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.
Written and maintained by the Golf Game Bet Calculator team, who build the scoring engine this site runs on. Last reviewed .
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.
Common values by category
There is no official price list for junk — it is entirely a house rule — but most groups converge on similar relative values because some achievements are rarer than others. Use this as a starting point and scale everything up or down together.
| Category | Typical value | Rough frequency per round | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sandy | 1 dot | 1-3 per group | Needs a witness and par-or-better |
| Greenie | 1-2 dots | Once per par-3 hole | Closest ball only, must be on the green |
| Barkie | 1-2 dots | 0-2 per round | Tree contact must be obvious, not just a leaf |
| Arnie | 1 dot | 1-2 per round | Hard to verify without watching every tee shot |
| Polie | 2 dots | Rare | Measure against an upright flagstick, not the hole |
| Oozle | 2-3 dots, whole group pays once | 0-1 per round | First birdie only; later birdies do not requalify |
Reference values assuming a $1 base dot; double or triple for higher-stakes groups.
Disputes and how to head them off
Almost every junk argument comes from the same handful of situations. Settling them with a rule before the round is far cheaper than settling them with an argument on the fairway.
The unwitnessed claim
A player says they made a sandy on a hole nobody else was near. The standard fix is simple: no witness, no dot. This feels harsh the first time it costs someone a claim, but it is the only rule that prevents the honor system from quietly collapsing over a season of golf.
The borderline greenie
Two balls look close and nobody brought a measuring tape. Pace it off with feet from the pin rather than guessing, and if it is truly too close to call, split the greenie or carry it — whichever your group prefers, decided in advance rather than in the moment.
The retroactive claim
Someone remembers on the 16th tee that they hit a tree on the 9th. Once play has moved past the hole in question, the window is closed. Junk is meant to be claimed live, and allowing memory-based claims late in the round invites exaggeration.
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.
Frequently asked questions
What is a fair dot value for junk bets?
Most groups use $1 per dot for casual rounds and $2-$5 for a competitive or higher-stakes group. Keep it low enough that a bad ball-striking day full of junk claims against you still stays under $20-$30 total, since junk is meant to be a side flavor, not the main event.
Do junk bets count if you made bogey with a penalty?
Under standard rules, most junk categories require par or better on the hole, so a penalty stroke that pushes you to bogey kills the sandy, barkie or arnie even if the individual shot itself qualified. Agree this before the round; some relaxed groups pay junk on net score instead of gross.
How many junk categories should a group play?
Three or four is the practical ceiling for a walking foursome. Beyond that, players spend more time arguing about whether a claim qualifies than playing golf, and it becomes hard to remember who claimed what by the eighteenth green.
Can junk bets be combined with skins or Nassau?
Yes, and this is the most common way junk is played. It runs as a separate ledger alongside the main game since it pays individuals for moments rather than holes won, so it never interferes with skins carries or Nassau presses.
Who tracks and settles junk bets during the round?
Traditionally one player keeps a running tally on a scorecard or phone note. Golf Game Bet Calculator lets you log a custom bonus event on any hole for any player, and it folds every dot into the same settlement receipt as the main game so nothing gets forgotten by the 19th hole.