We’re back in Hawaii which can only mean one thing, a new Golf betting year is upon us! Before we get too deep into the new year, we’ve decided to do a quick recap on 2018. The highs, the lows and some things we have observed over the journey.
Year in review, by the numbers
Overall we made 108.67 units of profit – this equated to a 28% return on our turnover.
All of our profits came from bets made pre-tournament, or after the conclusion of the first round.
We were even more profitable when it came to ‘roughies’.
A whopping 54.11% when taking bets over $23 only.
A huge PGA Tour season with 107.81 units profit – 52.5% on turnover!
Round 2 bets on the PGA Tour were just white hot. A total of 95.39 units profit and a whopping 146% on turnover.
The statistical breakdown above provides a great overview for where the bulk of our profits were made during 2018.
As a whole, we felt we received more positive variance on the PGA Tour and more negative variance on the Euro Tour. Remember although decent, the sample sizes are still small in the whole scheme of things.
Round three and four bets on both tours down – in part due to some savers and green ups which made Sundays a little less stressful that’s for sure.
All of the bets were FREE for everyone on our Punting Stars Twitter account throughout the year.
Highlights of the 2018 Golf betting year
- Our super strong year on the PGA Tour winning 108 units @ a POT of 28% (see graph below)
- Any time we double, or triple dipped on a player that went on to win the tournament.
- Bryson. So much Bryson.
- Bubba. Our man! Go you weird thing.
- Michael Kim @ 600? Yes sir!
- How strong our early model pricing was. Evident by our success in Round 1 on both Tours.
- Finding seven winners over 100-1 for followers over the course of the year!
Lowlights of the 2018 Golf betting year
- Have we mentioned the Houston Horror show yet?! Check it out in our month-by-month breakdown further down.
- Probably gave a few too many units back in Rounds 3 and 4, although the green-ups have made things less stressful.
- Harrington at the Czech Masters ruined what would have been the month Golf punters dream of, so we must include that!
Punting Blog – A detailed account of the 2018 year
January 18′ Golf Betting Summary
After a swing and miss at Kapalua, we came out of the 2018 starting gates HOT with three wins on the trot.
Chris Paisley was a 1.25 unit bet after Round 2 when he took out the BMWSA Open at Glendower Golf Club and on the same weekend Patton Kizzire saluted at the Sony Open for us after finding him heading into the final round at 4/1.
The 32 year-old from Tuscaloosa went on to have a career year on the PGA Tour. He has started 2019 strong, too, with a T8 at Kapalua last weekend.
The very next weekend we struck again with our man Tommy Fleetwood @ 9.50 in Abu Dhabi. Tommy went -7 on Sunday to take out the Championship and chalk our third straight win.
No luck on the TPC Stadium course on the PGA tour but we didn’t have to wait long for our next win when Haotong Li held off Rory Mcilroy on Sunday to take out the Dubai Desert Classic.
Haotong quickly become at favourite at Punting Stars HQ after 0.05 units on @ 160 pre-tournament. The Chinese young gun went on to have a cracking breakout season.
Been a fun 2018 season, winning early in Dubai. Playing my first @TheMasters and playing a few events on the @PGATOUR Also finishing top 10 on the @EuropeanTour Race to Dubai. Thank you all for the support… Time for a rest!!! pic.twitter.com/GGsBexpqiy
— Haotong Li (@haotong_li) November 25, 2018
An unlucky loss at Torrey Pines on the same weekend when Jason Day beat Alex Noren on the sixth playoff hole dampened the spirits slightly. JB Holmes pathetic attempt at sportsmanship when Noren was on 18 wasn’t ideal either!
Meanwhile JB Holmes is still choosing a club on 18 at Torrey Pines 🤔
— Mr Tidy (@mrtidy78) March 2, 2018
February Golf Betting Summary
We bounced back hard, though, with another soon to be Punting Stars favourite Shubhankar Sharma bobbing up to win the Maybank Championship.
Followers had 0.15 units @ 61 and profited 3.65 units for the tournament to take our overall profit to 18 units.
That very next morning we woke to watch Gary Woodland go to work in Phoenix at the Waste Management Open. 0.2 units @ 30 after Round 1 ensured we licked the bowl on both tours to kick off February!
We dropped five units the next weekend with the Super 6 in Perth going to Kiradech Aphibarnrat while we had no joy at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am when Ted Potter Jnr broke through.
Our bounce back was swift though on the 15th Feb when we cashed on both Tours once again.
We double dipped at 85s and then again at 26 on Bubba Watson as he won at Riviera (again) while a later round bet on Joost Luiten in Oman at 55 proved to be a golden one!
