Golf Betting Blog: Long shots prove there’s money to be made

Our betting blog from Downthe18th looks back at the The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and wonders what could have been

Golf betting has its ups and certainly has its downs but there are some weeks where you just have to sit back and admire. This was one of those.

World number 792, Oliver Wilson, won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and opened up in the betting at 500/1. Sir Nick Faldo was at the same odds. Germany’s 7-1 win over Brazil at the World Cup or a 16-year-old Rory McIlroy to win the Open by the time he was 26 were also 500/1. It’s a price that essentially tells us you might as well get your money and flush it down the toilet.

Bets like that just don’t happen for you or me – but in the wonderful world of golf betting, they happen more than you would think. And guess what, Chris Doak who finished 4^th was also 500/1. A mere £1 each way on the flat cap wearing Scot would have returned you £126 – food for thought. If there is anyone out there who picked both Wilson and Doak, they deserve a knighthood.

At the opposite end of the market was Rory McIlroy (5/1) who had to settle for 2^nd place alongside Richie Ramsey (55/1) and our number 1 pick for the week, Tommy Fleetwood (33/1). The latter did have a putt on the last to take the tournament into a play-off but who can begrudge the fairytale that was Oliver Wilson? The Englishman was also 40/1 for a top 10 and even 14/1 for the top 20.

Louis Oosthuizen (50/1), another DownThe18th pick, Richard Sterne (80/1) and Shane Lowry (25/1) claimed a tiny bit of place money tying for 6^th place. There’s a moral to this week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship – money can be made from golf betting. Lots of it.

If this has wet your appetite then the return of the PGA Tour certainly warrants a special trip down to the bookies. With a few of the regulars potentially sluggish after a long break, the door is open for one of the Web.com graduates to grab a win.

Look out for Adam Hadwin (100/1) who we think could do exactly that at the season opening Frys.com Open. Back on European soil, Portugal is the next destination where Nicolas Colsaerts (40/1) leads our attack.

Have a venture over to our website http://downthe18th.wordpress.com for more golf betting wordplay.