
Kayo starts at $30 per month and includes live coverage, replays and condensed highlights through Kayo Minis.
That’s your one-stop shop for the vast majority of professional golf.
LIV Golf is free-to-air in Australia on Channel Seven, 7mate and 7plus Sport.
That includes all 2026 events, from the season opener in Riyadh through to LIV Golf Adelaide at The Grange Golf Club.
Domestic events, including the Australian Open and Australian PGA Championship, are broadcast on Nine/9Now alongside Fox Sports and Kayo.
One scheduling note for PGA Tour events held in North America: Australian coverage typically runs overnight from around 1am to 8am AEST on Friday through Monday.
Kayo’s replay and Minis features are a lifesaver if you’d rather not set a 3am alarm.
FAQ
What is each way betting in golf?
Each way splits your stake into two bets: one on the player to win outright, and one on them to finish inside a set number of places (usually top five or top eight). The place portion pays at a fraction of the win odds, typically one quarter.
How do dead heat rules work?
If multiple players tie for a position that affects your bet (for example, three players tied for 10th in a top 10 market), your payout is divided by the number of tied players. You still win, but the return is reduced.
What are the best stats to look at for golf betting?
Strokes gained data, particularly strokes gained approach, is the most predictive metric. Course history, recent ball-striking trends, and weather forecasts are also valuable. You can find free strokes gained data on pgatour.com and datagolf.com.
How many professional golf tournaments are there per year?
The PGA Tour alone runs 38 events in 2026 (35 regular season plus three FedExCup Playoffs). Add in the DP World Tour, LIV Golf, LPGA Tour and domestic tours, and there’s professional golf to bet on nearly every week of the year.