Greenies, sandies, barkies, arnies — the little bets that ride on top of every money game. Here's the full junk dictionary and the standard rules for each.
A dot is a small side payment for doing something notable: hitting the green (greenie), getting up and down from sand (sandie), making par after hitting a tree (barkie), making par without hitting the fairway (arnie). Play it alongside any main game — dots settle separately.
“Junk” (also called dots, garbage, or trash) is the family of small achievement bets that groups layer on top of a main game like skins or a Nassau. Each achievement earns a dot on the card — hit the green on a par 3, save par from the sand, make par off a tree — and every dot has a fixed value settled at the end of the round. No dot changes your score; they're a parallel economy that keeps every hole interesting even when the main bet is decided.
Plenty of regional junk exists beyond these — fishies (par after finding water), Hogans (fairway, green in regulation, and one putt on the same hole), flaggies (hitting the pin). If your group invents a dot and can define it in one sentence, it's legal.
Validation. The big greenie question: keep it automatically, or must you two-putt? The standard game requires validation — a three-putt after a greenie loses the dot. The bloodthirsty version reverses it: three-putt and you owe a dot instead.
Negative junk (trash). Anti-dots for three-putts, whiffs, water balls, or failing to escape a bunker. It balances the books against the group's best ball-striker but doubles the arguments. Optional, and best kept to one or two items.
Carryover greenies. If nobody hits the green on a par 3, some groups carry that greenie to the next par 3 — skins logic applied to junk.
Junk inside other games. In Vegas or Wolf groups, junk often stays individual even when the main game is teams. Dots belong to the player who earned them.
Dots is scored in Duck Hook Pro. The pro or organizer sets up the game and keeps the card there, and Duck Hook Pro works out the result and the settle-up and shows it on a TV leaderboard. It isn’t in the free app yet.
The one-off pots are a different story. A greenie is closest to the pin, and the app tracks that as one of its side bets: pick who’s in, set the stake, pick the winner, and it settles with the round.
See Duck Hook Pro Browse all 42 gamesA greenie is won on a par 3 by hitting the green with your tee shot — closest to the pin if more than one player does it. Most groups require validation: two-putt or better, or the greenie is lost (some say it reverses).
A sandie is making par or better on a hole where you played a shot from a bunker — classically getting up and down from greenside sand. Some groups count any bunker shot on the hole; agree which counts before the round.
A barkie (or “woodie”) is making par or better on a hole where your ball struck a tree. The tree hit must be witnessed or acknowledged — half the fun is the appeal process.
Whatever the group sets — commonly the same value as a point or skin in the main game, often $1–5. All dots typically carry equal value, and totals are netted against each other at the end of the round.
Some groups play anti-junk: lose a dot for a three-putt, a whiff, hitting into water, or leaving a bunker shot in the sand. It keeps the round honest but doubles the bookkeeping — decide up front.
Same energy, different game. Everything below has a full rules guide of its own.
Duck Hook Golf