Tokyo Olympics Men and Women’s Golf Betting

Tokyo 2020 Golf Background Information

There will be 120 competitors across the men’s and women’s competitions, with the top 60 of the International Golf Federation rankings qualifying to take part in each. The competitors will be playing at the Kasumigaseki Country Club in Japan from July 29-August 1 for the men and from August 4-7 for the women.

There will be a number of notable participants across various country’s teams. In the USA men’s team are Justin Thomas, Bryson DeChambeau, Collin Morikawa, and Xander Schauffele. Spain’s team will feature Jon Rahm, while Paul Casey and Tommy Fleetwood will play for Great Britain, Rory McIlroy for Ireland, Cam Smith and Marc Leishman for Australia, Viktor Hovland for Norway, Francesco Molinari for Italy, Hideki Matsuyama for Japan, Corey Connors for Canada, Joaquin Niemann for Chile, Sungjae Im for South Korea, and Abraham Ancer for Mexico.

In the women’s competition will be Jin-Young Ko and Sung Hyun Park for Korea, and while the rest of the field may not have as many big names, all eyes will be on the American and Korean teams. They are considered the favourites simply become the two countries combined have women golfers in more than half of the top 20 rankings.

The Competition

The Olympic golf competition consists of individual strokes play over 72 holes. The Kasumigaseki Country Club is a par-71 course. If you are new to golf, then essentially, what you need to know is that the player who manages to get the ball in each hole with the least number of strokes is the winner. At the end of four rounds, the player who has used the fewest amount of strokes will win the gold.

Types of Olympic Golf Betting Markets

As a sport, golf offers plenty of betting opportunities. In fact, there are so many betting markets that you may feel slightly overwhelmed. However, you will quickly realise that they are all very straightforward and it will take you no time to get to grips with them. Here is a quick explanation of some of the most popular golf betting markets.

Gold Medal Winner Bets

This is the most straightforward bet that you can place. You are simply betting on which player will win the gold medal. If your chosen player does win, then you win your bet. While it is a simple market to understand, one of the best things about it is that you will normally find very generous odds. This means, that if you choose correctly, it can be a very lucrative bet.

Each Way Bets

An each way bet allows you to bet on a player to win or finish within the places (e.g. top 3). Technically, it is two separate bets with two separate playouts. This means that if your chosen player wins, then you win both parts of the bet, but if the player finishes in the places, then you just win one part of the bet.

Versus the Field Bets

This is a slightly unusual bet, which is usually only offered on golf tournaments. It allows you to back almost everyone, but one or two players will be excluded. The market is normally offered in the later rounds of the tournament if there is a particular player who has built a strong lead. It then allows you to bet on anyone else to win the tournament, but not that player. As long as a different player wins, then you will win your bet. 

Head to Head Golf Bets

Head to Head bets can be a huge amount of fun and they present some fantastic options. Essentially, a line is set between two players, and it has nothing to do with the overall result of the tournament. For example, the bookmaker will select Player A and Player B in the second round. The market will then be on which of the players will do better in that round. All that matters is that your chosen player performs better than the other one does, the other players are irrelevant.

This market is a great way for you to make use of your knowledge of individual players and by looking at the options carefully, you may spot some fantastic opportunities. Very often, there are a huge number of head to head markets offered and they will be updated as the tournament progresses, so be sure to check regularly so that you don’t miss out.

First Round Leader

This is a very simple type of bet. You are simply betting on which of the players will be in the lead at the end of the first round. If you think that someone is likely to make a very strong start to the competition, then this is your chance to back him/her and to try to win some money while doing so.

Top 10, Top 20 Finish

As the name of these markets suggest, you are simply betting on a player to finish in the top 10 or the top 20 of the tournament. You may be surprised by how generous the odds can be on these markets, so be sure to take a careful look at them.

Round Totals

This is an over/under bet. You are betting on whether the final score for the round for a player will be higher or lower than the total projected by the market. For example, the market may project a score of 69.5, if you think it will be higher, you should bet over and if you think it will be lower you should bet under.

Prop Bets

Proposition bets can be a huge amount of fun and they come in many different forms. These markets have little to do with individual players or the outcome of the tournament. Rather, they are on whether certain things will happen. For instance, you could bet on their being a hole in one in a particular round, on whether there will be a certain number of birdies on a hole, on the age of the tournament winner, and more.

Many prop bets require you to do little more than guess; however, if you can afford it they are a great way of adding excitement to the competition. However, some do require some skill and research, and these are certainly worth careful consideration.

Olympic Golf Betting Tips

When you are betting on golf, research is always the key, and there are a number of factors that you should consider.

The most obvious is the current form of the players. You should look at the players’ results over the past season and pay particular attention to their most recent performances. You should see if any of the players have been on a winning streak, or consistently finishing in the top 5 of 10 of tournaments, which suggests that they are in good form.

The course is also very important. You should see if any of the players have played at this particular course competitively before and if so, how they did. Some players perform reliably well at particular courses, and it is even worth looking at how they have done in each round, to see if they are consistent.

If a player hasn’t played the course before, then you need to consider the course and how it compares to others courses. Are the fairways wide and long or are they narrow and full of hazards? Is there much water or many sand bunkers? By considering these factors and the players’ strengths and weaknesses, you should be able to form some idea of how they will perform in the competition.

One factor that is beyond everybody’s control but is of vital importance is the weather. The weather can completely change how a course plays. There may be strong winds that force players to shorten their drives or rain that soaks the fairways and greens, making the course slower. You should always check the weather forecast for the entire tournament and for the individual days. You can then begin to assess how much the weather can help or hinder individual players based upon their particular skill sets. Furthermore, depending on the start times, the players could face different weather during the day. A player starting early in the morning may face a completely different course to one scheduled for late afternoon.

There is no magic formula to placing a winning bet and you can never be sure of winning. However, if you do some careful research and try to factor in as much of the above as possible, then it will go a long way towards helping you place many successful bets on the golf at the Tokyo Olympics.