Golf Side Game

The Official Rules of
the Dink Game

A fun way to improve your short game and keep everyone honest around the greens.

💵 Standard rate: $1.00 per dink (or any value agreed by the group)

Dinks are a friendly challenge designed to sharpen your game — especially from 100 yards in and on the putting surface. Miss the mark and you collect a dink. Make something special and you can erase them.

They are cumulative, so a bad hole can get expensive fast… until someone steps up with a birdie or closest-to-the-pin.

🎯 How Do You Get a Dink?

  1. Miss the green from inside 100 yards
    • Distance is determined by the fairway marker or GPS if you are not near a marker or the distance is questionable.
    • Measurement is always to the center of the green, not the flagstick.
  2. Not hitting your tee shot past the red tees
    • If you are already playing the red tees, you must hit past the next set of tee markers (e.g., the Dye tees).
  3. More than two putts on any green
    • The ball must be on the green for the first putt to count.

Cumulative Examples

  1. Hit a shot from inside the 100-yard marker and miss the green → 1 dink
  2. Next shot still fails to stay on the green → 2 dinks
  3. Another miss → 3 dinks
  4. This continues until the ball stays on the green or you reach double bogey (whichever comes first). No dink is charged on the shot for double bogey.
  5. The same process applies to putting: 3-putt = 1 dink  •  4-putt = 2 dinks  •  and so on (no dink if putting for double bogey)

🏆 How to Remove a Dink

  1. Closest to the pin on any par 3 (ball on the green) = 1 dink off
  2. Under par on any hole
    • Birdie = 1 dink off
    • Eagle = 2 dinks off
    • Hole-in-one on a par 3 = 3 dinks off (2 for the ace + 1 for closest to the pin)
    • Hole-in-one on a par 4 = 3 dinks off
    • Double eagle on a par 5 = 3 dinks off

Cumulative Removal Examples

  1. Closest to the pin on a par 3 and make the putt for birdie → 2 dinks off
  2. Closest to the pin but then 3-putt → no dink off (the 3-putt cancels the closest-to-pin credit)

💰 End-of-Round Settlement

At the end of the round, total everyone’s dinks. Each player pays the difference to every other player. Assuming $1 per dink:

Player 1
−2
Player 2
+3
Player 3
+8
Player 4
+5

Who Pays Whom

Player 1 receives:
  • $5 from Player 2
  • $10 from Player 3
  • $7 from Player 4
Player 2 receives:
  • $5 from Player 3
  • $2 from Player 4
Player 3 (King Dink) receives:
  • Nothing — the high score is the glory
Player 4 receives:
  • $3 from Player 3

Enjoy the Dink Game and try to improve your short game!

May your approaches be pure and your putts fall true. ⛳