How to Play the Golf Game Named Junk

"Junk" is the name of a golf game that combines many side games into a larger, overall wager. Junk is also a term that can be used to refer to all those familiar side games.

What sides games are we talking about? Well, "junk" can refer to such games as barkies, greenies, sandies, nasties, Arnies, Seves, Nicklauses, fishies and so. One golfer in a group might ask the others on the first tee, "What kind of junk are we playing today?" Which would translate to, "What side games are we playing today?"

Junk is more commonly used to refer to the catch-all points game that also goes by the names Garbage, Trash, Dots and Supplemental Bets (and likely many other names). In his Complete Book of Golf Betting Games, author Ron Kaspriske defines Junk this way:

"Any number of side bets that are being wagered in addition to a bigger bet. These side best are typically achievement-related, such as hitting a green in regulation or getting up and down from a bunker for par or better."

To play the catch-all Junk game, golfers must first agree on which side games will make up their version of Junk. You can include three or four, or many, many more (some groups that have played together for a long time wind up including a dozen or more side games). These side games are typically achievement-related, and can include side games well-known throughout the golf world (e.g., splashies or scuffies), or ones your group comes up with on its own (e.g., a 250-yard or longer drive that stays in the fairway, or making par two holes in a row).

Whatever list you come up with, each achievement is worth a point (or points, your group can also customize the value of each side game) to the golfer who records the achievement. So if your group's version of Junk includes, for example, chippies (chipping in from off the green), and you record a chippie on the second hole when you hole-out a chip shot, you just earned a Junk point.

Golfers keep track of their points earned throughout the round. At the end of the round, points are tallied. You remembered to set a value for each point, right? Now pay out the differences in points.

Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Kaspriske, Ron. Golf Digest's Complete Book of Golf Betting Games, 2007, Doubleday.
Crowell, Brian. Golf Stroke by Stroke, 2025, Penguin.
Bathroom Readers' Institute. Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Tees Off on Golf, 2011, Simon and Schuster.