Golf Betting

The first major of the year, played every April at Augusta National, the Masters is golf's most familiar betting event — the same course every time, a small field and that famous green jacket. South Africa owns a proud slice of its history: Gary Player was the first overseas winner, Trevor Immelman took the title in 2008 and Charl Schwartzel birdied the last four holes to win in 2011. Outright and each-way prices open months ahead and shorten through the spring. The Masters betting page covers the markets, the course angle and the local record.

Played in May, the PGA Championship completes the season's opening major double and reliably assembles one of the strongest fields in golf — almost every top-ranked player tees it up. It moves around classic US PGA Tour venues each year rather than staying put, so course form matters less than raw current form. It is a wide-open outright market most years. The PGA Championship betting page breaks down the field, the venues and where the value tends to sit.

The US Open, every June, is the year's toughest test — narrow fairways, thick rough and lightning greens set up so that par is a good score and even-par often wins. That brutal setup rewards patience and punishes the wild, which shapes how you bet it. South Africa knows the trophy well: Retief Goosen won it twice, in 2001 and 2004, and Ernie Els lifted it in 1994 and 1997. The US Open betting page explains the setup and the markets.

The Open — golf's oldest major, played each July on a links course in Britain or Ireland for the Claret Jug — is unlike anything else on the calendar. Wind, rain and bouncing, firm turf make weather a genuine betting factor, and the draw can hand half the field an easier side of the rota. South Africans have thrived in it: Louis Oosthuizen ran away with the 2010 Open at St Andrews, and Ernie Els won in 2002 and 2012. The Open Championship betting page covers links golf and the weather angle.

Every two years the Ryder Cup pits Team USA against Team Europe in three days of match play — and it bets like nothing else in golf. There is no field and no each-way: just two teams, the foursomes and fourballs sessions, the Sunday singles and the overall result, with the partisan home staging making home advantage a real edge. South Africans do not play in the Ryder Cup, but they line up for the International Team at its counterpart, the Presidents Cup — USA against the rest of the world outside Europe, and the team event with the strongest local angle.

Beyond the majors and the cups, the calendar's other big betting weeks each have a page. The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass is the PGA Tour's flagship, the so-called fifth major with the strongest field of the year — and the only one a South African (Tim Clark, 2010) has won. The FedEx Cup is the season-long points race that ends at the Tour Championship. Closer to home, the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City — "Africa's Major" — and the historic SA Open are the two biggest golf betting events on the South African calendar.

New to golf betting? The headline market is the outright winner, where a 150-strong field produces big four-day prices. Each-way betting splits your stake across the win and a place — typically the top five, six or more — so a near-miss still pays. You can also back head-to-head match-ups between two named players, a top-5 or top-10 finish, or trade the in-play market as a round unfolds. The how to bet on golf page walks through each market in plain terms.

Because a tournament field is so deep, each-way is the golf bettor's staple — it pays a fraction of the odds if your player finishes inside the advertised places, even without the win, which is why backing a fancied South African each-way is such a popular play locally. The country's record gives plenty to back: Gary Player's nine majors, the US Open wins of Els and Goosen, Oosthuizen's Open and the Augusta triumphs of Immelman and Schwartzel. Check the place terms before you bet — they vary by event and field size — and see the Golf betting page for the detail.

Few sports reward a betting eye like golf — big outright prices, each-way safety nets, head-to-heads and a live market on every round, across majors that South Africa has a genuine history of winning. From Augusta in April to the Ryder Cup, there is golf to bet most weeks of the year. You play it all at fixed odds, in rand, and a winning bet settles to your balance the moment the result is official. Bet on the golf at CasinOnline.