all the running<\/a> at Augusta and had almost lapped the field by the end.<\/p>\nPunters that had backed him on the nose, but a few other selections as well, would just about have broken even.<\/p>\n
What was interesting about The Masters in 2024 is how predictable the leaderboard shaped up. Eleven players finished tied for ninth or better, and eight of them were available pre-tournament at odds of shorter than 50\/1.<\/p>\n
The upshot is that backing likely contenders in some kind of top 10 finish accumulator would have been more fruitful than betting on Scheffler to win the tournament outright.<\/p>\n
How Does a Golf Accumulator Bet Work?<\/h2>\n
When you place an accumulator bet on any sport \u2013 be it football, horse racing, tennis etc \u2013 you\u2019re probably aware the odds of each of your selections is multiplied together, creating a scenario where your potential payout is higher should all your picks oblige.<\/p>\n
But, of course, there\u2019s risk to the reward \u2013 if any of your selections fails, then your entire acca loses.<\/p>\n
What you may not know, however, is that golf has its own version of accumulator betting \u2013 with the top 10\/20\/30\/40 finish markets your best option.<\/p>\n
![\"Golf](\"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/golf-top-finisher-acca-example-765px.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The success of your bet is predicated on the players you back \u2013 they don\u2019t need to win the tournament, and neither do they have to beat specified others in order for your selection to land (as is the case with 3-balls, match bets and the like).<\/p>\n
As long as your player obliges and finishes within the designated number of places, you\u2019re in business. For the top 30 or 40 finish markets in particular, you\u2019re looking for your players to make the 36-hole cut, initially, before kicking on over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Normally, bookmakers won\u2019t let you bet on the same market more than once on the same coupon \u2013 this is known as \u2018related contingency\u2019. However, they\u2019re only too happy to oblige with top finish accas \u2013 if you backed Scheffler and Rory McIlroy to both finish inside the top 10, for example, and Scheffler does, that only leaves Rory nine more places to work with.<\/p>\n
But even so, these top finish accumulators can be a great way to bet on golf without the challenge of having to find the outright winner of a tournament.<\/p>\n
Top Finish vs Top Finish with Ties<\/h2>\n
As you may know, the leaderboard of a golf tournament is determined by the scores shot by each of the players.<\/p>\n
What it means is that if five players all shoot -8 for the tournament, they all finish tied for the same position on the leaderboard.<\/p>\n
Now, this can create problems when it comes to settling top finish markets.<\/p>\n
Below is a graphic of The Masters 2024 leaderboard. Imagine you\u2019d backed Will Zalatoris to finish inside the top 10 \u2013 initially, you\u2019d be feeling pretty chipper about things.<\/p>\n
But then you might remember the dead heat rules in sports betting\u2026.<\/p>\n
![\"Golf](\"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/golf-top-finishers-with-ties-765px.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Technically, Zalatoris has finished inside the top-ten. However, the bookmakers argue that his top-10 finish is actually shared with Tyrrell Hatton and Cameron Young, who were also tied in ninth \u2013 meaning that eleven players actually finished inside the ten.<\/p>\n
So what happens now? Well, in the traditional \u2018top finish\u2019 market, your payout would be altered in line with dead heat rules. Here, each player would be paid out as a winner but with a 33.3% reduction \u2013 reflecting the fact that they were in a three-way tie.<\/p>\n
Your stake is therefore recalculated at 66.6%, but your bet is paid out at the same odds as you initially took.<\/p>\n
This information is relevant because the same rules apply to top finish accas too, so the payout you\u2019re expecting from your bet may not be the amount you receive if one or more of your players is embroiled in a tie similar to the example above.<\/p>\n
If this all sounds a little too complicated, you can take away the doubt by backing your players in a specific market: top finish (and ties). Firms like Bet365 offer this option, with lower odds than are available in the standard top finish market, but with all the potential confusion over ties and reduced payouts removed.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019d backed Zalatoris as per the example above, he would have been paid out as a full winner courtesy of the top finish (and ties) market.<\/p>\n
Golf Accumulator Betting Tips<\/h2>\n
![\"Tips\"](\"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/bigstock-artursz-tips-400px.jpg\")
One of the most pertinent golf accumulator bets we can offer is linked to the above: find out exactly what top finish market you\u2019re betting on \u2013 standard or ties included.<\/p>\n
That way, you can tailor your bets accordingly. There is often a sort of bottleneck on the leaderboard of PGA TOUR events, with players closely grouped in the top 10 and top 20 areas \u2013 backing the \u2018with ties\u2019 option here can be very helpful.<\/p>\n
But lower down the leaderboard, there tends to be a wider spread of scores. Typically, 65 players and ties make the cut of a standard PGA TOUR event, but at least a handful of these will fall away over the weekend \u2013 shooting poor scores that isolate them at the bottom of the board.<\/p>\n
Therefore, for top-30 and top-40 finish bets, you could have more joy backing them in the standard way \u2013 assuming your picks won\u2019t become embroiled in a tie.<\/p>\n
Another key element is to know exactly what each bookmaker is offering. At Bet365, for example, you can only bet on top finish accas with players from the same market \u2013 e.g. three players to finish top 30.<\/p>\n
Other firms, including Betfair, allow you to mix and match your picks \u2013 you might have one player to finish top 20 and two to finish top 40, for instance, on one single coupon. This can be particularly useful when you want to hedge your risk.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re looking for a new way to bet on golf that doesn\u2019t require you to back the winner to get a payout, a top finish acca might just be for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The field at some golf tournaments are as big as 156 players, which goes some way to explaining why it\u2019s so tough to back a winner. Players range in price from 10\/1 all the way up to 500\/1, with each PGA TOUR season notorious for having winners at both ends of the odds spectrum getting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":2074,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-2408","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2408"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2417,"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2408\/revisions\/2417"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Golf](\"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/golf-top-10-finishers-betting-400px.jpg\")
The field at some golf tournaments are as big as 156 players, which goes some way to explaining why it\u2019s so tough to back a winner.<\/p>\n