Junk bets: the small money that runs alongside everything
Junk — also called garbage, trash or dots — is a set of one-off bonuses for specific achievements on a hole. They ride on top of whatever main game you are playing and cost almost nothing to add.
Junk works because it pays for moments rather than results. You can lose the hole, lose the match and still collect for holing a bunker shot. Each item has a fixed value — one "dot", commonly $1 or $2 — and anyone who achieves it collects from every other player in the group.
The standard glossary
- Sandy — up and down from a bunker for par or better. The most universally played junk bet.
- Greenie — on a par 3, closest to the pin from the tee, on the green. Usually must be two-putted at worst to count.
- Barkie (or woodie) — hit a tree during the hole and still make par.
- Arnie — make par without ever being in the fairway. Named for Arnold Palmer's habit of scrambling from everywhere.
- Polie — hole a putt longer than the flagstick.
- Chippie — hole out from off the green.
- Oozle — first player to hole a birdie in the round.
- Ferret — hole out from anywhere off the green without a putt; a longer-odds chippie.
- Watery / hoser — a negative dot: find the water, pay everyone. Optional and best agreed carefully.
Proof and honesty rules
Junk relies on witnesses, and this is the one area where casual golf betting genuinely needs a rule. Standard conventions:
- Claim it on the hole, before you tee off on the next one. Late claims do not count.
- At least one other player must have seen it. If nobody saw the bunker shot, no sandy.
- Greenies must be measured before anyone putts, and the ball must be on the putting surface.
- Anything achieved after a penalty drop still counts, unless your group rules otherwise.
Worked example
Four players, $1 a dot.
- Hole 4 — you get up and down from greenside sand for par. Sandy: +$3 to you, $1 from each other player.
- Hole 7, par 3 — a partner is closest to the pin and two-putts. Greenie: +$3 to them.
- Hole 12 — you clatter a tree, then make par. Barkie: another +$3.
Over eighteen holes a normal foursome generates ten to twenty dots, so junk typically moves $10-$25 between players — enough to matter, not enough to hurt. If you want it larger, raise the dot value rather than adding more categories; long junk lists are how groups forget who owes what.
Choosing your list
Three or four categories is the sweet spot. A good default set for a mixed group is sandy, greenie, birdie and longest drive on one nominated hole — one scrambling bet, one precision bet, one scoring bet and one distance bet, so every type of player has something they can win.
Be careful with negative dots. Charging for water balls and three-putts sounds fun on the first tee, but it takes money from the player already having the worst day, which is the opposite of what side games are supposed to do. If you include them, make them cost less than the positive dots.
Stacking junk with a main game
Junk fits alongside anything because it is individual and hole-independent. It pairs especially well with team formats, where a player whose ball is not counting for the team still has a reason to hole out — four-ball with dots is a much better game than four-ball without. It is redundant with Bingo Bango Bongo, which already pays for moments rather than scores.