For those in the know, golf is an outstanding sport to bet on. Each and every week during the season there are two mainstream tournaments to bet on via the PGA and European Tours (plus other events from around the globe), and on several occasions last season winners were priced at 100/1 or greater.
On the PGA Tour this season we saw three winners priced at 150/1 or more (James Hahn, Jim Herman and Brian Stuard), and two of the majors went to a pair of players priced at 100s or higher: Danny Willett and Jimmy Walker.
Great news for punters… if you can find such winners, that is!
One of the best ways to find three-figure bets to seriously boost your bankroll is to seek out young, talented starlets who you sense will enter the winners circle sooner rather than later.
So ahead of the new seasons on both sides of the pond here’s ten to watch in 2017, and when they hit form it may just pay to get behind them with the bookmakers. Remember, there are young players out there that are already slaying it, but the purpose of this article is to find those typically priced at three-figures each and every week.
PGA TOUR
Si Woo Kim
The 21-year-old has enjoyed a breakthrough year on the PGA Tour in 2016, and he’s already up to 51 in the world having finished 17th in the FedEx Cup race.
Last season was Kim’s first full campaign on the tour, and his numbers are outstanding: he finished in the top 25 of nearly 50% of the tournaments he entered (16 of 34), with five top-10s, a second (after losing in a play-off) and his maiden win at the Wyndham Championship, where a second round of 60 made headlines around the globe. Not bad for a guy barely out of college.
As a proven winner now the spotlight will be on, although this hasn’t necessarily been reflected by the bookmakers: he was priced at 50/1 for the 30-man Tour Championship, and so for full-scale events his price is likely to lengthen even further. Kim could provide punters with another three-figure win in 2017.
Bud Cauley
At 26 years of age Cauley is one of the oldest players on this list, but in a way he feels like a rookie all over again after 15 months on the sidelines with a major shoulder injury.
But he’s back to full fitness now, and just starting to recapture the form which saw him ranked as the number one amateur in the world before he was barely shaving.
Cauley’s story is a cautionary tale: he finished college and went straight onto the PGA Tour; earning just shy of $1 million dollars in his first season thanks to some fine performances. Then came that shoulder injury, which saw his world ranking tumble to 277.
But three top-10 finishes in 14 starts this year – and going back-to-back at the John Deere Classic and Wyndham Championship in August – suggest he is finding his feet again. Bud is definitely one to watch this season.
Smylie Kaufman
The exquisitely-named 24-year-old landed his maiden tour win in 2016 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children, and so you might think he has already ‘broken through’. But the bookmakers don’t seem to think so, and Kaufman is still routinely available at around the 100/1 mark.
Surprising, given his fine campaign: ten top-25s in 28 starts were highlighted by an eighth at the ultra-competitive WGC Cadillac Championship, as well as a top 30 return in the first major of the year, The Masters, despite sharing the lead after 54 holes.
One of the biggest drivers on tour, Smylie ranks in the top 30 in the world for birdie average, Par 5 Scoring Average and bunker play. Those kinds of stats should get him into the winners’ enclosure again soon enough.
Jamie Lovemark
At the ripe old age of 27 – a slip of a lad in golfing terms, Lovemark could have secured his first PGA Tour win earlier this year (priced at 180/1 no less) at the Zurich Classic. But after losing his nerve slightly in the final round he would eventually succumb to Stuard.
That aside, a consistent campaign from Lovemark – he made the cut in 19 of 27 events entered, with five top-10s – secured him a place in the FedEx Cup, and thus confirmed his status as one of the best 50 or so players in America.
He already ranks in the top 25 in the world for Driving Distance, Shots Gained: Tee-to-Green and Shots Gained: Around the Green, so surely that elusive first title will come sooner rather than later.
Andrew Johnston
‘Beef’ has become one of golf’s cult heroes thanks to his larger-than-life personality and even larger beard; but, happily, this is a guy who can back the adoration up with his performances out on the course.
The Londoner picked up his first European Tour title of his career at the Open De Espana in the summer, and bagged his first top-ten in a major at The Open at Royal Troon.
Johnston has taken up the offer of a PGA Tour card and is already popular Stateside after winning over the hearts and minds of the public at the PGA Championship.
His neat and tidy game is well suited to some of America’s tighter tracks, and so he will be well worth watching out for in his rookie year on the other side of the pond.
EUROPEAN TOUR
Tyrrell Hatton
Hatton won’t be one to escape the bookmakers’ attentions much longer after securing his maiden tour win at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in October, but what that performance – amongst others – has proven is that the Englishman has a fine knack for Links-style golf.
That will be of interest to those placing their ante-post bets for the majors in 2017, and further intrigue is added by the fact that he has already scored two top-10s in the big ones last season: fifth at The Open and tenth at the PGA Championship; not many can say they have achieved that.
An uber-consistent season sees Hatton in fourth for the Race to Dubai, following seven top-10 finishes in all. He will surely become a major player on the European tour in 2017.
Brandon Stone
Stone will be looking to follow in the footsteps of his South African counterparts Ernie Els, Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen in eventually winning a major, but first he must establish himself on the European Tour.
He’s going about that the right way having secured his maiden title this year at the BMW South Africa Open, and with six top-10 returns in total secured at locations as diverse as Germany, Mauritius and China we can say that Stone is well-placed to challenge in all four corners of the globe.
Hitting an average of 70% of greens in regulation this season, this chap is seriously going places.
Callum Shinkwin
At just 23 and in his first ‘proper’ season on the European Tour, Shinkwin has secured top-20 returns in Morocco, France and Scotland, and his closing 65 at the Scottish Open was one of the standout rounds of the season.
Similar in style to Hatton and another event winner this term in Chris Wood, Shinkwin is marking himself down as a bit of a Links-style specialist with top-20s at the Scottish Open, Irish Open and Open De France, and so he is another to keep an eye out for in tournaments held on British soil next term.
Renato Paratore
The Molinari brothers and Matteo Manassero apart, Italy isn’t known as a hotbed of golf. But they may have just produced a star of the future in 20-year-old Renato Paratore, who enjoyed four top-20s in the space of six weeks at the tail-end of the 2016 season.
The big-hitting Italian averages some 296 yards with his driver, and if he can just improve his putting then some of the long, wide open tracks on the tour will be just up his street. A winner in waiting you fancy.
Jeunghun Wang
Somebody that has already broken his duck – and then some – is 21-year-old Jeunghun Wang. The Korean became the first (young) man in more than a decade to win back-to-back events on the European Tour, taking the honours in Morocco and Mauritius in the spring.
Wang also finished second in India, so clearly when the European Tour leaves the continent in the cold months this is a guy who should definitely be in your thoughts.
He has been named as the Korean team captain for the Eurasia Cup too, and is somebody who could become a big star back home.
