Golf tournaments can make for compulsive viewing, especially in the final round when a major championship is on the line. However, the thrill of such a spectacle can be dramatically increased by participating in a fantasy golf contest so Fantasy Football Portal are delighted to present you with a beginner’s guide that highlights all of the fantasy golf basics you will need to know.

What is Fantasy Golf?

In a fantasy golf contest you are required to assemble a team of golfers for a specific tournament. The number of players you are asked to select will vary depending on your choice of operator. These players will then earn fantasy points relating to their performance in the event. You simply accumulate all the points that each of your golfers score to arrive at a grand total. Your aim is for this total to be greater than any other fantasy golf manager that may be taking part in the same fantasy golf contest.

Fantasy golf events are available at a number of fantasy sites and most will have a tab marked ‘golf’ indicating where golf contests can be located. There will be a number of different types of contests available, all of which we covered in our fantasy football beginner section.

However, the first thing that you will need to take note of is the length of the contest and the terminology used. ‘Daily’, for instance, might refer to a fantasy contest that is played over 1 round, whereas ‘Weekly’ could relate to a full championship, all 4 rounds.

You will be required to select a number of golfers and there will be different restrictions in place depending on where you are playing.

Examples include:

(1) Budget restrictions whereby each golfer is given is given a salary (valuation) but managers are not allowed to exceed the stipulated amount when completing their line-up. e.g if you are required to assemble a 6 man team from a £50k budget then you could purchase 4 players at £10k and 2 at £5k.

(2) No budget restrictions at all

(3) Ranking restrictions limiting the amount of players that can be selected from a specific player group. For example, you may only be able to select 2 of your 6 golfers from players ranked in the world’s ‘Top 10’.

As previously mentioned, these golfers will then earn points based on their performance once the event gets under way. Sites such as FanDuel, PlayON, Fanto and DraftKings all have their own unique fantasy golf scoring systems but they tend to follow a similar pattern with points being earned for any of of the following:

• Winning the event
• Their overall finishing position
• Making the cut
• Recording a birdie
• Registering an eagle
• Recording an albatross
• Receiving a penalty (negative points) for each bogey, double bogey or tripe bogey which is why any player capable of producing a round of Bogey Free Golf (BOFG) can be invaluable
• Streaks such as consecutive birdies
• Additional points for a ‘Hole in One’

Clearly your aim should be to isolate players that will be in contention in the final round if you are playing a weekly game.

If you manage to select a few that are – we’re pretty sure that you, like the players themselves, will feel that adrenaline rush! So, why not give fantasy golf a go?