Dots are the little bets, a few bucks for the good shots. Get up and down from the sand, stiff one on a par 3, make a bomb. Each one is a dot, each dot pays out, and they run quietly in the background of whatever else you're playing.
Dots aren't a game you "win". They're a tally of good moments that pays out at the end.
Decide on the menu before you tee off: sandies and greenies at minimum, then add barkies, polies and birdies, whatever your group likes. Only the dots you agree on count.
Pick a number, a dollar, two dollars, five. Every dot is worth that amount. Some groups make birdies and eagles worth a multiple.
Earn a dot, claim it. Out of the bunker to four feet, then drained the putt for par? That's a sandy. It's an honor-system game, so call them honestly and call them out loud.
At the end, every dot moves money: the player who earned it collects the dot value from each of the others. Most dots in the round wins the side game.
Every group has its own names for these. Here's what each one means.
Par or better on a hole where you played a shot from a greenside bunker. Up and down from the sand.
On a par 3: hit the green off the tee, closest to the pin, then make par or better.
Hit a tree on the hole, and still scramble it for par or better. Also called a woodie.
Make a long putt for par or better, from outside an agreed distance, often the length of the flagstick.
Score under par on a hole. Many groups make eagles and the rare albatross worth multiple dots.
Take a penalty stroke somewhere on the hole, lost ball, water, unplayable lie, and grind it back to par anyway.
Hit into two sand traps during the hole, usually a fairway bunker and a greenside bunker, and still grind out par or better. The rare double-trap recovery.
Closest to the pin in three shots on a par 5. Rewards the player stalking a birdie. Often worth multiple dots in groups that play it.
Dots get more interesting when an earned dot can be taken back, or turned against you.
Take the greenie off the tee but make bogey or worse, and it flips: instead of collecting, you pay a dot to everyone. Punishes the early celebration.
If someone else birdies the par 3 you took the greenie on, they snatch it right off you. Birdie it yourself too and you snatch it back, with a bonus.
A par 3 finishes with no greenie? The dot doesn't disappear, it rolls to the next par 3's winner. Stacks if multiple par 3s pass empty, so the last one can be worth real money.
Win the greenie (or a snatch) on every par 3 in the round and the bonus pays double the number of par 3s, in dots. A clean sweep is the rarest dot on the card.
The flip side of a natural. Every par 3 passes empty, then someone finally wins the last one, and the bonus pays the number of par 3s plus two, in dots. The streak-breaker.
Pair up with a 2-Man partner and dots become a team game. In a four-player round it's 2-on-2; in a sixsome it's 3 teams of 2 round-robin, with every dot pulling from all four non-team players. Partners can't snatch from each other, but either one can snatch the greenie from an opponent.
Tap a chip when a dot happens. FLOG tallies every dot, handles reverseys and snatches, and shows the per-player math.
A final dots board. Every dot pays its value from each of the other three players, so the four nets settle to zero.
You don't have to beat anyone to win dots. You just have to make pars in interesting ways. The grinder who's always chipping in from the sand cleans up on dots even on a day the ball-striking isn't there. It's the most democratic game in the bag.
Tap a chip when a dot happens, FLOG tallies them, handles the reverseys and snatches, and settles the side game to the dollar.