Let's get this right... golf betting is hard! Picking a winner out of a packed field, often with over 100 players to choose from and even more factors to consider, makes it tough to predict who will come out on top. So how do some people make it look so easy?
In this article, we discuss some huge betting wins and reveal how much two-time Major Champion John Daly claimed in his best ever gambling win...
What is John Daly's biggest betting win?
John Daly has collected more than $10 million in career earnings as a professional golfer, but his biggest ever betting win isn't far off that total.
Speaking at a Variety Golf event in 2022, Daly shared that his biggest gambling win was a staggering $9.3 million. The former PGA Champion also disclosed his biggest gambling loss was $6.2 million, on the blackjack table, so I guess you have to take the rough with the smooth.
In the context of Daly's win, it would be easy to feel underwhelmed by the figures paid out for most successful golf bets. That isn't always the case, however, as we demonstrate with these five huge golf betting wins...
1) 2019 Masters – Tiger Woods
We are kicking this list off with what is, in my opinion, one of the greatest achievements this sport has ever seen. Tiger Woods won an 15th Major Championship at the 2019 Masters, ending an 11-year wait. While it may have seemed improbable that Tiger could come back and win on the major stage, following a turbulent time with injuries, one ambitious punter took a leap of faith.
39-year-old James Adducci placed a stake of $85,000 on Woods to take a fifth green jacket at Augusta National, and managed to bank $1.2 million as a result of that historic win. Not bad for a weekend's work.
2) 2014 Open Championship – Rory McIlroy
This particular entry is a two-parter, and an example of some very faithful parenting.
In 2004, Rory McIlroy's father, Gerry, placed a bet on his son to win the Open Championship within ten years. The bet, priced at 500/1, is widely believed to have returned over £100,000 – with McIlroy finally getting over the line on the final attempt.
But it wasn't just the McIlroy's celebrating. According to Planetsport.com, another bet was placed on McIlroy to win the Claret Jug that year, but this time with a £150,000 stake. The return for the 16-1 bet totalled a staggering £2.4 million.
3) 2023 Players Championship – Scottie Scheffler
The stakes keep on rising, and so do the winnings. One hopeful punter placed a $300,000 bet on Scottie Scheffler to win the 2023 Players Championship, following the American's scintillating run of form in the lead up to the event.
Scheffler would duly oblige, winning the tournament by five shots and as a result cashing the bettor's winning ticket, totalling a monstrous $3.3 million.
4) A £140k win... by mistake!
A 60-year-old man from Belfast had one of the luckiest successes when betting on the golf, after accidentally winning £140,000. The bet was intended to be placed for Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano to win the Qatar Masters, and Kyle Stanley to win the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The second part of the bet came in, but Paul Lawrie took the title in Qatar, so how did the bet win?
To the punter's surprise, he accidentally selected Fernandez-Castano to lead after the first round (which he did), as opposed to win the event, therefore inadvertently winning a huge sum from a £50 each-way double.
5) Awesome 90,000/1 acca win
Many of us will have placed an overly-ambitious, perhaps borderline foolish accumulator in our time, but this is reason we do it. One lucky bettor proved that there was nothing absurd about this 90,361/1 six-fold, which returned a truly life-changing sum.
The accumulator combined a series of football and golf bets, including Steve Stricker, Nelly Korda, Viktor Hovland and Harris English each to win their respective event in the same week of tournament golf. Predicting the winner of four golf tournaments in one bet is unfathomable, and therefore it truly deserves the return of £1,039,544 from just an £11.50 stake.
Hats off to you, well played!
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