Any group
🟢Golf dots and junk bets: sandies, greenies, barkies explained
Ask a group what they play and they'll name a match or a nassau, but the money that actually changes hands is usually the JUNK: a dot for the sandy, a dot for the greenie, a dot for banking one off a tree. Dots are golf's micro-bets, riding on top of whatever else you're playing, and every group's list is a little different. Here's the canon.
The classic dots
Each dot is worth an agreed unit (a quarter, a buck, five). Make the shot, collect a dot from everyone, or from the pot at the end.
- Birdie: the original dot. Eagles usually pay double.
- Sandy: up-and-down from a bunker for par or better. The purest dot in golf.
- Greenie: closest to the pin off the tee on a par 3. Stricter groups also make you hold the green and two-putt for par before it pays.
- Barkie: hit a tree during the hole and STILL make par. The crowd favorite.
- Poley: a putt holed from outside the flagstick's length.
- Snake: the crossover dot, earned by three-putting. Two conventions: HOLD it until somebody else three-putts, and whoever has it at the end pays everyone; or COUNT every three-putt against you, and the fewest collects. Say which on the first tee. (Full negative-junk games live over in Trouble.)
- Long drive: longest drive that finishes in the fairway, on a hole you nominate before the round. Miss the fairway and it does not count, however far it went.
House junk
The best dots are the ones only your group pays: the Wolfman (par from another fairway), the Seve (par after never touching the short grass), the ranger dot, the cart-path assist. If your group names it and agrees before the first tee, it's real.
Two rules keep junk fun: agree the list and the value on the first tee, and dots are FACTS. A sandy either happened or it didn't. No lobbying on the green.
How dots settle
Most groups pay per dot, everyone-to-everyone: end of the round, count each player's dots, and the differences settle up. A 6-dot day against your buddy's 2 is four units your way. Some groups pot it instead: every dot is a chip, the pot splits by count at the end.
How Swilkin runs it
Swilkin tracks dots live: tap the dot on the hole it happens, and it's on the card and in the math. The classic list is built in: birdies count themselves off your score (an eagle counts two), and greenies, sandies, barkies, snakes, and long drive are one tap each. The snake plays the counting convention: fewest three-putts collects. A custom builder handles the rest (poleys, wolfmen, whatever your group pays) and it all rides the same scorecard as your match, nassau or skins, settled together and itemized dot by dot.
