Connect with us

19th Hole

Talking Tiger, Rory prop bets and golf gambling in general with BetOnline’s Sportsbook Brand Manager

Published

on

With big wins for Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy during the Asian swing along with the PGA Tour’s announcement that on-site gambling will be rolled out at Tour events from 2020, it’s as good a time as any to talk golf gambling. This week, we got the chance to speak to BetOnline.ag’s Sportsbook Brand Manager, Dave Mason, to discuss a range of Woods and McIlroy prop bets for 2020 and more.

BetOnline.ag is an online betting platform with a ‘focus on the player’ approach, who offer live lines for all major sporting events, including NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, Golf, Soccer, Tennis, Rugby and more.

Check out our conversation below.

With the Presidents Cup captain picks coming up this week, you’ve priced Tiger Woods up as a very warm 1/5 (at the time of speaking) favorite to choose himself. How difficult a market is that to price up, and how big of an effect did Woods’ recent Zozo Championship win have on the market?

Dave: The Zozo victory certainly allowed us to increase the juice on the captain’s pick price. But he was already a decent favorite for the pick when we offered these odds a few months back. Tiger is still one of the most confident athletes on the planet, and I’d be shocked if he didn’t put himself on the team. Even in what feels like the twilight of his career, he’s just too darn competitive not to be out there.

Another of your Tiger prop bets is his major wins in 2020. You currently have him at 1/8 to win none and 4/1 to win one or more – do you expect to take a lot of action on that 4/1 considering his excellent history at both of next year’s opening major venues?

Dave: Yeah, every year we take the most action on ONE Major. So far, it is the most popular option and will definitely be the highest bet count come early April. Traditionally we are just about always exposed on each of the options besides ZERO. We expect that to be even more exposed than usual in 2020 due to Tiger finally winning a major last year and golfing at a competitive level again.

Staying with Tiger, there’s a commonly held belief amongst golf gamblers that because of his popularity, he’s often underpriced. Is there much truth behind that assessment?

Dave: Yeah – definitely. He is always one of the more popular bets and we just about always have a healthy liability on him. So from a pure risk management point of view, we and (and the industry as a whole for that matter), keep Tiger’s odds shorter than we should. We do try to always offer the most competitive price week of the event however.

You have the same major prop bet market available for Rory McIlroy (4/11 no wins vs 2/1 one or more). Considering his five-year drought at majors, how tricky is it to gauge his correct number for the four slams and how popular will he be amongst punters?

Dave: McIlory is a tricky one to handicap. He is arguably as talented as anyone on the tour but has come up short in recent years. When the Masters tees-off it will be exactly five years since his last major. He is still one of the more popular golfers to bet from the public standpoint; however, the action on him is nothing like it was five or so years ago. He has been losing popularity from the punters a bit every year.

Who do you expect to take up the bulk of your action next year at the majors between Woods, McIlroy and Koepka?

Dave: Kopeka is definitely #1 now. Tiger is definitely #2. McIlroy a distant third. Of course, that could all change if one guy goes on a tear. Just looking at the early Masters bet count, Koepka is by far the most popular bet. Tiger is second. Then DJ and Xander. Rory is fifth.

Besides the outright market, what is the most popular market amongst golf gamblers at BetOnline.ag?

Dave: We have a ton of ways to bet golf. Top-10 is always popular along with a long list of props for the bigger events. Match-ups definitely get the most action; especially for the big name guys.

And finally, with the recent news that the PGA Tour is to have on-site gambling at events next year, how big (if any) a spike in the popularity of golf gambling do you think we could be looking at over the coming years?

Dave: With Tiger’s resurgence and Koepka doing what he is doing, there has already been a huge spike in golf betting. And now with sports betting being promoted everywhere – including the PGA events like you mentioned – we expect even an extra push. That’s what we are seeing in other sports with everyone talking betting odds now. We expect that to continue with golf as well in 2020.

You can check out all of BetOnline.ag’s golf prop bets here. You can also keep up to date with them on Twitter, Instagram, and you can follow Dave Mason on Twitter here.

Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at gianni@golfwrx.com.

19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

Published

on

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

Continue Reading

19th Hole

How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Published

on

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

Continue Reading

19th Hole

Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Published

on

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

Continue Reading

WITB

Facebook

Trending