Dots pays for the shots everyone talks about afterwards: the birdie, the bunker save, the chip-in. Every dot you earn collects from everyone else in the group. You'll also hear it called junk, trash or garbage.
What Is the Dots Golf Game?
Dots is a side game for two to five players. Instead of comparing scores, you earn a dot each time you pull off one of a list of good shots or good results. At the end of the round, every dot is worth an agreed amount from each of the other players.
It's the perfect partner for a main game like a Nassau or Skins. You can be losing the match badly and still win the day on dots, so nobody checks out on the back nine.
The Dots, One by One
Groups pick which dots they play before the round. These are the common ones:
Birdie. One under par on a hole. Most groups count gross birdies only.
Eagle. Two under par or better. Usually worth two dots, in place of the birdie dot, not on top of it.
Greenie. On a par 3, the player whose tee shot finishes on the green closest to the pin. Many groups also require that player to make par or better to keep it.
Sandy. Up and down from a greenside bunker: out of the sand and in with one putt.
Poley. Making a putt longer than the flagstick, roughly seven feet or more.
Chip-in. Holing out from off the green.
Barkie. Making par or better after hitting a tree on the hole.
Arnie. Making par or better without hitting the fairway. Named after Arnold Palmer, who made a career of scrambling from everywhere.
How the Money Works
Agree on a value per dot before you tee off, for example $1. Each dot a player earns collects that amount from every other player in the group. Two common ways to settle come to the same thing:
Pay as you go. Every dot is paid by each of the others: in a foursome at $1, a dot is worth $3 to the player who earned it.
Net it at the end. Total everyone's dots after 18 holes. Each pair of players settles on the difference between their totals.
A Worked Example
Four players at $1 a dot, playing birdies, greenies and sandies.
On the 3rd, a par 3, Amy hits it to ten feet and wins the greenie. She collects $1 from each of the others: +$3 for Amy.
On the 7th, Ben makes birdie and Cal gets up and down from the bunker. Each collects $3 and pays $1 to the other, so both are +$2 on the hole, and Amy and Dan are −$2 each.
After those two holes: Amy +$1, Ben +$1, Cal +$1, Dan −$3. The money always balances, because every dollar one player wins is paid by the others.
Rules to Agree On First
Which dots count. Four to six types is plenty. More dots means more money changing hands.
Gross or net birdies. Gross keeps it simple and is the most common choice.
Does an eagle stack? Most groups pay an eagle as two dots in total, not a birdie dot plus an eagle dot.
Greenie conditions. Does it have to be the tee shot, and does the player have to make par?
Doubles. Some groups double every dot on the last few holes, or on a press.
Playing Dots in Settle Up Golf
Add Dots to a round of two to five players, check the dots your group plays, and set the value of a dot. Birdies and eagles come straight from the gross scores, with an eagle worth two dots, so changing a score fixes the dots too. Every other dot is one tap on the chips under each player's score. Greenies only appear on par 3s, and only one player can have one on a hole. At the end of the round, the app nets every player against every other player and shows who owes whom across Dots and every other game you played.