“It ain’t long, but it ain’t wrong.” Bubba Watson reassures his caddy, hitting a 300+ yard drive on the par 4 13th @ Riviera CC 😂😂 #GenesisOpen #Golf #PGA2018 pic.twitter.com/MLqF0rG2Q8
— JC (@carrolljames89) February 18, 2018
That weekend netted us a massive 15 units of profit and bounced our overall tally back up to +29.
No luck at the Qatar Masters was offset by Justin Thomas’ great win at the Honda Classic. We loaded up with 1.5 units on @ 5.1 after Round 1 to ensure we still profited from the weekend and closed out February with a +10 unit result.
March Golf Betting Summary
March started nicely with George Coetzee winning the Tshwane Open in Pretoria but we then proceeded to give some units back in Mexico (PGA), India (Euro) and then again at the Valspar Championship (PGA).
A double dip on Rory McIlroy in Florida at Bay Hill helped get the ship back sailing.
Rory has copped some flack for his Sunday performances in recent times but he was superb down the stretch to close out the Arnold Palmer Invitational for us and chuck 10.4 units back in the coffers.
We finally ticked past 30 units in profit the very next weekend when that man Bubba Watson won the Dell Match play in Austin, and once again, we double dipped!
0.35 @ 24 before Round 2 and 0.3 @ 18.50 ahead of Round 3 ensured Bubba was running fat and we profited a handy 10 units down South.
We dabbled in the Dominican (Punta Cana) for no result and then copped a shocking beat the following week in the Houston Open when Beau Hossler ( who we were on at 200-1! ) blew a lead to Ian Poulter.
Poults putted like a champ down the stretch to win and ensure he got a start at Augusta. Great sporting theatre, but a brutal 20 unit swing was very hard to swallow!
Did we mention The Hoss traded at @ $1.12 approaching the 18th? Christ!
LOVE HIM OR HATE HIM, you can’t deny his DETERMINATION & PASSION 👊
I personally bloody LOVE him, I think he’s great for the game!
Congratulations @IanJamesPoulter for winning the Houston Open 🙌🎥credit: @skratchtv pic.twitter.com/7V59l4eOB0
— Rick Shiels PGA (@RickShielsPGA) April 1, 2018
Turn it up Poults!!! ^^^^
April Golf Betting Summary
Moving on to Augusta where nobody’s favourite, Patrick Reed got us out of a bit of a mess. We looked really good early when Marc Leishman played this beauty
Pat Reed just kept making big putts when others faltered, we had two dips at him at the shorts and profited 2.45 from The Masters despite having some frustrating moments.
No joy in Madrid as Jon Rahm cruised in to win his home Open the next weekend was offset by the 150-1 win of Satoshi Kodaira at Harbour Town.
Four units dropped on the Euro Tour the next weekend was offset by a fat result at the Valero Texas Open when Andrew Landry was another double-dipped winner!
We backed Landry pre-tournament at 160-1 and again after a strong first-round at 40-1 to scoop 11 units profit up.
A break-even weekend to close out April when Alexander Bjork closed off strong to win in China but we had no joy in Louisiana
May Golf Betting Summary
Aussie Jason Day ensured we started May strong with a good win at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow. It was Day’s second win for the year and we put down 0.5 units at 17.5 pre-tournament.
The Sicilian Open wasn’t kind but then we went on another nice little run with three straight winners.
Webb Simpson 0.35 @ 29 after Round 1 at the Players Championship followed by 0.35 @ 32 on Adam Otaegui at the Belgian knockout straight into Aaron Wise at 40-1 winning the Byron Nelson saw us profit almost 25 units across three tournaments.
Nothing from the BMW Championship on the European Tour or the Fort Worth Invitational on the PGA but we closed out May with a double-bang.
One of ours, Thorbjorn Olesen 0.40 @ 32 and 0.50 @ 15 on Bryson at Muirfield resulted in a 20 unit weekend.
Thorbjorn Olesen wins the Italian Open by one shot over Francesco Molinari, who was trying to win back-to-back weeks. pic.twitter.com/KDpu54Sikm
— SI Golf (@SI_Golf) June 3, 2018
June Golf Betting Summary
Back-to-back wipes to start the summer on the PGA Tour but we did find Mikko Korhonen @ 60-1 when he won the shot clock masters.
That man Bubba Watson put the petrol back on the fire though when he won the Travelers Championship. The best part? We found him at 180-1 after the first round!
