Golf Solitaire: move the top card of a column onto the foundation when it is one rank higher or lower, and clear all seven columns.
What is Golf Solitaire?
Golf Solitaire is a one-player card game in which you clear seven columns of face-up cards by playing them one at a time onto a single foundation pile, each card one rank higher or lower than the card on top. It uses one 52-card deck, and suit and colour play no part.
Every card in the columns is visible from the first move. The only unknown is the order of the stock. That makes Golf a planning game: you can see most of what you need, and the question is whether you can find an order of plays that reaches all 35 column cards before the stock runs out.
How to play Golf Solitaire
The deal: seven columns of five cards each, all face up and fanned downward so you can read every card. One card goes face up onto the foundation to start it. The other 16 cards form the stock.
Playing: only the bottom card of a column, the one fully in view, can move. It goes onto the foundation if it is exactly one rank above or below the foundation card, in any suit. The direction can change from play to play, so 4, 5, 6, 5, 4, 3 is fine. The card you play becomes the new card to match.
King and Ace do not connect. The only card that can follow a King is a Queen, and the only card that can follow an Ace is a 2. This rule is what makes Kings and Aces the hard cards in Golf.
The stock: when no column card fits, turn the next stock card onto the foundation. It becomes the new card to match. The stock goes through once, with no redeal. You win by clearing all seven columns. If the stock is empty and no column card fits, the game shows that there are no more moves, and you can undo or deal again.
Golf Solitaire strategy
Plan with the whole table. Before the first play, look at the foundation card and follow each possible chain through the columns. Because every column card is visible, you can often see a run of six or eight plays in advance. Pick the line that ends on a card for which another chain is waiting.
Free the cards you will need. When two columns both offer a 7, take the one that exposes a useful card underneath. If one 7 sits on top of a 6 and an 8 is free elsewhere, playing it leaves you a choice of directions on the next play.
Handle Kings with care. A King on the foundation can only be followed by a Queen. Before you play a King, check that a Queen is free or will be free right after it. A King at the top of a column, under all four other cards, is the most dangerous, since you will have to dig down to it and then still need a Queen on the foundation to play it.
Treat Aces the same way. An Ace can only be followed by a 2 and can only be played onto a 2. With all four 2s gone, any Ace still in a column is stuck for good.
Count ranks. There are four cards of each rank. If three 9s are already gone and the last one is buried, every 8 and 10 you play may cut off a chain. Counting what is left helps you decide which direction to go.
Spend the stock slowly. You get 16 stock cards for the whole deal, and each one left at the end is worth points. Turn the stock only when no column card fits.
Rules in our version and other Golf variants
Our Golf has one rule set and no menu options: seven columns of five, one foundation, one pass through the stock, and no wrap between King and Ace.
Other variants exist. Some let King and Ace connect, which makes deals much easier to clear. TriPeaks Solitaire, also on Hevagames, uses the same up-or-down rule with that wrap and adds face-down cards in three peaks.
Where Golf Solitaire comes from
Golf is an old patience game found in classic card game books. Its name comes from the traditional way of scoring it: each deal is a hole, the cards left in the columns are your strokes, and a low total over nine or eighteen deals is a good round. Clearing the columns with cards still in the stock counts as a score below zero.
The one-up-or-down rule from Golf later became the basis of TriPeaks, created in 1989.
Play Golf Solitaire on Hevagames
Our Golf runs in the browser on phones, tablets and computers, with nothing to download. Tap the bottom card of a column to play it onto the foundation, or drag it there. Tap the stock or press D for a new card. With a keyboard, the arrow keys move between piles and Enter plays; Z or Backspace undoes and N starts a new deal.
Undo has no limit and each undo counts as a move. The deal in progress, with the last 60 steps of undo history, is saved in your browser, so it is still there after a reload. The top bar shows moves, time and score, and the timer starts with your first move.
Scoring follows the spirit of the old rules. Each card cleared from the columns is worth 10 points. When the columns are empty, each card left in the stock adds 10 more, and a win bonus of 500 minus 2 per move and minus half a point per second is added, never below zero. Your best score is kept on your device, and the table follows light or dark mode.
How to play
- 1Seven columns hold five face-up cards each. One card starts on the foundation.
- 2Tap the top card of a column to play it when it is one rank higher or lower than the foundation card. Suits do not matter.
- 3King and Ace do not connect: nothing goes on a King except a Queen.
- 4When you have no play, tap the stock to turn a new foundation card. The stock goes through once.
- 5Clear all seven columns to win.
Controls
Tips
- Look ahead for the longest run you can make before turning the stock.
- Use the stock card that lets you keep a chain going, not just the first match.
- A King on the foundation blocks everything but Queens, so time it carefully.
