Golf Handicapping Articles

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: Zurich Classic of New Orleans
by Alan Matthews - 4/25/2012

With all due respect to this week’s PGA Tour stop at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, this tournament is the finale of a three-week lull following the Masters. That all ends next week with a strong field at the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte followed by the best non-major on the schedule, the Players Championship.

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: Velero Texas Open
by Alan Matthews - 4/18/2012

So perhaps a trip to Texas will change our fortunes as the Tour makes a stop at TPC San Antonio for the Valero Texas Open in its 90th anniversary season. I can’t sugarcoat it as this week’s field is one of the worst of the season without a single Top 10 player in the world and only one guy – Johnson Wagner – in the Top 10 in the FedEx Cup points race or PGA Tour money list.

2012 Masters Props Betting: Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 4/4/2012

I have addressed more than a few Masters props already for this week’s first major of the season, but I think I have a few more in me (all odds from Bovada)! Let’s start on whether there will be a playoff at this year’s tournament. Unlike the U.S. Open, which goes to a full 18-hole playoff, or the British Open, which has a four-hole playoff, the Masters is sudden death, with players starting at No. 18. If someone doesn’t win there, players go back to the 10th hole for the next sudden-death hole.

PGA Tour: Majors Won in 2012 Odds and Golf Betting Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 4/3/2012

It’s Masters week – easily the best four days of the golf betting season. It’s truly like the Super Bowl of golf when it comes to all of the props available. And with Tiger Woods coming in off a victory at Bay Hill and big names like Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy also having won already in 2012, this is probably the most anticipated Masters in several years.

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: Northern Trust Open
by Alan Matthews - 2/15/2012

I don’t know about you, but while I enjoy watching golf I don’t consider it must-see TV unless it’s a Grand Slam event or the Ryder Cup. It’s rare a normal PGA Tour event captures my total attention, much less on a weekend.

2012 PGA and European Tour Golf Props Odds and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 1/3/2012

There is no major sport in the world – that I know of, at least – that has a shorter offseason than golf. And as hard as it may be to fathom if you are somewhere being inundated with snow, the 2012 PGA and European Tour seasons tee off next week already. The U.S. tour begins with the winners-only Hyundai Tournament of Champions (look for my betting preview on that, as well as all PGA tournaments in 2012), while the Euros play in the Africa Open in South Africa.

Golf Odds and Predictions: Omega Hills Mission World Cup
by Alan Matthews - 11/22/2011

Well, I am digging these golf team events, with another set for this weekend as the European Tour’s Omega Hills Mission World Cup tees off at the Mission Hills Resort in Hainan Island, China. Last week’s Presidents Cup was a betting success if you took my advice.

PGA Tour Odds and Predictions: The Tour Championship
by Alan Matthews - 9/21/2011

For casual golf fans and bettors, the PGA Tour season essentially ends at the final major of the year, the PGA Championship. That tees off a few weeks before football season, which is of course where most bettors are then lured. But for more dedicated golf bettors, the FedEx Cup playoffs remain a source of interest, and that four-tournament postseason concludes this weekend in Atlanta with The Tour Championship.

PGA Tour Odds and Predictions: BMW Championship
by Alan Matthews - 9/14/2011

The Top 70 players in the FedEx Cup points advanced from the Deutsche Bank Championship and the Top 30 after this tournament will move on the Tour Championship in Atlanta next week for a shot at the $10 million grand prize and, potentially, PGA Tour Player of the Year honors because that race is very much up for grabs as well.

PGA Tour Odds and Predictions: The Deutsche Bank Championship
by Alan Matthews - 9/1/2011

We are into the “conference semifinal” round of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs as the Top 100 in the points standings have advanced (99 are playing, with J.B. Holmes out due to health reasons) after last week’s rain-shortened Barclays tournament to this week’s Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston. And it’s an unusual weekend on Tour because we know there will be a Monday finish – with this tournament scheduled around Labor Day weekend it goes Friday-Monday.

