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Get On Course For Successful Golf Betting
AT THE END of this month, golf gambling fans will be sitting back to enjoy
the British Open Golf Championship.
As one of the greatest golf tournament in the world, the Golf Open championship is
also a wonderful betting medium. What better time to bring you some lessons on golf punk games?
Golf offers some terrific betting opportunities, but you have to know where to look for them.
You also Need To Appreciate how the bookmakers tend to make more mistakes with golf than with any
other sport.
If the latter seems like a bold statement, think about the following; over the past few seasons,
Tiger Woods has started to dominate the golfing games, although due to the leg problem which force
him to withdraw from the remaining golf tournament schedule.
Having now won two majors and a host of other tournaments, Woods looks set to follow a path initially
trod by the great Jack Nicklaus.
The American legend won tournament in th 1960's and 1970's and started favourite for almost
everything he entered.
The point is though; even Nicklaus couldn't win every single tournament. Other players used to win as
well but often at odds that were way longer than they should have been.
This was simply because golf punters wanted to know about Nicklaus and Nicklaus alone. Hence,
great value used to exist about some exceptional players.
No Player Is Unbeatable
Three decades on, the same thing is now happening with Tiger Woods. The bookies can't afford to take
chances with the young American because he is so hugely talented but, even given that he took
string of tournaments back to back last autumn, he cannot win everything.
This nature of the game means that no player is unbeatable.
All of this really manifests itself when the major tournaments come along, not least of all with the
British Open.
Because this is such a high-profile event, arguably none are higher, punters who don't normally bet
on golf tend to pile in.
Naturally, they look first at Tiger Woods and so his odds end up far shorter than they should be. To
counteract that, however, the prices on many of the other players are longer than the chances they have
of winning - hence, value abounds.
Potential golf punters should look beyond Tiger Woods has not won, aim at players who are priced
20/1 to 50/1.
Fantastic Games to Play Opportunities
There is far more to successful golf tournaments betting than just looking for value. As
well as conventional odds, punters can also win money on golf through spread betting.
In fact, spread betting offers some fantastic opportunities for anyone who is prepared to
think out their strategy.
Probably above all is the "tournament within a tournament" market.
Here, the spread bookies take a number of the players from a tournament - usually seven to
ten - and say that whoever comes second gets 15 points and third place wins five (in practice, there
will be diferences between what points are allocated depending on the spread firm and the number
of players they put into their groups).
The spread firms will then come up with a quote for each player in the group relating to how many
points they think that player is going to score.
So, if Colin Montgomerie golfer is included in a group of seven players where
the scoring is 25 points to the winner, 15 to the second and five to the third, he might
be quoted at 17-19.
A quote like this would indicate how the spread firm believes Montgomerie is going to finish very close
to the top of the seven players in the group - remember, with this type of bet it doesn't matter where any
of the players finish in the tournament, just in the group.
This kind of thing is excellent news for punters. If you are a follower of golf form you need
only try and sort out which one of the players in a small group is going to perform well.
This is far easier than trawling through some of the 150-plus fields that contest certain
tournaments.
OK, the spreads will reflect the fact it is going to be easier to win but the chances of actually
doing so are greater.
Lesson two is to look out for these "tournament within a tournament" opportunities.
Hedging My Bets
When we say hedging, we're not talking about anything to do with gardening! No, golf offers
some fantastic hedging opportunities.
Quite simply, hedging involves covering the stake on your intial selection through backing one or more
of the other players.
This will generally happen when your first selection has been punted on at long odds and enters
the final round of a tournament well in contention.
Then, you may be able to cover your initial stake through backing one or more of the other players
that are in with a chance of winning.
It doesn't happen all the time, but if two or three players have broken away from the opportunity
might well occur to cover your initial outlay.
This happens with both conventional odds and spreads, although it's with the latter the best
opportunities crop up.
With spreads, if two or three players come up the last few holes in close contention you can easily
get on all of them and still end up with a profit no matter who wins.
If one of those players was your initial selection, you'll sometimes find it hard not to win! This is
because a dropped shot for one player, and one gained for another, can lead to a significant change
in the odds.
Watch out for this next time a tournament's final round is live on TV - Sky cover a
fair bit of golf - any you'll probably be suprised at how much the spreads change with the ebb and flow of play.
The business of hedging is really useful when Tiger Woods is close to the top of the
leader board come the final round of a tournament.
If Woods enters the last day in one of the top three or four positions, his odds will be very short.