Living my best life on and off the course! This week it’s ON! @TravelersChamp @PGATOUR #LiveUnderPar #BubbaGolf #Goals #Travelers #TravelersChamp pic.twitter.com/Hv4fAUXRhC
— bubba watson (@bubbawatson) June 20, 2018
Mr Consistent Matt Wallace 0.30 units @ 50 won the BMW International Open before a five tournament dry run started.
This ran across the back end of June and early July when we gave back 24 units
July Golf Betting Summary
As mentioned above, it was a slow start to July but a storm was brewing!
Enter, Michael Kim!
Kimmy won the John Deere Classic for us when we popped 0.05 units on at a lazy 600! An incredible result for us and many of you that followed in.
It was a dominant win and a win of someone far beyond his level of experience.
Forever entrenched as a Hall Of Famer at Punting Stars HQ!
An up and down Open at Carnoustie where we dropped 4 units to a consistent Molinari and a few chop outs (why is Dustin always so short!) and small losses rounded out July
August Golf Betting Summary
Back to back dry weekends to start August on both tours resulted in 17 units going back to the punting gods before a red hot period started where, with some luck (being greedy) it could have been enormous!
Brooks won the PGA Championship @ 23, we lumped into Paul Waring at the Nordea Masters and things were looking great when CT Pan traded as short as 1.45 in Round 4 at Sedgefield only to get beaten and leave 17 units by the wayside.
We hit back very hard with a TRIPLE DIPPER on Bryson when he won the Northern Trust. Bets on @ 110, 80, 18.5 had the mad scientist running very green for us. 22.8 units green, in fact.
Bryson came out again the very next weekend and won the Dell Technologies Championship. You guessed it, we TRIPLE DIPPED again!
Bets this time on @ 44, 46 and 100! 30.85 units profit in total and Bryson joined Kimmy and Bubba in the Hall Of Punting Stars Fame.
Back to back!
Bryson DeChambeau wins the Dell Technologies Championship a week after winning the Northern Trust.
He now holds a commanding lead in the FedEx Cup and has an inside path to the $10 million.
Not bad for a 24-year-old. pic.twitter.com/vdxxrLtku4
— SI Golf (@SI_Golf) September 3, 2018
Perhaps we are being greedy but we will note that Padraig traded @ 1.20 at the Czech Masters and that would have been another +13 unit result.
August was very kind to us (+35 units), but we can’t help but think, what could have been!
September Golf Betting Summary
We lost four units in September, betting into five tournaments for two positive results.
Those winners were Keegan Bradley at the Aronimink Golf Club (BMW Champ) and Tommy Lewis’ big win @ 60-1 at the Portugal Masters.
We kept our powder pretty dry through the month with the Ryder Cup at the end of September meaning we didn’t bet into as many tournaments as usual.
Speaking of which, how good were the Europeans!
WATCH: Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari wake up in bed together with the #RyderCup 😂😂 https://t.co/oQZse0CpgR pic.twitter.com/jAKuVFdzIA
— Golf Monthly (@GolfMonthly) October 1, 2018
October Golf Betting Summary
Back into the full swing of things and back into a fat month of profit in October!
After the first round, we plonked 0.25 @ 65 on Kevin Tway at the Safeway Open to kick start the month.
Lucas Bjerregaard winning the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the same day meant we were +20 units for the weekend!
The Big Leish got too far away from us in Kuala Lumpa to break the course record and win easily, but Eddie Pepperell holding on to win the British Masters in trying conditions @ 45-1 (pre-tournament).
Small losses followed at the CJ Cup, Valderrama and Sanderson Farms before Xander finally broke through to win the WGC HSBS Championship at the Sheshan International Golf Club.
We had been following Xander closely and had a number of bets on him throughout the year (including The Open Championship) so it was great to catch him here with bets pre-tournament @ 36 and again on moving day @ 15
November Golf Betting Summary
We had a busy November as the main part of the season drew to a close.
Mayakoba Golf Classic, Nedbank Golf Challenge and The RSM Classic started us off slowly before back-to-back winners.
Danny Boy Willett @ 40-1 at the DP World Tour Championship and Abraham Ancer who walked in to win the Australian Open. We saw value in Ancer in Round 2 and Round 3 for a strong result overall.
The back end of November didn’t yield any winners with the Honma Hong Golf Open, Hero World Challenge, Australia PGA Championship and the Mauritius Open bet into.
Overall, we lost 12.83 units in November.
December Golf Betting Summary
Just the two events that we bet on in December. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find the winner of the Alfred Dunhill Championship or the South African Open.
Overall, though, what a year.
Thanks for all the messages of support, bring on 2019!