How to play Golf (card game)

Objective

Finish with the lowest total score. Each player keeps six cards in a grid and swaps them for better ones over a series of deals, called holes. This page teaches six-card Golf for 2–4 players; it is not the solitaire game of the same name.

Setup

Use one standard 52-card deck without jokers. Deal six cards each, one at a time, face down. Each player lays them out in two rows of three. The layout stays in place all hole; you always have six cards.

Put the rest face down as the stock. Turn the top card face up beside it to start the discard pile. Each player turns any two of their own cards face up before play. The player to the dealer’s left goes first, and play passes clockwise.

Turns

On your turn, draw one card, either the top of the stock or the top of the discard pile. Then do one of these:

• Swap: put the drawn card in place of any card in your layout, face up or face down. The replaced card goes face up on the discard pile. A face-down card is swapped without looking at it first.
• Discard: only if the card came from the stock, you may put it face up on the discard pile instead.

A card taken from the discard pile must be swapped in; you cannot take it and discard the same card again. You may look at a stock card before you decide.

Worked turn

You start with Q♠ and 6♥ face up, and 4♣ is on the discard pile. Q♠ is at the top left and 6♥ at the bottom right.

You take the 4♣ and swap it for Q♠. That lowers one card from 10 points to 4, and the Q♠ goes face up on the discard pile.

Next turn you draw 6♣ from the stock. The card above your 6♥ is face down. You swap the 6♣ onto it without looking. The old card, say 9♦, goes on the discard pile, and your two sixes now form a pair in one column.

On another turn you draw a 9♠ and want no part of it. It came from the stock, so you may simply discard it.

Winning

The winner is the player with the lowest total after the last hole.

Ending and scoring a hole

The hole ends as soon as one player has all six cards face up. Everyone turns their remaining face-down cards over, then scores their six cards.

Card	Points
King	0
Ace	1
Two	−2
Three to ten	Face value
Jack or queen	10
Pair of equal ranks in one column	0 for that column

A column is the two cards one above the other. If both have the same rank, the column scores 0, whatever the rank. That includes a pair of twos, which score 0, not −4.

Scoring example: top row K, 5♣, 9; bottom row 7, 5♦, 2. The first column is 0 + 7 = 7. The two fives pair up, so the second column scores 0. The third is 9 + (−2) = 7. The hole total is 14.

Write each player’s total on a score sheet. After the hole, the deal passes to the left.

Winning the game

A standard game is nine holes. Add each player’s hole scores; the lowest total wins. A longer game can run eighteen holes.

The standard rules do not give a tiebreak. Site convention: tied players share the win.

Common mistakes

• Taking the top discard and then discarding it again; a card taken from the discard pile must go into your layout.
• Looking at a face-down card before you swap it.
• Forgetting that a pair counts only within a column, not across a row.
• Scoring a pair of twos as −4 instead of 0.

Variants

Some groups give every other player one more turn after a player turns their last card. Others require you to turn a face-down card face up each time you discard a stock card. Nine-card Golf uses a 3×3 grid. Four-card Golf uses a 2×2 grid. Many groups change card values, count rows or diagonals as pairs, or add jokers.

If the stock runs out, many players shuffle the discards, keeping the top card, to make a new stock; the standard rules do not cover it.

These change the game; they are not part of the rules above. Games with power cards, such as Cambio, are separate games.

If you want another game where the lowest score wins, try Hearts. It is a trick-taking game, so the winning plan is quite different.

Common questions

How many cards do you deal in Golf?

Six each in this version, laid out in two rows of three. Two are turned face up before play.

Is a king good or bad in Golf?

Good. Kings score 0, the lowest value apart from twos at −2.

Can you look at a face-down card before swapping?

No. You swap a face-down card without looking, and the replaced card goes face up on the discard pile.

Do you have to swap a card from the discard pile?

Yes. A card taken from the discard pile must go into your layout. Only a card drawn from the stock can be discarded.

Do pairs score in rows or columns?

Columns only here. Two cards of the same rank one above the other score 0 for that column.

What ends a hole of Golf?

One player having all six cards face up. Then everyone reveals and scores. Some groups give the others one more turn; that is a variant.