Golf chiefs to cash in on betting boom

BETTING on golf has become a major growth market, with the Masters providing a high point of the year, along with The Open.

Such is the interest that betting companies Coral and Sky Bet are promising place returns down to the 10th-placed finisher at Augusta.

The European Tour have taken note of the rise of gambling on golf, despite there being no betting booths on their courses since Ladbrokes left their Scottish Open site. And they are now talking at the top level about how some of that betting money can benefit the game.

Racing is the only sport that has a statutory levy, with 10 per cent of bookmaker profit paid back to the horseracing authority.

And some of golf’s top brass, knowing they are laying on compulsive betting entertainment — especially televised golf — believe they should share in the proceeds as well.

TIGER WOODS, who has been criticised in the past for not smiling much, is now chilled enough to play a prank on Patrick Reed on the practice ground. When Reed went off to the putting green, Woods emptied his American colleague’s bag and put all his clubs back the wrong way round. ONLY the Masters could have Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State in the George W Bush administration and the first woman member of Augusta, as one of their corporate hospitality Green Jackets. Rice ( right) is assigned to the exclusive Berckmans Place hospitality complex, where pampered guests are looked after to the extent that Augusta caddies are on hand to show them the best line on replica putting greens, using that day’s pin position.

AMERICAN sports journalists, who tend to ask banal questions, were the only ones given the opportunity to quiz new Augusta chairman Fred Ridley after his state of the Masters address. This was dominated by his introduction of a new women’s amateur championship in which the final round will be played at Augusta on the Saturday before the Masters. Moderator Craig Heatley said his choice of questioners had been random.