Thus, the prices - spreads or conventional odds - will probably be good enough for punters to back two
or three of the other contenders and then hope Woods fails to win!!
So, lesson three is for punters to look closely at any hedging opportunities. There's nothing
better than knowing you are going to win some cash regardless of which player goes on to take the tournament.
Golf Tournament Winner
Moving on a little, now let's look at some general lessons concerned with how to select
golf tournament winners.
To begin, let's dicuss grass! This really applies to America, but an awful lot of top-class
tournaments are played on the other side of Atlantic and so paying attention to what follows
should be profitable for punter.
Putting it simply, most tournaments in America are played on just two different types of grass.
This two types are named Bermuda and Bentgrass.
The former is a sun-loving grass and pretty drought resistant. Thus, it is prevalent in the
south of America as well as in Florida and California.
Bentgrass golf, however, needs cool and humid conditions to grow and is found more in
the North and Canada.
What punters really need to know about these two types of grass is how some players have a very
strong preference for either one or the other.
On the US tour, from February to May, most tournaments are played on Bermuda grass.
As a result, some players thrive while other flounder.
A good example is John Huston, a well known name on the U.S. tour. He really excels on Bermudagrass
and boasts ten top three finishes in 126 starts on this surface.
However, on Bentgrass he has never finished in the top three. Tiger Woods - nowadays it is hard to get
away from him when discussing golf - is a player who does particulary well on Bentgrass.
Although none of this is set in stone, certain players do prefer certain types of grass. Among the
bigger names, look out for Mark Calcavechhia, Steve Elkingston and Andrew Magee
on Bermudagrass.
On Bentgrass, keep an eye on Tiger Woods, Hal Sutton and Fred Funk. The lesson here is obvious,
particularly on the US tour early in the year.
Pay close attention to the players who perform better on certain types of grass.
Of course, watching out for and even researching this kind of thing will lead you into the world
of golf statistics. That's convenient though, because it leads us nicely into the nest lesson.
Statistics
For punters, the US golf tour is an absolute dream. Why is this? Because the tour employs a
statistical unit that supplies wealth of figures concerned with how each player is performing.
Among many other things, the unit is used to measure driving distances, Par-fours, greens
in regulation and even something called bounce-back (bounce-back is how often a player
birdies a hole after bogeying the previous one).
All theses statistics can be an invauable aid to punters. For example, one set of statistics show
a something called scoring average.
This is a measure of each player's average score on each day of a tournament. This can be highly
significant because every medal of honor tournament play is made up of four rounds of golf
played on each of four days.
As you may well be aware, wish medal of honor play, after the first two days about half the field
is eliminated from the tournament.
This is done through a cut-off point being decided. Players who have scored better than
"the cut" figure go on to the final two days, the rest do not.
It is here where the scoring average proves useful. Players with a history of scoring
better over the first two days clearly tend to feel the pressure as tournaments draw to a close.
Thus, look to support them in three-ball or head to head match bets over the first two
days, but then leave them alone afterwards.
This is a good example of how statistics can assits punters, although it vital to keep
up to date with them.
Try and learn what players are like from the statistics produced on them. Don't let the figures
become your only guide but bear in mind how they are a great way of finding out about bottle.
This leads us neatly into our final point.
Bottle Up and Go Winsome
To end, let's think about one of the most, if not the most, telling things in golf. Players
who do not have "bottle up and go winsome" will not win tournaments.
But, what is bottle up and go winsome? This is easy to answer. Bottle Up is the ability to
keep your nerve under pressure.
In golf this is crucial because it is a very technical game.
Unlike football games which involves quick reactions and lots of physical exertion,
golf is a slower game where swinging the club and making the shots is a highly technical business.
A nervous footballer may well be still able to kick a ball in an effective fashion,
but a nervous golfer may have trouble even drawing the club back for a shot.
Thus, if a golfer should start to become nervous they can lose their form. What punters need to
realise is how often this happens to players.
This players it happens to the least have bottle and win tournaments as result. Over the years,
although he is now very much appears on the downward plain, Nick Faldo has shown lots of bottle.
Greg Norman, though still hugely successful, has not.
Referring back to statistics, players with bottle will produce their best scoring averages over
the final rounds of a tournament, as opposed to on the first two days.
So, use statistics to sort out those with bottle and those without.
The final lesson is to avoid players with no bottle. Those with a proven track record are the
one to set your hopes on.
They will have demonstrated the ability to handle pressure and always give supports a run for
theirs money.
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