Junk is the side game for the little things that happen on a hole: the birdie, the sand save, the chip in, the par off a tree, the long putt, the closest on a par three. A point each, paid by every other player. Birdies and eagles come off the card by themselves and the rest you tap in on the hole, right beside the name, as they happen. It runs happily under any other game, and it is the one game that still works when you are out on your own. Big Fairways counts every dot and the live leaderboard, so you just play golf.
Off the card by themselves, net. Nobody has to call them. An eagle is a birdie dot and an eagle dot.
Par or better out of a bunker. Holed from off the green. Hit a tree and still made par. Holed a putt longer than the flagstick. In a hazard or out of bounds and still made par.
KP is closest to the hole on every par three, and an unclaimed one carries to the next par three. Long Drive is the longest tee shot in the fairway on a par five, one a hole, no carry.
This is a simulated round, not a live game. Four made up players, eighteen made up holes. Gold dots on the card are junk, silver dots are strokes, and under every name on the board you will see the marks that player took on the hole.
Junk is a golf side game in which players earn a point, a dot, for each of the little things that happen on a hole. A net birdie or eagle comes off the card by itself. A sandy is par or better out of a bunker, a chippy is holing out from off the green, a woody is hitting a tree and still making par, a poley is holing a putt longer than the flagstick, a nasty is par or better from a hazard or out of bounds. KP is closest to the hole on every par three, and Long Drive is the longest tee shot in the fairway on a par five. Every dot is a point paid by every other player, and the most dots at the end wins.
It is the game that rewards the shot everybody talks about in the bar. The score on the hole might be a five, but the chip in that made it a five is a dot, and dots add up faster than anyone expects. Some groups call it dots, garbage or trash. Big Fairways calls it Junk, and the group chooses which marks count.
| Players | Anybody. Two or more to settle, and it still works on your own because a chip in is a chip in. |
|---|---|
| The marks | Birdie, eagle and albatross off the card. Sandy, chippy, woody, poley and nasty tapped in. KP on par threes, Long Drive on par fives. |
| Points | A point per mark, paid by every other player in the game. |
| KP | Every par three. Unclaimed, it carries: the next par three is worth two. |
| Long Drive | Par fives only, one a hole, no carry. Once it is taken nobody else can win it that hole. |
| Handicaps | Birdies and eagles are net where points change hands. The rest are what happened. |
| Scored by | The Big Fairways app, free, on any phone, one tap per mark on the hole. |
You play a normal round and call out the little things as they happen. Here is the whole game in six steps.
Because Junk is where points change hands, and where points change hands a birdie is net. A twelve handicap with a stroke on the hardest hole on the course makes a four, and that is a net birdie worth a dot, the same as the scratch player's three. Big Fairways counts birdies, eagles and albatrosses off the card by itself on the net score, so nobody has to call them and nobody argues about them. The birdie badge on the hole summary and the alert that says somebody birdied stay gross, because an alert that says you birdied has to mean you birdied.
A sandy is par or better after being in a bunker on the hole. A chippy is holing out from off the green, putter allowed. A woody is hitting a tree and still making par or better. A poley is holing a putt longer than the flagstick is tall. A nasty is being in a hazard or out of bounds and still making par or better. Every one is a dot, every one is one tap on the hole, and the group decides at setup which of them are on.
KP, closest to the hole, is on every par three, and the app asks who got it on every one of them. If nobody hits the green, nobody wins it, and it carries: the next par three is worth two, the one after that three, and so on until somebody takes it. On a shotgun start the first par three you play is the first par three, whatever it is numbered. Long Drive works the other way: par fives only, the longest tee shot in the fairway, one a hole, and a hole nobody wins is simply a hole nobody won.
Four players on a par four. One player makes a net birdie, one dot off the card. Another hits a tree off the tee, punches out, and makes a par: a woody, one dot. A third is in the greenside bunker and gets up and down for par: a sandy, one dot. The fourth makes a plain bogey and takes nothing. Three dots on the hole, and each is a point paid by the other three players. On the next hole, a par three, the player closest to the hole takes the KP whatever they score.
Junk pays for the shot, not the score, so it rewards a different kind of golf. A few things win Junk more often than a good card does.
