Sports Betting

The US PGA Championship Influence

Golf, as a sport, has become so popular throughout the world that in every corner of the globe one will find golf tournaments, and people who will enjoy reading, watching and playing the game. Golf attracts vast numbers of spectators and fans who follow all the tournaments and competitions, and enjoy hours of live coverage on television. The United States has been a leader in many things sporting over the years, and amongst this list is golf. The quality and level of the golf tournaments and the associated services, like television coverage and sports betting, is at the very highest levels.

One of the top level, famous golf competitions is the USA PGA. Referred to often as the PGA Championship, US PGA is an annual golf tournament managed by the Professional Golfers Association of America. It is one of the four top, or Major championships in the professional golf circuit. The US PGA is the final major of the season, being contested during August each year, traditionally the third weekend before Labor Day.

The Richest Major Golf Tournament

The US PGA has a purse that has exceeded ten million dollars since 2014, making it the most lucrative of all the four major golf tournaments. Apart from the money aspect, winning the US PGA gives a golfer quite a few benefits that are career-changing. The US PGA champion is given entrance to the other three major tournaments, the US Masters Tournament, the US Open and the Open Championships for the next five years. US PGA winners are also exempted from ever having to qualify for the US PGA championship.

The US PGA tournament has been held at a variety of venues. Generally, the selection consists of celebrated and renowned golf courses, an exclusive group of courses that have a history and tradition that would be suitable for the tournament. Often the courses selected have already hosted other notable events such as the Ryder Cup of other majors.

The History of the US PGA Championship

In terms of history, the US PGA was inaugurated in the same year as the Professional Golfers association was founded, 1916. The first winner was Jim Barnes who was awarded 500 dollars and a diamond studded gold medal.

In 2016, American Jimmy Walker won his first major with victory at the US PGA Championship, played at Baltusrol. Walker beat Australian Jason Day by a single shot, and thereby entered the record books of golf, scoring a final round 67. Walker was ranked number 48 in the world, and therefore actually a rank outsider for the title.

Golf Betting a Challenge

The emergence of US Open PGA betting NZ as an important facet of any sports betting site, as it is today, has been relatively recent but is quite unsurprising given the vast popularity of the sport. Although the interest has always been there, golf is nevertheless a relatively high risk wager given the vagaries of form and the level of difficulty of the game itself. For this reason there are multiple bets available, apart from the overall winner. Punters can wager on the performance of individual players, or matchups between different players. This has made golf betting much more popular online, and placed golf, and particularly the majors, firmly in punters’ sights.