David Wharton, Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times
The inherent connection between golf and gambling begins with numbers.
Four buddies get together on a Saturday morning at their local municipal course. By the end of the round, they have played 18 holes and hit hundreds of shots, giving them plenty of chances to wager on more than just the final score.
Now apply that equation to a professional tournament with as many as 156 players, 30,000 or more total shots and detailed statistics on everything from driving distance to bunker saves.
“Golf is a good fit for gambling,” said Victor Matheson, a sports economist at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. “There are an infinite number of things you can bet on.”
With sports betting becoming legal in more and more states, the math has PGA Tour executives looking to use gambling as a lure to draw more fans. And the coronavirus outbreak has given them a chance to jump-start this effort….
Rest of story is here.
