Bogey Numbers In Darts Explained: The Scores You Cannot Check Out

Bogey numbers in darts are the scores that cannot be checked out in three darts, however well you throw. There are seven of them below 170 — 159, 162, 163, 165, 166, 168 and 169 — and a player left on one of them has already lost that visit before a dart is thrown.

They are the quiet cruelty of a leg of 501. You can hammer in three perfect trebles, look up at a score in the 160s and find that the arithmetic has simply run out. Here is the full list, why those specific numbers are impossible, and how professionals steer around them.

What is a bogey number in darts?

A bogey number is any remaining score that cannot be finished with the three darts in your hand. It exists because of one rule: a leg of 501 must be completed on a double. The final dart has to land in the outer ring, or in the inner bull, which counts as a double 25.

That rule puts a hard ceiling on what a visit can achieve. The biggest double available is the bullseye at 50, and the biggest two darts you can throw before it are two treble 20s at 60 apiece. Add them up and you get 170 — the big fish, the highest checkout in darts. Anything above 170 is unfinishable by definition, which is why a player on 174 is not thinking about winning the leg, only about setting one up.

The bogey numbers are the awkward cases underneath that ceiling: scores low enough to look checkable, but which no combination of three segments can reach while ending on a double.

The full list of bogey numbers in darts

Below 170, there are exactly seven:

• 159
• 162
• 163
• 165
• 166
• 168
• 169

Everything above 170 is impossible too, and so is 1 — you cannot finish on a single, so being left on one point is a dead end. That is why leaving yourself on 1 counts as a bust and hands the visit back with your score unchanged. Our guide to the rules of 501, doubles and busts covers exactly how that works.

What makes the seven so maddening is the company they keep. In that same stretch of the scoreboard, 158, 160, 161, 164, 167 and 170 are all perfectly checkable:

• 158 — treble 20, treble 20, double 19
• 160 — treble 20, treble 20, double 20 (the highest finish that does not need the bull)
• 161 — treble 20, treble 17, bullseye
• 164 — treble 20, treble 18, bullseye
• 167 — treble 20, treble 19, bullseye
• 170 — treble 20, treble 20, bullseye

So 167 is a famous finish and 168 is a brick wall, one point apart.

Why 169 is impossible when 170 is not

Work 169 backwards and you can watch the trap close. To finish it, the last dart has to be a double, so the first two darts must leave you on an even number of 40 or less, or on 50 for the bull.

Leave the bull and those first two darts need to score 119. There is no pair of segments on the board that totals 119 — the nearest you get is 120, with two treble 20s. Leave double 20 instead and the first two darts need 129, which beats that 120 maximum outright. Every other double demands more still. There is no route, and the same dead end catches 159, 162, 163, 165, 166 and 168.

It is arithmetic rather than bad luck, which is why the list never changes. The PDC has used the same board and the same double-out rule throughout the modern era, so these seven numbers have been impossible for every player who has ever walked to an oche.

The two-dart bogey numbers that cost more matches

The three-dart bogeys are the ones fans shout about. The ones that actually decide legs are the two-dart bogeys, because in a tight leg you are far more likely to have two darts in hand than three.

The highest two-dart checkout is 110 — treble 20 and the bullseye. Below that, seven scores cannot be finished with two darts: 99, 102, 103, 105, 106, 108 and 109.

This is why commentators praise a player for leaving 98 rather than 99, and why a good scorer will deliberately throw into a different bed to dodge those numbers. It is also one of the biggest gaps between a decent club player and a professional: the pro is not simply aiming at the treble 20, they are managing where a miss leaves them. Our checkout chart guide sets out the standard routes.

How the best players avoid them

Three habits, all of them learned rather than natural.

They set up a finish, not a score. Once a player drops under about 200, scoring stops being the point. The aim is to land on a number that leaves a clean two-dart finish, and elite players will happily take a smaller score to get one.

They switch beds. If the 20s leave an ugly remainder, professionals move to the treble 19 (57) or the treble 18 (54) to change the shape of what is left. It is a routine adjustment rather than a panic move, and it is the main reason top players so rarely appear stranded on a bogey number.

They know the table cold. Checkout knowledge is drilled until it is instant, because there is no time to do sums at the oche. If you are working on your own game, our guide to the drills that actually improve your darts is the place to start.

The bottom line

The bogey numbers in darts are 159, 162, 163, 165, 166, 168 and 169, plus anything above 170 and the stranded 1. They exist because a leg has to end on a double and the maths will not stretch that far. Add the two-dart bogeys — 99, 102, 103, 105, 106, 108 and 109 — and you have the hidden grid every professional is navigating while the crowd is still counting 180s.

Watch a leg with that in mind and the sport changes shape. When Luke Littler, the reigning PDC World Champion and world No.1, puts a third dart into the treble 19 with the leg seemingly going nowhere, he is not missing the 20. He is making sure the number he leaves behind is one he can actually finish.

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