Junk is a bonus game that rides under any other side game. Here is how it lines up against the rest. Every one of them is scored in the app, and you can run several at once on one card.
| Game | Players | In one line |
|---|---|---|
| Junk | Any | Points for the little things: sandies, greenies, woodies and more. |
| Midnight | Any | Twelve holes count, your best eleven plus the last. Lowest card wins. |
| Elevens | Any | Eleven holes count, your best ten plus the last. Seven throwaways. |
| Skins | Any | Win the hole outright to take the skin. Ties carry over or die, your call. |
| Nassau | 2 or 4 | Three matches in one: front nine, back nine and the full eighteen, with presses. |
| Wolf | 4 | The Wolf picks a partner after the tee shots or goes alone for double. |
| Vegas | 4 | Two teams, scores paired into a number, low number wins the difference. |
| Banker | 3 or more | One player takes on everybody else each hole. Presses allowed. |
| Match Play | 2 | Head to head, hole by hole, up or down. |
| TILT | Any | Points on the net score with a multiplier that climbs on birdies and resets on a par. |
| Train | Any | A net par puts you aboard and every hole after it pays until two bogeys in a row. |
| Mulligans | Any | Your handicap strokes become do overs, then everybody plays gross. |
| Gridiron Golf | 4 | Two on two played like football. Win the hole to march the ball, reach the end zone to score. |
| Hammer | 2 or 4 | Either side can double the hole while it is being played. |
| Nines | 3 | Three players, nine points a hole, split five, three and one. |
| Hi Lo | 4 | Two on two. A point for the best ball and a point for the worst. |
| Snake | Any | Three putt and the snake is yours until somebody else does. No points. |
| Bingo Bango Bongo | Any | First on, closest, first in. Three points a hole, played gross. |
| Stableford | Any | Points for every hole, most points wins, a blow up costs you nothing. |
Looking for the full list? Every side game the app scores, each with rules and a demo round, is on the golf side games page.
The one that causes the most talk is what counts as a woody. Big Fairways says hit a tree and still make par or better. Settle it on the first tee and tap them in as they happen.
Junk is the game that makes a bad hole worth something. The five you made after hitting a tree is a woody. The bunker shot to a foot is a sandy. The putt from the fringe is a chippy. Every dot is a small story, the dots add up faster than anyone expects, and the player with the worst card can still win the day on the little things.
Pick Junk when you set up the round, switch on the marks the group plays, and start playing. Net birdies, eagles and albatrosses come off the card by themselves. Everything else is one tap on the hole, beside the name, and the app asks who got KP on every par three and offers Long Drive on every par five. Gold dots on the card show the junk, and the board shows who took what on every hole.
Run other side games at the same time and the totals never get tangled. At the end every dot is a point paid by every other player, Settle Up nets it down, and every round posts to your own lifetime scorecard, which only you can see. Send one link and the whole group follows the leaderboard live from their own phones.
Big Fairways walks you through every step, hole by hole. No rule sheet in your back pocket and nobody keeping a tally on a napkin.
Your group can scan the QR code to join in the fun, keep their stats, and see the live scoreboard. Send a text link to let your fans, friends and family get updates when you birdie 18 for the win.
Whether you are playing as teams, groups or individually, or all of the above, the points tally correctly no matter how many side games you have going.
No matter how many games you have going at once, or how complex the PRESS math gets, Big Fairways provides a clean scorecard, point total and leaderboard throughout the round, with simplified Settle Up totals at the end.
It is easy to set up tournaments of all sizes and formats with Big Fairways. A three day golf trip with four players, or 144 players in a local charity event, we have you covered. And groups inside your tournament can still play their own side games while the competition runs.
Players earn a point, a dot, for each of the little things on a hole: a net birdie or eagle, a sandy, a chippy, a woody, a poley, a nasty, KP on a par three or the long drive on a par five. Every dot is paid by every other player, and the most dots at the end wins.
Par or better after being in a bunker on the hole. One dot in Junk.
Hitting a tree and still making par or better. Some groups call it a barkie. Big Fairways calls it a woody, and it is one dot.
It carries. The next par three is worth two, the one after that three, until somebody takes it. Long Drive on a par five does not carry.
Net, because Junk is where points change hands. A par with a stroke on it is a net birdie and a dot. The app counts them off the card by itself.
Yes. It is the one game that still works with nobody to collect from. Nothing settles, but every chip in and sandy goes on your card.
Yes, free while we build it. Every side game, the live leaderboard, the Settle Up totals and your lifetime scorecards are all included, and there is nothing to install because it runs in any phone browser.
Set it up in four taps, send the link to the group, and let the app count every dot.
START A JUNK GAME, FREE
Skins
Banker
Nassau
Wolf
Vegas
Snake
Midnight