PGA Tour Odds and Predictions: The Barclays
by Alan Matthews - 8/24/2011

The PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs begin this week – sans the biggest star in the sport, Tiger Woods – with The Barclays at Plainfield Country Club in Edison, N.J. Of course the FedEx Cup is a four-event playoff system capped at the TOUR Championship that is essentially the end of golf season for most top players. This is the first-ever PGA Tour event at Plainfield.

PGA Tour Odds and Predictions: Wyndham Championship
by Alan Matthews - 8/18/2011

With all due respect to the Wyndham Championship, which begins Thursday at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C., this tournament is never going to get a top-flight field when it remains sandwiched by the final major of the year, the PGA Championship, and the start of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs, which start next week.

PGA Tour Odds and Predictions: PGA Championship
by Alan Matthews - 8/10/2011

You want to know how it’s easy to call the PGA Championship the least important of golf’s four majors? Because they have to give it a nickname: “Glory’s Last Shot”. That’s because most casual sports fans start to forget about golf pretty much after the British Open because NFL and NCAA football camps start to open.

PGA Tour Odds and Predictions: WGC-Bridgestone Invitational
by Alan Matthews - 8/3/2011

Look for a jump in interest (both on television and in the betting world) this week on the PGA Tour because all is right in the golfing world: Tiger Woods is back and, as usual, the center of attention. The big-money, exclusive-field World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational is at Firestone Country Club in Akron starting Thursday.

PGA Tour Odds and Predictions: The Greenbrier Classic
by Alan Matthews - 7/27/2011

The good news is that the PGA Tour is about to enter perhaps its best stretch of golf of the year with a big-money WGC event, the final Grand Slam tournament of the year and the FedEx Cup playoffs, culminating in the Tour Championship. The bad news is that stretch really doesn’t start until next week, with the pros visiting a little town in West Virginia for this week’s Greenbrier Classic at The Old White TPC in White Sulfur Springs.

Golf Odds: Who Will Be Tiger Woods’ Next Caddie?
by Alan Matthews - 7/22/2011

Normally when a professional golfer who hasn’t won since late 2009 and hasn’t even competed for most of this summer makes a caddie change, it goes completely unnoticed other than perhaps by the most avid golf fan. But when that guy is Tiger Woods and he cans his caddie, well, it’s national news. And that move has spawned a new betting prop.

PGA Tour Odds and Predictions: Canadian Open
by Alan Matthews - 7/20/2011

Normally the week after a major championship, you can expect a very watered-down field at the following PGA Tour event. This week that stop is the national championship of Canada, the RBC Canadian Open at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club in Vancouver. And while many of the top Europeans are taking this week off and a few top Americans like Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson stayed across the pond and are playing in the European Tour event this week, the Canadian Open does have a pretty solid field – mostly because of big-money sponsor RBC.

2011 British Open Odds: Predictions for Betting Props
by T.O. Whenham - 7/13/2011

Call it the British Open. Call it the Open Championship. Whatever you want to call it, it’s one of the four majors in golf, and it’s a great betting opportunity. The unique style of play, the often extreme weather, and the intense pressure make this a particularly tough tournament to win. That means that there are often very juicy prices to be had.

2011 British Open Odds and Golf Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 7/13/2011

In my opinion, the beauty of the British Open is threefold: 1) You can get up super early in the morning U.S. time and be able to watch major championship golf; 2) It seems there are always guys that come out of nowhere to compete and frequently win. Just since 2003 players like Louis Oosthuizen, Stewart Cink, Todd Hamilton (whatever happened to him?) and Ben Curtis won; all four are likely one-hit wonders; 3) The style of links golf, and often the unpredictable weather across the pond make it a test most Americans aren’t used to.

PGA Tour Odds and Predictions: John Deere Classic
by Alan Matthews - 7/7/2011

It’s the final tuneup for the British Open this week on the PGA Tour as it stops at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill., for the John Deere Classic. It’s not an overly great field in all honesty, as many of the top names either are taking the week off to practice overseas for the Open or are playing in Scotland for the European Tour stop this week – guys like Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell, Matt Kuchar and Phil Mickelson are over in Scotland.