With the U.S. Open underway, eager bettors are always on the lookout for the next opportunity to lose money on sports. But golf overall is an especially difficult task to find what to bet. Do you bet who’s going to win the whole thing or hole-by-hole? How about props? For the most part, betting the winner is a wash with such a big field, and by the time you have a good guess the lines have adjusted, but here are a few strategies to get you going. (Odds are courtesy of Fan Duel Sportsbook.)
Hole scores
All this requires is that you pay attention to the actual play and hopefully notice something that the oddsmakers don’t. Say you’re watching and Tiger Woods is getting hot, and he is on 13. You’ve also been seeing a lot of cutaways to birdies being made on hole 15. If you can get it in on time, you can bet whether or not a player can par, birdie or bogie an upcoming hole with odds well over +1000 for the more difficult ones. So, if you’re just sitting on your couch with not much to do and are an observant sports fan, then why not put a couple of units on Jordan Spieth to bogey on 11.
round one scores
This requires a whole lot of research or a whole lot of luck because you either have to be positive that your selected player will shoot over or under 72.5 strokes, but the upside is if you have a favorite player like a Dustin Johnson, for example, and want even more reasons to root for him then you can hit the under on his strokes. The inverse works as well where if you think that Jon Rahm sucks and is going to choke then put a couple of units on the over and hate-watch him.
As always, if none of this betting advice works out, I hold no responsibility for your lost money.
