Golf Solitaire
What Is Golf Solitaire?
Golf Solitaire is one of the simplest and fastest solitaire games — a round takes about five minutes. You deal 35 cards into seven columns of five cards each. Your goal is to play as many of those cards as possible onto a single waste pile by going one rank higher or lower than the current top card, regardless of suit. The fewer cards remaining when you run out of moves, the lower your score — just like real golf. Low score wins.
What You Need
- One standard deck of 52 playing cards
- One player
Setting Up the Game
- Deal 35 cards face-up into 7 columns of 5 cards each. Only the top card of each column is available to play.
- The remaining 17 cards form the Stock pile face-down.
- Flip the top Stock card face-up to start the Waste pile.
How to Play — Step by Step
- Look at the top cards of all seven columns — these are your available cards.
- If any available card is exactly one rank higher OR one rank lower than the top Waste pile card, you may play it onto the Waste pile. Suit does not matter at all — only rank.
- Example: if the Waste pile shows a 7, you can play any 6 or any 8 from available column tops.
- Chain plays together — if you play an 8 on a 7, the 8 is now on top. Can you play a 7 or 9 next? Keep going as long as you can chain cards.
- There is NO wraparound — Aces are the lowest card and can only receive a 2. Kings are the highest and can only receive a Queen. You cannot play an Ace on a King or a King on an Ace.
- When you cannot play any available card, flip the next Stock card face-up onto the Waste pile. This costs you one stroke. Try again with the new top card.
- Continue until all Stock cards are flipped or all tableau cards are played.
Scoring
Count your strokes — one for each Stock card you had to flip. Add any remaining tableau cards as penalty strokes. Low score wins.
When playing multiple rounds (nine or eighteen holes), add your scores together. Lowest cumulative total wins.
Winning
Clear all 35 tableau cards before running out of Stock cards. This is a perfect score of zero — rare and satisfying.
Tips for New Players
- Before playing any card, scan all seven column tops and look for the longest possible chain — sometimes an 8 leads to 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King if you plan the sequence right.
- Avoid creating all-high or all-low column tops — variety gives you more flexibility when the Waste pile changes.
- Think two or three moves ahead before playing — a card that looks good now might block a longer chain.